how many meals using eggs can i get away with in a week?

[virgiltracey]

we are getting five a day from the hens at the moment and I'm struggling to use 10 a week. Can anyone give me some egg based meal ideas? And as a side issue, is it healthy to eat that many eggs (which would amount to an egg every day for each of us with some left over!)

they used to say not that many - but i think they changed their minds.

Silly question but do hens lay that many all year? could you make yorkshire puds and freeze? i do this alot, thats three used up...

fritata, omlette, freeze whites for merrangue sp?, baked eggs is yummy...

i had a weird dream about eggs the other day and cant face them :-(

Could you sell a few at the garden gate?

Heath wise the thing about cholestorol has been disproved but obviously eggs do go quite a long way.

Scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast/ light supper- 2 eggs per adult/ teen and 1 per child younger than that
quiche?
do an egg custard tart for dessert every other week and a meringue the other, using the yolks for custard on another day?
Omelettes can use up loads of eggs

Omelettes

Pancakes

Toad in the hole

Bacon egg chips and beans

Egg mayo sandwiches for lunch

Use them in a cake? Sell them to neighbours/school friends?

Mine do lay pretty much all year. They stopped for about three weeks but that was it. I've been giving them away so far but it seems silly to spend a fortune at the supermarket every week when I have free food available.

We have pancakes on a sunday and so i could make yorkshire puds at the same time. I've also been making a batch of muffins every week but they only take two eggs!

Tuna and egg pie - line a dish with shortcrust pastry, slice 4/5 hard boiled eggs in and then pour in thick white sauce with a tin of tuna mixed in. Top with pastry and stick in oven. Leave it to cool a bit before you serve it.

Quiche
omelette
Pasta carbonarara
Warm potato salad including hard boiled egg.
Jacket spud with egg mayo filling.

Cake cake and more cake.
Enriched dough buns ( like hot cross buns)
Ice cream.
meringues.

Freeze some of the above ( quiche and cake) to have in lean weeks .... I make cake when I have a glut of eggs or apples and freeze, we have cake all year round and it's very easy to send cake into school, just thaw one and add icing.

Swap them for veggies from other people's gardens? You might already grow your own though...

Some great ideas here. I will try the tuna and egg pie, I think the DSs would like that. Any tips on the carbonara. I tried it once and it was just like scrambled egg. I obviously did something wrong!

I whip eggs, double cream and cheese to make a savoury topping for chilli or bolognaise. Also to mix with cauliflower to make a big puffy souffle dish.

Savoury muffins are good, grated courgette and feta with eggs dolloped into muffin cases is yummy.

Low carb cookery books are a great source of egg recipes.

I probably use at least 12 eggs a week (minimum). Scrambled or boiled and/or pancakes for breakfast over the weekend, plus often rustle up an omelette for myself if DH is working late, or do eggy bread for the kids if in a lazy mood. You can do it

12 I can do, 35 is another matter!

swops, maybe pay it forward swaps.... I love being given eggs, happy to give people apples and other fruit later in the year.

Watching with interest on the carbonara tips, I adore the dish but like you end up with pasta and pancetta in scrambled eggs - nice.

If you separate white from yolks you can freeze eggs, I do this and then I've got egg whites at hand for meringues in the summer and yolks for any sauces.

Def sell at garden gate, loads of people in our village do this and it's fabulous, £1 for half dozen fresh eggs that I can pick up on a walk is just heaven to me!

Parsley frittata :)

beat 5 eggs in a bowl, whisk the eggs, then add grated grana padano cheese (4 or 5 tablespoons), minced parsley, a small piece of crushed garlic, salt and pepper.

Heat up 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, then pour the mix into the pan and cook on a low flame; when half-cooked, turn the frittata using a plate and flip it over back into the pan to finish cooking.

Buon appetito!

yy - do sell them
I'd love to buy some fresh eggs from a neighbour.

and make lemon curd, to serve on french toast.

Yes, lemon curd. Yummy. I Use Nigella for my carbonara]] and it's lovely.

I would definitely buy eggs from a neighbour too. Round us there are a lot of farms and the farmers have honesty boxes for swedes, eggs, potatoes etc at the end of their lanes. Would something like that work where you live or would they be nicked/chucked at the house?

You could also take them as gifts when you go places instead of chocolates, flowers, biscuits etc - or bake a cake with them and take that but that then costs you money.

I would be very happy to buy eggs from a neighbour...whack a sign up!

If your eggs are scrambling when you're making carbonara, it's because you're cooking the egg, rather than letting it just form a sauce.

After you've drained your pasta, put it back in to the pan but off the heat. mix your eggs/cream/parmesan, tip that into the pasta, stir and put into a serving dish straight away.

Other egg dishes:

Curry

Eggs mornay:

2 hard boiled eggs per person, cut in half and put into a shallow oven dish cut side down. Cover with cheese sauce, then top with sliced tomatoes and grated cheese. Grill until the cheese is nicely browned.

What about a fish pie? White and smoked fish, in a white sauce, with chopped hard boiled eggs and peas, topped with mashed potato.

Kedgeree is another dish that uses hard boiled eggs.

I also do devilled eggs if I do a salad - hard boil, scoop out the yolks, and mash them with a mixture of mayonnaise, mango chutney and curry powder. Put this back into the hollow of the white and spring with cayenne pepper.

My toddler pretty much lives on Eggs and Cheese. Not the healthiest I know, I would rather she ate some meat but eggs are a decent substitute.
One of the meals she loves is Kedgeree

Boil some rice, and towards the end of boiling put a handful of frozen peas with them. Put some smoked haddock in a frying pan and cover with boiling water and simmer for a few minutes until the fish is opake (sp?). Remove fish from pan and chuck water away. In frying pan heat a tablespoon of Pataks curry paste, then stirfry some spring onions in. Put drained boiledrice& peas in frying pan with the currypaste/spring onions, add cooked flaked fish, Stir. Add bigdollop of creme fraiche, and then top with quartered boiled eggs. If you are feeling fancy then you can put some cardamon pods in with the boiling rice and put parsley in at the end with the creme fraiche, but I think it doesn't really need those bits and to be honest I never have fresh parsley around anyway!

Quiche is also great. As is french toast. Or even just boiled eggs (dab dab eggs my toddler calls them) for lunch.

You've made me want to have hens myself now!

www.poultry.allotment.org.uk/Chicken_a/Chicken_Egg_Excess/farm-gate-egg-sales.php hints and tips on selling eggs legally on a small scale.

We have 3 chickens which have started laying again after a few weeks' winter rest. Currently getting between 3 and 5 eggs a day so a couple of them are double laying! I love scrambled eggs on toast, as do dd (almost 3) and ds (18m). We can manage 4 between us, 5 if they are small. Spanish-style omelettes for dcs cooked in small omelette or blini pan great for hiding bits of veg (finely-chopped onion, pepper, mushroom, spinach) and plenty of calories for skinny dd (fried potato cubes, ham, grated cheese). Also omelette fabulous cold on crusty bread sandwich with salad for me.

Also make poached eggs on toast/boiled/omelette for me when get home from work late in evening. Dh and myself fried eggs with his superlative chips (esp with home-cooked ham...)

Dcs eat lots of cake which I make and freeze in slices (carrot, apple and cinnamon, banana/peanut butter, lemon drizzle), rhubarb or blueberry muffins. Also American-style pancakes which freeze really well (see Nigella books for banana, rictta or sticky toffee pudding versions). Make ordinary thin crepes and freeze interleaved with greaseproof paper. Good for a quick breakfast or tea, use in baked dishes instead of pasta, make crepes suzette for a date night. Mix up lots of cookie dough and freeze in rolls ready to slice and cook.

Buy a fairly cheap pasta roller and make just the best ever lasagne/ravioli/tagliatelli very easily. Freezes well too. Home-made pasta with carbonara sauce would use up lots of eggs!

Egg yolks - make proper custard and then into ice-cream of all sorts which, obv, you can freeze. Bearnaise or hollandaise sauce.

Egg whites - i accumulate a lot of these and freeze in little tubs or plastic bags in batches of 2 or 3. Make meringues, pavlova, langue du chat biscuits, chocolate mousse, English coconut or almond macaroons; keep meaning to have a go at posh French macaroons. Huge pavlova with cream and summer fruits great for taking in to work or for school sales etc.

Hard-boiled egg mayonnaise for lunchbox sandwiches, alone, with ham or smoked salmon, or chopped spring onions.

Breakfast/Brunch - Eggy bread - savoury with HP sauce and/or bacon. Sweet with cinnamon and fresh berries or bananas. For special occasions, eggs benedict or variations (ham/bacon/parma ham/smoked salmon/spinach all delicious).

Dippy eggs and soldiers all-purpose comfort meal.

Hmm ... I really like eggs don't I

Make your own pastry with yolks, if you make plenty you will be able to freeze it (I never have frozen it). If you make a pie, you can brush with egg before you bake it, egg custard... quiche with home made pastry is my favourite , followed by french apple tart (Hugh FW recipe), only uses egg yolk in the pastry I think.

Some cake recipes use a lot of eggs - victoria sponge recipe, (Hugh FW) weigh 4 eggs, use the same weight of sugar and flour add vanilla essence and a little milk to loosen it if it doesn't drop gently from the spoon once mixed, split into two cake tins, bake until a skewer comes out clean (can't remember how long off hand).

I loved having hens, the laying drops off, but friends and family always loved getting eggs too, we had 4 hens, which resulted in 28 eggs a week at the height of their laying.