Thank you Cooking Channel…and Williams-Sonoma!  I’m a huge Top Chef fan – including Masters and Just Desserts.  Definitely my favorite season ever was when the Voltaggio brothers were on.  They both just rocked it – every single thing Bryan made was perfect and Michael threw in some crazy ideas and won for his creativity.  But of course, what made it extra fun to watch is how cute they are…stating the obvious.  The picture above is old- but seemed like the best of the two together I could find.  In case you didn’t know- they have a Thanksgiving special on Cooking Channel right now!  It replays often so you can probably just DVR it and watch it whenever you want.  Michael’s brussels sprouts recipe and Bryan’s turkey recipe both stuck out to me the most.  I actually went to the store to buy the ingredients for the brussels sprouts but my kids were bored and I had to cut the trip short.  But really, even if you don’t like cooking or have no intention of making your Thanksgiving meal this year, it’s still fun to watch…if you’re a girl- or a gay man.

Girl talk! During their season of Top Chef – I was a total Bryan fan all the way.  He’s more serious and I didn’t see any tattoos, so that’s more my guy style – most of my girlfriends were into Michael though.  But this Thanksgiving special revealed a bunch of Bryan tats.  Plus, he had some weird bangs going on in the special – and all of a sudden – I saw what everyone else saw in Michael!  Michael wasn’t wearing his silly big hat backwards this time and seems more mature looking.  Even though tattoos aren’t my thing – Michael’s personality does go with them at least. Maybe Bryan has a bad boy side?  Well…the second those bangs go away I’m pretty sure I’ll be more into Bryan again, he is so serious you know.  Freshman year of college my best friend and I were feeling particularly adventurous one evening and decided to get little matching tattoos.  I wimped out last minute and got a belly ring (and she did too) - which my body hated so it was gone after 3 months since it never healed.  I’m so happy for my last minute change of heart!  Until I had my kids- I could never think of anything meaningful enough to me to want to wear every single day.  Except now I have that dumb little scar where that tiny gold ring was for three months.  And then when I got pregnant, it got darker and bigger!  Luckily, it went back down – but I’ve seen lots of friends whose ring holes got huge and dark and stayed that way after the baby.  Hee hee, the things you don’t think or care about in college!

Back to the brothers: Here’s the most important question: Why don’t these boys have their own cooking show already?  Carla was my other Top Chef fave and she’s on The Chew.  Fabio was another favorite and he’s everywhere.  But these boys need their own show asap and then I’ll probably start watching Food Network or The Cooking Channel again and not just Top Chef.   Of course, they’d have to dumb it down for us a little - but they definitely need their own show asap.  Don’t you think?

So, here’s a little update on what’s going on in my world and why I haven’t posted recipes lately still.  My 15 month old won’t let me do anything.  At all.  Ever.  I’m the same mom to my 4 year old – but he was just never this clingy.  She doesn’t walk yet and insists I carry her everywhere and cries when I don’t.  Seriously, I have to make her cry it out sometimes during the day so I can get little things done!  Also, this one doesn’t sleep like my son did.  I definitely have more empathy for those parents with clingy kids now.  However, today she started toddling around – walking-ish.  It’s so cute and I’m so excited!!!  This may possibly mean a little bit more freedom.  As soon as I get over this sinus infection or ridiculous cold, I can taste again and bake something delightful.  E will just toddle around my feet and allow me to make it.  If I think it, it has to happen, right?

I feel like a bit of a late bloomer with this because I’ve been a zombie for about a year and a half.  Not that long ago I noticed my site blowing up like it used to when it was easier to get on tastespotting and foodgawker.  Back when they really looked at at the whole picture rather than just lighting perfection.  And recently, it’s getting even more buzz and I haven’t even done anything lately since, as I said, I’ve been the walking dead.  Which reminds me of some awesome 80s movies, but anyway.

With Pinterest, you start looking at some of the stuff people like, then you find the like-minded people, for wherever in the heck your interests lie.  I don’t know who this girl is, but check out all the baked (some are kinda healthy!) goodies this girl found!  I have just conjured up the PMS ravenous feeling without any medical cause!  And if you’re into cupcakes, Cupcake Project is a fun one to scroll through – she’s got Easter cupcakes baked in eggshells – like last week’s Veruca Salt cupcake on Top Chef Just Desserts!  I probably won’t be making too many of them without first re-doing them to make them healthier, but I sure love the ideas.  I wandered onto her site for a bit from the malted milk nougat picture on that goodies link above.  So if you’re sick of my site since I don’t put out…enough posts…then this is a fun place to wander off – but please do come back some day!

Hmmm… my 13 month old has just started recently sleeping a little better (3 nights ago) after the last cry it out actually worked…a little.  I don’t want to get too excited, but maybe I can start baking again???  Oh to feel like myself again would be so nice!

Oh, and if you’re curious about the main thing people are checking out on Pinterest that caught my attention - it’s my Nutella Puppy Chow  -which makes me get a warm fuzzy since it’s one of my favorites and makes me believe people are pretty smart and good in general and if everyone could eat this there would be world peace.  Or…

And maybe it’s the Nutella Puppy Chow’s fault that my baby loves sweets…and nuts…and Nutella.

I don’t get it!  Saturday night I had a little bit too much to drink.  It was my first time actually drinking more than a small glass or two of wine since breastfeeding is over.  I’m glad it’s over with since I won’t be drinking that much again in a loooong time.  Sorry New Year’s!  Not gonna happen for you.  But why, after you have had too much to drink, do things actually taste different.  And not just the next day sometimes but for days and days afterwards?  I drank enough to feel gross the next day- but not to puke or really slow me down much, just enough to feel gross.  So why in the world is my normal coffee still tasting gross, I want to drink pop at night (normally don’t even drink soda), and I want lots and lots of red meat (for me it comes in the form of jerky lately) and salty snacks.  It’s as though my taste buds have totally changed, though temporarily, into making me want to pack on a few before Christmas!  It’s like being pregnant first trimester and all the healthy things sound and taste gross.  I’m not pregnant though.  PHEW!  I’m pretty sure I lost my pregnancy weight not from breastfeeding, but from not drinking anything.  Since I’m still eating crap foods like a hog and it’s Wednesday! 

Right now I’m trying to figure out what cookies to make for Santa for Christmas.  Of course my tummy feels yucky and so I want to make something uber-rich – but I’m thinking of making my healthy peanut butter balls and maybe some almond flour chocolate chip cookies.  But I kinda want to make something a little more fun for my son.  However, anything too fun will require a grocery store trip with my two children, and trying to fit a baby carrier into the grocery card and a three year old boy wanting to run the aisles (not allowed, but he wants to) make me want to stay put and scrounge up some ingredients.  How do all these moms do everything?  Man!  I finally have some more time to bake something if I wanted to, but I’m afraid to go to the grocery store!  Baby steps…it’ll happen.

Hi, I’ve missed coming on here and also checking others!  I have a few things I want to mention below, but first my woe is me story.  We’re sick.  All the time.  Sick.  Iarrogantly thought that with good eating habits, the right supplements, the right amount of sleep, and all the hand washing and clothing changes after school, that I could maybe prevent some of the crap from coming home.  But I cannot.  Nope.  So anyway, I have an emotional son who is tired because his sleep is interrupted from snot and Christmas lights (those lights are not allowed on in his room at night anymore).  I have a baby who just gets cold every night despite what I do to keep her warm.  So, she’s up all night.  I just don’t understand it!  O was a little furnace but my girl is the opposite at night!  So, to keep her safe and from overheating, I’m very slowly getting the temp/pj’s to the proper amount so she can sleep comfortably but I don’t put her at a higher risk for SIDS.  And since these kids are keeping me up all night I have had a lowered immune system or something since I kept getting sick- but nothing going on a few weeks now so I’m crossing my fingers.  Yippeeee!  O seems to be getting better finally despite the fact he came home with pink eye today – but these drops are so awesome.  Five minutes after the first drop your kid isn’t contagious anymore!  So that was probably my highlight of the day so far, the 5 minute drops along with the amazing Paradise Bakery carrot cake muffin bites.  The heavens sang from above when I took my first bite of those.  I know, the cake they have is already amazing, but it’s so big and pricey!  $5.99 for a dozen little bites was perfect, I had two!  Ummm, they are healthy because they have carrots and nuts inside:)  Back to being sick – too bad a three year old won’t go for nasal irrigation, but have you heard of Himalayan salt inhalers?  I think maybe I could get him to use that… 

And just in time for Christmas cookies, I broke my hand mixer!  After making crepes of all things, it was just its time.  Yes, lots of people like lugging out their huge, heavy stand mixers, but I prefer a separate bowl and hand mixer.  But luckily, the folks over at CSN stores are gonna let me choose a hand mixer and I’ll tell you all about it!  They have such a great selection of pretty much everything like hand mixers and sling backpacks   Actually, I’m also going to order a toddler toilet seat, and I’ll tell you about that too!  For those of you interested in toddler toilet seats. 

For a new topic, I got an email today from Debra at beyourownyou.com, which focuses on the empowerment of girls.  I love this.  Women should support women and girls should support girls.  If we can start our girls out  on a healthy path, then they will hopefully grow into strong, independent women with high self-esteem.   Cymphonique, Master P’s daughter, Lil’ Romeo’s sister, and upcoming Nickelodeon star, is joining forces with BYOU to help spread awareness and sell clothes with a positive message.  She seems to have a great personality, work ethic, and outlook on life, so I hope she keeps it as she gets older!!!!  For now, I think it’s fantastic and hope that young girls are influenced by this positive program and role model in Cymphonique.  I had some great role models in Tiffany and Debbie:)

I was at a local grocery store waiting  for meds for my sinus infection courtesy of my son coming home from school with constant colds coughing in my face and lack of sleep due to having a new baby.  As I was waiting, I decided to head to the Health Mart section, right by the pharmacy, to buy some quick Muir Glen canned chicken noodle soup (and live with a little BPA because I don’t feel like cooking with a fever) and some delicious Taste Nirvana coconut water.  That plain coconut water is my favorite of the non-flavored varieties! 

I see this mom and her kids hanging out with their cart of food waiting for dad in the health food section – who was one department over in the liquor section.  The mom is reading something on her cell phone, leaning against her cart looking annoyed as the two kids – about age 4 and 6 look around.  The little girl says, “Mommy, what is this?” and the mom looks up, rolls her eyes, and with a raspy cigarette voice says, “Oh, that’s just the organic section.”  As though organic is a bad word.  The little girl replies, “Well, can’t we at least look Mommy?” 

WHAT!!??  Isn’t the conversation supposed to go the opposite way?  Why is organic a bad word for so many people?  Why do some people think buying organic is un-cool or annoying?  I understand getting annoyed with the extreme people either way.  Extreme health or extreme anti-health, but seriously – to start with your kids at such a young age discouraging healthy foods like they’re bad?  Not all organic food will break the budget AND not all organic food is nourishing (she’d probably like that).  Of course I didn’t say anything to this women, but I wanted to give her a lecture.  That would’ve been weird so I did not do that    I doubt she knows that despite the struggling economy, the organic industry is one of the success stories.  Whole Foods and the organic/health industry in general continues to grow and see profits.  That makes me believe this isn’t just a fad.  I think a fad would be more likely to die out if people are cutting costs.  But people are genuinely concerned for their health and have decided to cut costs elsewhere and actually spend more on healthy foods and supplements.  Of course, this includes un-healthy goodies made without the fake stuff.  Want an example?  I LOVE Whole Foods plain white cake.  It’s delicious.  I didn’t even used to really like plain white cake but theirs just melts in your mouth.  Not healthy at all but there’s none of the fake stuff so I tell myself it’s okay in moderation:)  I also tell myself m&m’s are okay not only in moderation but in excess even with all the artificial colorings, etc…  It would be too depressing to cut everything out!  Have you tried the expensive, natural version of m&m’s?  Unfortunately, not even close- they’ve got some tweaking to do.  I threw out a whole batch of cookies once because those expensive candy covered chocolates were gross.  Expensive waste of cookies.

Oops, I was digressing again.  Problem is, the people reading my blog most likely agree with me and those anti-health food people would probably not be reading my blog so I feel kinda sad about it.  I’m not sure how to get those types to open up their minds and realize the potential harm they are doing to their children’s bodies at such a young age.  If you actually care about your children, I’d think you’d be the one encouraging them to eat healthy, rather than your kid asking you.  We all know about the childhood obesity epidemic, little girls getting their periods early, so many unprecedented health problems for overweight kids, blah blah blah.  Most normal kids should be hoping for the occasional treat and candy rather than the occasional healthy treat (thinking about the family in the grocery store).  How about being well-rounded instead?  Isn’t that just common sense?

I’d like to do something about it, rather than just whine on my blog…I feel like my son whining about something that he actually knows how to fix -which is annoying - I just don’t know what to do!  Anybody out there reading this doing anything about it?  My only thought is changing the foods in schools since it’s tough to change parents.   I’d like to actively participate in this in Omaha or nationally – but I’ve only been active at home since I’ve been so pooped all the time with my baby at home!  One of these days we’ll start sleeping.  Let me know if you have any suggestions or know someone!  I feel like just putting my name on a few national petitions is a teensy bit helpful but do I feel good about it at the end of the day?  No.  It isn’t enough.

By the way, right now I’m listening to my three year old singing very very loudly during what is supposed to be his nap time.  The end of nap time is such a devastating time in a parent’s life!!!  His three hour long afternoon naps have turned into an hour long quiet time which turned into 45 minutes of very loud play in his room.  At least he was quiet for the most part and I got to be on the computer for a small part of the day:)

Hmmm…  What do I want for my kitchen?  Shall I pick from some dutch ovens?  Perhaps a nice Le Creuset piece?  Well, CSN stores have allowed me to do a giveaway or a review – and this time I decided to be less selfish and do another giveaway!  Don’t get too excited though since I’ll do a review next time:)  I figure some people may be getting sick of baby talk- though I could actually blog about that every day…if I had time that is, which I don’t!  Now, the next question was, what do people want?  I ALWAYS want sharp knives – I have some nice knives at home but you’d never know it since they’re always dull.  We take them in to get them professionally sharpened but they still stink. 

Then I remembered – my blogging buddy Steph from stephchows!  She did a great review from cookware.com on their Ergo Chef Knife and I really wanted one.  Well- instead of me getting one, a lucky reader’ll get one instead.  Click here to check out the knife and here to check out Steph’s review.  The photo above is courtesy of stephchows as well- thanks Steph, didn’t think you’d mind if I used it!  I messed around with it but no matter what I do it remains large.  I type fast but the darn pictures take forever so I gave up.  Eh.  If you’d rather have a 9 inch carving knife  instead of the 6 inch chef’s knife, that’s okay too- it’s really your choice. 

How to win? 

• Comment
• Tweet the giveway with a link to this url, then comment so I know you did it (and to add another entry).
• Share the url on your Facebook page and then comment so I know you did it (ditto).
• If you have a blog- you can link to this page and then comment as well. 

Good luck!  I’m thinking about commenting on it myself.  Hmm, that’s probably not ethical.  The winner will be picked via random.org next Monday, September 20th.

UPDATE:  And the winner is… Mariko!  Random.org picked #4 and that’s you- congrats:)

So, by now we all know my pregnant self is a little lazy about cooking- I keep cooking my own old recipes from posts past, and my food creativity has turned into strange concoctions that nobody would want to eat anyway!  Plus, my taste buds have temporarily changed a little and this third trimester has me craving sweets in a totally unhealthy way.  I’ve also turned somewhat vegetarian this trimester as most meats seem to weigh on my stomach and make me feel gross for hours.  However, I need some protein other than beans and since I went so crazy on eggs in my second trimester, I haven’t been in the mood for them!  So, I’d like to tell you about the fantastic buffalo jerky I found last week!  Also, remember my awesome Le Creuset Giveaway courtesy of CSN stores?  Well, they contacted me again and though the last time I unselfishly chose to do a giveaway, this time, I selfishly chose a diaper bag for me!!!   Any mom out there knows how difficult it is to find a proper diaper bag and most of us end up using gigantic purses anyway…which don’t really cut it when you have a baby on the bottle!

First, I’ll tell you how the CSN deal…ever heard of CSN stores?  I love them- they have a million (ok, I’m exaggerating) different stores with so many different products to choose from, it’s awesome since they somehow have low prices and cheap to free shipping!  Need a bed?  No problem!  My personal favorite is cookware.com – but if you just get on this pageto see everything at once.   Anyway, I will tell you more about my diaper bag saga when I actually receive the bag and review it, but when my son was a baby, I went through FOUR different diaper bags and sadly just wasn’t happy with any of them.  I sold two at a major loss at a garage sale recently, and kept the best one for myself, but I’m not excited about using it again.  The other diaper bag we have is a camo one for my husband, which is tiny and I’ll get into brand names in the next diaper bag post!  Since I’m expecting a girl this time around, I picked this girly diaper bag pictured above - can’t wait to tell you all about it!  (…oopsy, they sold out now, the next diaper bag I choose is this one!)

And onto the Buffalo Jerky!  I love beef jerky, love it.  But it’s so hard to find it minimally processed without nitrites, nitrates, msg and you never know where the meat comes from.  I’ve been on a constant search specifically for good, affordable buffalo jerky with the above attributes, but of course only find very expensive versions on the web and can’t seem to find any here.  So, I was psyched to be at my local nutrition store (No Name Nutrition) and walk by these Tanka Bars and Tanka Bites.    I was somewhat skeptical to buy them since they have cranberry bits inside, and I typically like my jerky peppered, but I figured I’d give it a shot since I’m desperate for some good protein at this point.  Yummyyyy!  The cranberry bits are a nice little chewy addition, but I do wish they’d make a version without cranberry for when that mood strikes.  These bars are only 70 calories and have 7 grams of protein.  Usually they would probably tide me over for awhile but I’m a bit of  a hog recently.  I’m excited to have these on hand for when the baby comes!  These jerky snacks are made by Native Americans and sold in all 50 states.  These may be old news to you, but in Omaha, they are only sold at one store and so it’s easy to see why I missed them before!  Ironic that Omaha is named after a Native American tribe yet it’s difficult to find great Native American goods here.

Remember my review on Jer’s chocolates?  At that point in time, I was just getting over my nasty first trimester stomach and not cooking much – yet craving chocolate, so these natural chocolates were the perfect solution to satisfying my craving!  Know what?  Not much has changed.  I still am craving chocolate and haven’t been cooking as much but have been enjoying a wide variety of foods (I’ll get into that in a bit) – back to the Jer’s.

Here’s a little info from the folks over at Jer’s: to date, Jer’s products have won six International Taste Awards.  They combine crunchy rice crisps, salty pretzels, buttery toffee, or gooey homemade caramel with all-natural premium dark, milk and white chocolates  and all natural peanut butter.  The peanut butter is made from locally made Valencia peanuts, the most nutritious, peanut-sweet and protein-rich available.  They are preservative and filler-free!  You can buy these at Whole Foods, Cost Plus and some other local stores, and online at www.jers.com.  Jers.com is where this company is offering you a 20% off discount using this coupon code hrblog through the end of July!  Yeehaw!  I think these natural chocolates would make a nice gift or also be a great edible centerpiece at dinner parties. 

And for a little pregnancy update:  I’m now 8 months along and my usual food creativity is still mostly put on the back burner of my brain since I’m so darn tired all the time!  When it’s time to eat, I generally want something fairly easy with little prep and clean-up or to go to a restaurant!  Also, this time I’m having a girl, and last time it was a boy.  The cravings are completely different, while last time I wanted lots of burgers, which I normally don’t even like, this time burgers are extra gross and fish and vegetarian meals are what I prefer.  I would say it is not a healthier pregnancy than my last though since I’m still craving lots of chocolate!  I’m not talking about one Jer per day:)  I wish!  The other thing is I’m playing around with one particular baked recipe that I may end up selling after having this baby…and healing, etc… Stay tuned:)

Wow, this is such a coincidence! About three or four years ago, I had a VitaMuffin addiction. I couldn’t find varieties anywhere in Omaha at the time so I’d order directly from their website.   So that means when I was pregnant with O, I was chowing on these things taking one muffin or brownie out of the freezer at a time and letting it thaw and then eating it.  It drove my husband nuts that our basement freezer was full of these boxes.  To be honest, I’m just starting to want to eat them again since I had soooo many while pregnant with O!  And really, I probably should be buying them since I accidentally gained three pounds this past week eating too much Nutella Puppy Chow and other snacks.  Well, I guess I’m going through a pregnancy phase of being really really hungry but it’s got to stop!!!  These would be the perfect solution to my current problem of snacking on the wrong things lately since chocolate sounds good all the time.  They’ve got more flavors now so I couldn’t give you a review on all of them, and I can’t remember everything about all the muffins I was eating at the time.  However, I do remember that I never got sick of the brownies (they didn’t have pom at the time) or the deep chocolate ones. 

And lucky you!  Vitalicious is giving away 12 Deep Chocolate VitaTops to one of my lucky readers in celebration of the fact that right now in the Midwest, Costco is carrying Deep Chocolate VitaTops!  Yay!  I loooooove Costco.  I hear a rumor they are in in the freezer aisles in Omaha, and they are also in IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, OH, WI.  So, if you aren’t lucky enough to win, at least you know for another five weeks or so you can pick them up at Costco.  I’ll be picking some up for myself in hopes of ending my pig-out streak.  One Deep Chocolate VitaTop has 100 calories, 1.5g fat, 6g fiber and 3g protein.  I’m taking my Costco trip tomorrow for some new summer pj’s for my toddler, so I’ll be picking up a box of these!  I can’t wait to see my husband’s reaction when he sees them in the freezer again:)

How to win? (US Residents Only)

• Comment!
• Follow me on Twitter (@healthytasty) & comment that you did it
• Tweet with a link to this post & comment that you did it
• Post about the giveaway & comment with a link to your post
• Winner will be drawn Friday, April 16th – good luck!

Voting is closed, Congrats Coco, you’re the lucky winner!!!  Enjoy your VitaTops:)

Okay, remember that earlier this month I went on the Egg Farm Tour sponsored by The Good Egg Project ?  We wrapped it up with this cooking session!  Isn’t this egg chair awesome?  Also, that’s me on my 31st birthday with a four month pregnant belly, it’s only been a month but I’m pretty sure another baby crawled in there because I look way bigger now!  Of course, the cooking section was my favorite:)  I don’t get to cook near as often at home as I’d like to, so it was nice to be able to finish off my whirlwind egg tour with a cooking session where I didn’t have to prep or clean up and there were no really cute toddlers there to tug my hand away from the kitchen.  So, upon concentrating on our teachers, the first thing I learned was that the 100 notches in a a chef’s hat symbolize the 100 different ways the chef can cook an egg.  We did not learn 100 ways, but quite a few and I’ll share some of them with you!

First up, nutritionist Mary Lee Chin was up to bat chatting with us a little about eggs and nutrition. Eggs have 13 vitamins and minerals that you can read more about here.   Her main focus from the beginning was the importance of breakfast.  She said 50% of kids do not eat breakfast which can lead to concentration, behavioral and nutritional problems.  We need nutrients to learn and the best way to start a day is to eat a nutritious breakfast.  The top excuses kids have for not eating breakfast is that they are not hungry, have no time, or their parents are too busy.  I’m an avid breakfst eater and always feed my child breakfast – so I just never really thought that it’s possible that 50% of people don’t feed their kids breakfast!  Wow!  Obviously, eggs are a fantastic choice for a nutritious breakfast and take no time to make.  However, if the clean-up is an issue for you, at least grab an apple and a yogurt drink or something fast!

Howard Helmer is the Guinness record-holder for fastest omelet maker, so who better to teach us how to make omelets?  He says, use a non-stick 10″ pan on medium heat with a little bit of butter or oil spread around.  Add 2 eggs plus 2 tablespoons of water (the water/milk helps steam to rise making the eggs lighter and fluffier and coats the protein so it’s not dry) and whisk together.  When pan is hot, add the eggs  and allow to spread all over the pan.  With a spatula (plastic turner), constantly “paint” the eggs toward the center and turn the pan to fill in that blank spot with uncooked egg – do this constantly on all sides until the egg starts to settle and cook on top.  When it appears mostly done but slightly watery, it’s time to remove from heat and add whatever you want to the middle..such as cheese, and flip in half!  The residual heat should cook the rest of the egg and it should be done perfectly without being dry.  If you cook the top portion of the omelet to the point where there is no more moisture on top before adding the filling, your omelet will be dry!  Here’s his blog.  You really can’t be in his presence without getting a huge smile on your face -and so it was such a pleasure to be able to learn from the master himself!  OH!  I almost forgot to mention how he made breakfast burritos!  I usually scramble the eggs and put them in a straight line in the center of the tortilla.  Howard made his usual omelet, but instead of adding the filling to the middle and flipping it, he added the filling right in there with the egg (cheese on top).  When the omelet was done, he just put the whole thing on top of the tortilla leaving about an inch of tortilla on the outside circumference.  Then, he folded two sides in a little and rolled up the the rest of the omelet lengthwise.  A bite of egg in every bite!  Far better than my old breakfast burritos.  Why didn’t I think of that?

Anybody watch The Next Food Network Star?  Jeffrey Saad, runner up on season five, was there to help us learn some more egg recipes.  I could definitely see why he made it so far on the show!   He was quite charismatic and held our attention as he whipped up a bunch of different and imaginitive styles of eggs!  He’s jazzed up the most popular egg style I’ve seen lately in food blogs- the egg or toad-in-the-hole by making it making it nach0-style, see recipe here.  It’s a kid-friendly recipe but of course, my toddler still wants everything fairly plain, so I just make the toad-in-the-hole for him with whipped eggs using a car cookie-cutter.  Don’t be afraid of making one of these!  The egg/bread combo is super-easy to flip!  If for some reason you still can’t get it, try baking it in the oven at 350 until the egg is cooked-through.  Voila!  For a more grown-up breakfast sandwich, why not try eggs, tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil sandwiched between two slices of toast?  Yummy!!!  I had the most fun watching Jeffrey teaching some of the other moms how to flip an egg with just the pan and the flick of the wrist.  This is something I do at home but was too embarrassed to try in front of others – just because I figured the pressure would get to me and I’d lose my touch!  What a wimp, but it was fun watching a few egg disasters:)

And for a couple more egg tidbits that friends have since asked me since my last post:  Why don’t our eggs hatch at home?  Hens are able to produce an egg every 24 to 26 hours.  If during that time the hens have mated with a rooster, chances are the egg may be fertilized.  Eggs sold at the store are eggs where a rooster has not be in presence and so they are not fertilized.  However, a hen with a fertilized egg has a natural instinct to sit on the egg and turn it, rarely leaving the nest, keeping it at a perfect temperature and humidity.  My other question I received was - Can I eat an egg with a really-cloudy egg white?  The answer is yes, a cloudy egg white is just a sign that the egg is really fresh!  Bon Appetit!

Now for the giveaway!  Thanks to the folks at The Good Egg Project that sent me on this fabulous informational egg trip,they are giving away TWO sets of this Norpro Egg Rite Egg Timer (featured in a recent food mag article {too bad I can’t remember what it was!} as a MUST HAVE item!) – and this Norpro Silicone 3 Piece Egg/Pancake Ring Set.  This means – two winners win one set each!  I could see my son having lots of fun with different shape pancakes and eggs.  Plus, when I’m not pregnant, I’m planning on making some soft cooked eggs and dipping bread hunks and asparagus spears in it, yummm!  Right now I have a feeling I’d probably end up hard cooking them accidentally and then no dipping for me.  How to enter?

• Comment below
• Follow me on twitter
• Tweet about this giveaway with a link to the post
• Mention this in your blog
• Check out the Incredible Edible Egg recipe portion and tell me what looks the yummiest to you
• If you get creative and think of something fun that I didn’t, please comment again on what you did and I’ll see if it seems fair, probably will allow it:)
• Giveaway ends Friday, April 9th  (US residents only)