OK...maybe eggs are not necessarily a fruit. But, they are super delicious, nutritious, and quite magical. Have you ever considered how many dishes you can make with eggs? It's quite amazing if you think about it. Here are just a few. Did I miss any?


The reason I bring this up is because we had eleven people over to my house Wednesday night and we made 8 different egg dishes simultaneously for a cooking contest. Wow! You should have seen it! It was total chaos! And, the kitchen was pretty much destroyed by the time we were done.

Before I go on, I should probably mention that I serve as a leader of a group of 13 young men in my local church group. The boys are 16-18 years old. In fact, I have spent approximately twenty five of the last thirty years working with the young men in my local church.

If you are not aware, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only religion that does not have a paid clergy which, if you think about it, is quite remarkable and speaks to the veracity of the doctrine. Local clergy in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serve as volunteers, without pay.

Members serve in a wide variety of "callings" in their local "wards." Since I have four sons and since I seem to relate well with the youth, it seems that the local leaders felt inspired to call me to serve with the young men in our ward...again and again and again...for many, many years now.

And, when I say that I relate well with the youth, I am embarrassed to admit that I sometimes resemble the guy in this video:


So...yeah...this video hits pretty close to home in many ways. But, it works. I love the boys with all my heart. I have a super fun time with them. And, since my maturity level is only slightly higher than theirs, we connect at a level that most adults don't (haha).

In addition to our Sunday classes during which we talk about spiritual matters, we meet each Wednesday night to help the boys learn to serve others. We help the boys to develop physically, spiritually, socially, and intellectually. We do activities to help them learn about careers. We go camping with them and do many adventures together (all four of my boys are Eagle Scouts!). And, we try to prepare them to serve missions, to do well in college, and to be good husbands and fathers in their future families.

This Wednesday, we wanted to help the boys learn a thing or two about cooking healthy food so they can feel confident that they can feed themselves and survive on their own. In a leadership meeting recently, the Bishop who is also my neighbor who serves about 20 to 30 hours per week without pay said "I want them to learn how to fry an egg."

Well, since I am the Cook'n guy...I figured I could do better than that!

So, I invited everyone over to my house. And, the first thing we did was to go outside to the back deck. I gave them some paper and cardboard boxes and had them light a fire in the fire pit. We stood around the fire enjoying the warmth and watching the flames consume the kindling.

I said "this fire is a representation of the energy you feel when you eat Poptarts, waffles, pancakes, donuts, muffins, cocoa pebbles & waffle crisp for breakfast." The boys observed that it burned brightly at first and put out some great heat for a little while. But, shortly thereafter, they observed that the fire died out pretty quickly and was ice cold before long.

I said "that's how you feel when you eat sugary garbage for breakfast! At around 10:00 am, you're gonna lack energy and start to feel sleepy. You might have trouble focusing in your classes at school. You might even start to get grumpy and feel impatient with others. And, you might not even realize why! On the other hand, if you put some logs on the fire, what happens?" They explained that the fire will burn and put out heat for a longer period of time.

I said "if you want to put logs on your breakfast fire...what does that look like?" When I told this to my boys a number of years ago when we were eating at an all-you-can-eat breakfast bar at a hotel, they thought I was telling them to eat healthier so they went back and filled their plates with fruit. I said "the fruit is good and healthy and you should definitely eat it but fruit is very sugary and, in this analogy, still represents kindling. What are the logs?"

We explained that whole grains and proteins like eggs and meat tend to stick with you longer and will give you sustained energy till your next meal. Then, I told them that today we were going to learn how to prepare eggs.

I told them to pay close attention because, at the end, we were going to divide into teams for a cooking contest. I introduced them to the prizes that I got for the winning team and told them the rules of the contest. I explained that the Bishop would be the judge and handed him the orange juice so he could refresh his pallette after each taste test. Needless to say, the boys were very attentive and participation was through the roof!

We talked about all the many benefits of eggs including the following:

• healthy & nutritious
• inexpensive
• delicious
• variety of ways to prepare
• quick & easty to make
• sticks with you; kindling vs logs
• builds muscle (Rocky!)
• flexible...can be served at breakfast, lunch, or dinner!
• easy cleanup!
• add cheese & potatoes and other veggies!

Then, we talked about the different types of eggs (free range vs. factory) and discussed the differences between them. The boys were intrigued to learn that free range eggs (like the kind I get from the chickens behind my house) have five times more Vitamin D simply because of the fact that the hens are out in the sun. Since free range chickens like mine eat a variety of things such as bugs, weeds, and table scraps from our kitchen, the eggs from the free-range chickens are much more nutritious.

The boys were fascinated. They were also surprised to learn that the caged chickens that produce the store-bought eggs are given steroids and antibiotics and live, in many cases, in terrible conditions. I explained that you can actually see the difference in the color of the yolk and I showed them the difference. I also explained that the flavor is different too. The boys commented that they had no idea about any of these things.

I asked them to name all the different egg dishes and, to my surprise, they actually nailed it and came up with almost everything I had on my list.

• raw
• scrambled (keys: don't over-cook) (plain with milk, salt & pepper) (with ham or meat added in and with veggies)
• fried; over easy or sunnyside up
• omelets
• wagon wheels
• breakfast burritos
• breakfast egg McMuffin
• Mountain Man
• egg casserole
• hard boiled
• soft boiled
• deviled
• baked
• poached
• egg salad
• quiche
• French Toast
• in salads
• egg nog

Finally, we divided the boys into three teams and told them that each team had to cook two egg dishes and each dish had to be different (in other words, if one team chose to make scrambled eggs, then no other team could make scrambled eggs). We went round robin around the room from team to team and let them choose their dishes. Then, I turned on some music and we got to work!

Oh baby!! What a crazy fun time! You should have seen it!! The mistake I made was that I didn't shoot a single photo or video of the event! So, I'll just have to describe it.

Imagine 11 people moving around the kitchen trying to cook simultaneously! In short order, the boys had the oven turned on (to bake bacon). They had two or three frying pans and one pot (for soft boiled eggs) going on the cooktop. One boy plugged in the electric griddle and was working away on the countertop nearby. There was a boy manning the toaster who was dishing out toast and English muffins. And, everyone was moving around frantically, bumping into each other, and laughing as they went.

As soon as the large frying pan got up to temperature, one of the boys who was making scrambled eggs cracked an egg into it. I said "uh...you may want to put some butter or oil in that pan first." He said "ahhh...it'll be fine" and he continued to crack one egg after another into the pan. I was thinking "hmmmm...ok...this ought to be interesting." And, it was! Sometimes, as leaders, we need to let the boys fail so they can learn from it.

The boy stirred and then scraped as the eggs just burned in to the frying pan. It was quite a mess and it was hard not to laugh at the disaster.

When he finished, some parts of the scrambled eggs were raw and other parts were burned to a crisp. When he handed the eggs to the Bishop on a paper plate, the Bishop looked at me as if to say "seriously? I have to eat this?" Haha. Oh gosh. It was pretty hilarious.

My boy, Andan, made a killer wagon wheel. One of the boys made a fantastic egg McMuffin. The soft boiled egg sandwhich came out really good. The omelet was average at best. Several other dishes turned out pretty decently. The boys did a really great job.

We all ate egg meals until we were full and then we gave out prizes. It was a huge success. The boys had a super fun time and I think they really learned a lot. Hopefully, when they're out on their own in their college apartments, serving missions for the church, or making breakfast for their future wife & kids, they'll remember something that they learned that night and will be able to prepare a healthy, tasty meal.

I hope you get the opportunity to teach a young whipper snapper some of the tricks of the trade. This is one of the main reasons we added the new "Cook-It" feature to Cook'n. Please remember to take a moment to click the "I Made This" button and add a comment to your recipe so others can learn from your wealth of experience!

Next time, I promise to remember to take a picture!

    Dan Oaks
    Founder of DVO Enterprises
    Creator of Cook'n
    Father of 5. Husband of 1.
    Monthly Newsletter Contributor since 2024
    Email the author! dan@dvo.com