Green Eggs, No Ham

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 tries to eat on $6/day.

I hesitated to post this picture. I suppose it's pretty obvious why.

And I missed Dr. Seuss's birthday. For purposes of this blog anyway. We had this for dinner on March 2nd and I figured by the time I got it posted everyone would have already eaten their non-Seuss inspired dinners. But then I figured that we still have St. Patrick's Day to go, so what the heck. My mom used to dye our milk green and we kids thought it was fun. Maybe your kids will think green eggs are fun. For the record, mine did not. Correction: they thought it was plenty fun; everyone was excited I was making green eggs. But when it came time to eat them, well no one was very excited about that. Truth be told, even I was a little hesitant.

They were just so tremendously...green. And the texture was slightly different than normal scrambled eggs--they were a little more, how can I say this--blob-like.

So, are you totally stoked to make these, or what?

But wait, don't sign off just yet. Because these eggs have several things going for them. For starters, they are incredibly healthy. For each egg, you're getting about 1/2 C spinach.

Secondly, although they taste somewhat different than regular scrambled eggs, they are more alike than different. They taste basically like scrambled eggs.

And finally, they really are fun. If your family gets into holidays and is somewhat adaptable to different foods (which I assure you mine is not), these are perfect for Seuss's birthday (next year) or St. Patrick's Day or, you know whatever green-themed functions you may be involved in.

Green Eggs, No Ham
adapted from Deceptively Delicious
Cook time: 10 minutes
Cost: $1.40
(eggs: .50, spinach: .80, butter: .07, milk: .03)

Note: The original recipe contained a shocking 1 lb spinach, which is a good 3 times what I used. (Forgive me, but the fact that her children will purportedly eat such a food officially disqualifies them from being considered picky at all forever.) Anyway, if you and your kids try such an amount, I beg you to let me know how it turns out and if it resembles eggs at all or is firmly in the cooked spinach department. And did your kids eat it? If so, I salute you. And your kids.

3 C (about 4.5 oz) spinach
1 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp milk
6 eggs

Add 1/2 Tbsp butter to pan, melt, and add spinach. Cook until wilted. Add milk and let it cook a bit more till most of milk has cooked in or evaporated.

As it cooks, whisk 5 of the eggs.

Puree spinach in a blender. (With such a small amount it's tricky, but it worked. Add 1 egg to the mixture and give it a quick blend so as to capture any spinach that didn't get pureed, but be careful not to whip the sha-ding-dang out of the egg.)

Pour the spinach puree into the whisked eggs. Whisk them into pure greenness.

Put the other 1/2 Tbsp butter into the skillet and let it melt. Add the eggs and cook as you would scrambled eggs. (As the bottom begins to cook, paint through it with a spatula, moving the eggs around without stirring them to death.)

When they're done, close your eyes and take a bite. They're not half bad. If you'd like (or if you need a little decoy to all that green), add some cheese or ketchup (for a Christmasy effect! ho ho ho) or serve it on toast with butter.

PRINTABLE RECIPE