Tag: Eggs

Breakfast is Important

Hope you all have survived the first week of school.

I was so tired the second morning that I almost did not make it to breakfast. Sadly my mum nagged me so much that I did not have a choice.

Sibo! She said. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

Whaaatttt?  I am not even hungry yet at breakfast time. I have done nothing but sleep all night.

You’ve been fasting all night, she said. That’s where the name comes from – “Break Fast”. You must eat to have energy to manage for the rest of the day.

I yawned and staggered off to the breakfast table.

Okay – I’ll just have a piece of toast.

No ways – she smiled at me. You will have cereal, egg on toast and a piece of fruit!

I glared at her and she wagged her finger at me. No attitude from you missy! Eat your food.

Research shows that you can remember things better when you eat a decent breakfast. This is because the food restores glucose levels, an essential carbohydrate that is needed for our brains to function. I suppose that this is important so that we can remember what we learn at school.

Also – they say that if you eat breakfast as your biggest meal of the day – you are more likely to lose weight. Probably because then you are not always hungry and snacking on junk food all the time instead of eating a proper meal.

Not only does my mum make me eat breakfast, but she also makes me eat it at the table. Sitting properly too, not slouched all over the place. I’m not even allowed to have my elbows on the table to prop my head up.

She and Dad sit and eat breakfast with me.  Dad tried reading his newspaper once and Mum gave him a very evil eye. No ways – she said. This is family chat time.

She’s always very chirpy in the mornings. Dad tends to answer with just one word. I don’t really think he’s such a morning person.

Must admit though – I do feel a bit more sprightly after eating breakfast – maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all. And remember how good eggs are for you – we’ve talked about that before.

Take time to eat and enjoy your breakfast people!

SiboSibo and eggs

Have fun and eggsperiment!

Sibo and eggs

Sometime last year we found out how good eggs were for us. Not only are they very nutritious but they are also good for our eyesight and for memory (maybe we should all chomp down eggs for breakfast when we are writing exams in future. (Here’s the blog link in case you missed it.

The other day I read about a cool trick that you can do with eggs. It’s really simple. All you need are two eggs. One you have to hard boil (make it 15 minutes to make sure) and once it’s been boiled, put it in the fridge so that it becomes the same temperature as the raw egg.

Now you have two eggs that look and feel the same. Nobody knows that there really is a difference.

This is what you do…

Spin the eggs and watch what happens.

One egg should spin while the other egg wobbles.

You can also lightly tough each of the eggs while they are spinning. One should stop quickly while the other keeps moving after you have touched it.

Ask your audience why they think this is happening.

And why is it happening…. the raw egg’s centre of gravity changes as the white and yolk move around inside the shell, causing the wobbling motion. Even after you touch the shell it continues moving. This is because of inertia – the same type of force you feel when you change direction or stop suddenly in a car – your body wants to move one way while the car wants you to do something different. Inertia causes the raw egg to spin even after you have stopped it, this contrasts with the solid white and yolk of the hard-boiled egg. It responds much quicker if you touch it.

This is a good eggsperiment to test a friend or someone in your family with – see if they can figure out how to tell the difference between the eggs (without smashing them of course) before showing them how your nifty trick actually works.

Then you can have a nice hardboiled egg sandwich!

Have an eggsellent week!

Sibo

Easter Eggy Fun

Easter Eggs

Maybe you remember that last year we had a blog on how good eggs are for you.  Well… now we are going to have fun playing with the egg shells.

Easter is just a few days away and whilst chocolate eggs are seriously delicious, you can easily make your own Easter eggs for decorations.

For the basics you will need: eggs, paints and a sosatie stick.

Instead of cracking your breakfast egg – carefully make a little hole (using a nail or something sharp) at the top and the bottom of the egg.  You might need three hands to do it without breaking the egg shell – so get somebody to help you.

Hold the egg over a bowl and blow through the hole at the top. The egg should slowly slide out the bottom hole. If it’s really hard – you may need to carefully make the hole a bit bigger at the bottom.

One you’ve blown all the egg out into the bowl, give the egg a wash and let it dry. (If you are in a hurry to get started – use a hairdryer to dry it out.)

Now the fun starts.

Carefully slide your hollow egg onto the sosatie stick (if you don’t have one of these any thin stick will do).  Paint your egg with a base coat colour – something not too dark like yellow or light blue or even white.

Stick it in a pot plant to dry. Once it’s dry you can start decorating it some more. You can make stripes, zig-zags and spots. You can even use some glue and stick beads or glitter onto it.

If you want to be really fancy you can cut little strips of fabric or lace and glue those on too.

Your imagination is the limit. You can make your egg as simple or as fancy as you please.

When the egg is dry you could give it a spray with some clear varnish – if you want to. This will make the egg last longer if you plan on keeping it for some time.

A bowl of these decorated eggs looks really pretty on the table. Or you can leave them on their sticks and put them into pot plants. You can also hang them up or make a mobile.

You could even give one to your parental agent as a special Easter present.

Again – use your imagination!

Best of all – have lots of fun making them.

Have a Happy Easter.

Sibo

Cookies

Sibo with a cookie 2

In honour of International Woman’s Day (8th March) – not to be confused with our South African National Women’s Day on the 9th August – I decided to write a blog about cookies.

Yum!

My mum has this incredibly easy recipe that I thought I’d share with you. Just make sure that you get your parental agent to help you out when using the oven please.

This is what you need for the basic sugar dough recipe:

125gm margarine (that’s a quarter of a block)
1 cup sugar (white or brown)
1 egg
2 cups of flour
Pinch of salt
Teaspoon of vanilla essence.

Heat the oven to 180oC.

Melt the margarine in the micro (or leave it out of the fridge for a while until it gets nice and soft). Add the sugar, salt and vanilla essence and mix it all up.

Crack in the egg and stir it well. Lastly, you add the flour and mix it all up together.

Using a teaspoon (or you can roll the dough into little balls in your hands if you don’t mind getting a bit sticky) drop small amounts onto a well-greased cookie tray.

Gently flatten the top of the cookies with a fork. (Sometimes it works better if you put the fork into a cup of hot water first.)  You should get at least 24 cookies out of this mixture.

Pop the tray into the oven (this is the bit where you might need an adult to help you – don’t burn yourself – remember the oven is hot!)

When they are cooked and you take them out of the oven – let the cookies stand on the tray for a little while before you transfer them onto a wire rack to cool down properly.  If you move them too soon they may break or crumble.

You can also do variations of this recipe – add a cup of coconut, crushed peanuts (just put a handful or two into a small bag and bash them with a rolling pin), two spoonfuls’ of peanut butter or if you want chocolate biscuits – add two tablespoons of cocoa powder to the basic recipe. If your mixture gets a bit dry you can always use 2 eggs instead of 1. If it’s too wet – add a bit more flour.

Once you get good at baking tasty cookies you could always sell them at school markets, or make extra-special ones for birthday presents to give to the people that you love.

Happy baking,

Sibo

Eggsellent food!

 

Sibo and eggs

I was reading interesting stuff about eggs the other day and thought I had to share it.

For starters, eggs are an excellent source of nutrients. One egg contains some healthy unsaturated fats and 6 grams of protein. Eggs are also a good source of zeaxanthin, lutein and choline – all things that your body needs. For example, lutein and zeaxanthin can protect you against losing your eyesight and choline has been associated with preserving memory – just what we need for school exams!

Even more interesting, studies have shown that eating eggs for breakfast can help you shed body weight. Not that kids should be worried about weight, but this might be useful information for our parental agents.

The colour of an egg shell does not say anything about the nutritional value of an egg. It tells you about the breed of the chicken that laid it. Hens with red feathers produce brown eggs and hens with white feathers produce white eggs.

The colour of the egg yolk (that’s the yellow bit of the egg) is determined by what the hen eats. If you break open your egg and find its dark yellow, the chicken was maybe fed green vegetables. A light-yellow yolk would indicate a diet of barley and wheat and a medium-yellow yolk would show that the hen ate alfalfa and corn.

Eggs contain high levels of healthy fats and protein. Healthy fats help your tummy feel full and satisfied. Protein helps you build muscle. Eggs also contain antioxidants that help decrease the effects of aging and fight cancer – definitely something you should share with your folks.

And… there really is an Easter Egg Chicken… it’s called the Araucana Chicken because it produces brown, pink, green and naturally blue eggs. Imagine that.

You can make yourself scrambled egg really easily in the microwave. Just break an egg into a cup. Moosh it up with a fork. Pop it into the micro with a bit of kitchen towel over the top of the cup (to stop it exploding all over the oven) and cook it for ~50 seconds. You can add a dash of milk, some herbs or grated cheese to make it even tastier. Yum.

Have a great week.

Sibo

Cool word for the week: Alacrity

Meaning: quick and cheerful readiness / willingness or eagerness

Example: When mum discovered eggs were good for weight loss she dashed off to the shop with alacrity to stock up.