Does this sound like a good Green Eggs and Ham recipe?

April 7, 2009 5:16 AM

Does this sound like a good Green Eggs and Ham recipe to you?

My son has to take a plate of healthy food to school tomorrow because his grade 3 class has been studying healthy eating. I'm thinking of doing green eggs and ham, using halved boiled eggs.

So, what I'm thinking of doing is scooping out the egg yolks, adding pesto, avocado, a little mayo and a little salt and either chopping up off-the-bone leg ham finely and putting it in the egg white under the mixture which I'll pipe in on top or maybe putting it stylishly on top of the egg yolk mixture. Or maybe I should put the ham in with the yolk mixture and just spoon it in?

I haven't actually tried this recipe before and I'm planning on making this tomorrow morning before school starts, so it would be great if I could get opinions on whether there's an essential ingredient that's missing (or would make it yummier) and on the actual presentation of the eggs.

This is for 7 - 8 year olds so hot and spicy things are probably not a good idea. If this recipe sounds outrageously unhealthy I guess I'd better hear about it. I'm only making enough for one half egg per student, presuming everyone wants to try it which is doubtful, kids being picky little buggers sometimes.

Looking forward to reading your ideas!

posted by h00py to food & drink (15 comments total)

That sounds pretty good and similar to this recipe. I'd support putting the diced ham on top of the egg yolk mixture, and keeping two egg halves ham-free in case you have any young vegetarians in the class who like eggs.
posted by mikepop at 5:26 AM on April 7

That sounds delicious, but 7-8 year olds are generally highly suspicious of anything containing mayonnaise so you might be best leaving that out. Also, leave the ham out of a few of the eggs because a lot of kids that age don't like when meat is mixed in with stuff.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 5:32 AM on April 7

No idea whether third graders would eat it, but I would.
posted by jon1270 at 5:32 AM on April 7

Since it's for little kids, I'd suggest making it like normal devilled eggs (not too spicy though!) and adding a bit of green food coloring to the yolk mixture to make it green. Kids will probably appreciate obvious fake green more than "weird" ingredients like avocado or pesto. Keep the ham on the side both because kids often don't like their foods mixed, and because in the book the ham is on the side.
posted by explosion at 6:29 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]

Healthy food =/ ham and eggs.

What would be much much healthier? Green Beans and Feta Salad. This way the vegetarians, Muslims and others can partake in the dish.
posted by watercarrier at 6:36 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]

How is that "healthy"?
posted by delmoi at 6:37 AM on April 7

The reservations I have about this aren't about the particulars of the recipe, but about doing green eggs and ham at all.

First, I'm not sure that what you've described would be considered "healthy." I'm not saying it absolutely isn't healthy, but there are enough ways it isn't that a teacher might think you weren't paying attention to what was assigned.

Second, using ham is going to keep lots of students from eating it because of dietary restrictions against it, whether religious or otherwise.

Third, I guess this is about the particulars of the recipe after all... Pesto and avocado and all that stuff is delicious, but little kids are likely to think it's weird and not eat it at all.
posted by Nattie at 6:48 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]

I don't mean to derail or criticize, but isn't this your son's assignment? So shouldn't you be discussing/trying this recipe with him, rather than the internet? You're asking us and saying, "I'm planning on making this tomorrow morning before school starts." Where does your son's participation and opinion fit in?
posted by dseaton at 7:35 AM on April 7

Yeah, in my kids' school, healthy snack means no Doritos or powdered donuts. (Which crazy mothers will send anyway.) The kids aren't on a diet, they can have fat, just not crap.

I would also vote for deviled eggs with food coloring in the yolk part - not only is pesto something most of the kids may not have had before, doesn't it contain pine nuts? I wouldn't want to serve children a brand new nut that they may have never had before. My daughter is allergic to cashews (and only cashews) and I have generally assumed that no one brings cashews to school parties so I don't have to worry about it. However, have you discussed this with your son? Isn't Green Eggs and Ham a bit kindergarten-y anyway?
posted by artychoke at 8:13 AM on April 7

Does this sound like a good Green Eggs and Ham recipe to you?

Well, since you asked....

It sounds like a perfectly tasty version of green eggs and ham -- for a cocktail party attended by adults. Seven- and eight-year-olds aren't really the pesto/avocado target market. Your combination is also not at all "healthy," unless you're following the No Doritos and No Donuts rule cited above.

Do you have more guidelines for this "healthy" thing of which you speak? It'd be fun to brainstorm alternatives, but so far the requirements are a little vague.
posted by mudpuppie at 10:27 AM on April 7

It's a cute idea but I am also casting a vote against it. 3rd graders are probably not going to eat that, and what's more, they may mock/make fun of your son for it. If your child is at all sensitive, it's quite possible he will be embarrassed or have his feelings hurt, and will then have to ride home on the bus with a plate full of smelly eggs and mayo. I am cringing just thinking about it.
posted by bahama mama at 10:35 AM on April 7

OK, full disclosure, vegetarian perspective here:

Red meat, and to a slightly lesser extent, eggs, are the two foods that are most often considered to be unhealthy (scientifically speaking). This is not to say that they can't be a part of a healthy diet, in small amounts - I'm not here to push my own views - but when it comes to an assignment specifically about healthy foods, I think vegetables, whole grains and fruit would be much more appropriate, especially for young people who may not have been exposed to tasty and kid-friendly veggies.

I am a fairly experienced cook, and I make a pretty big effort to cook healthy food. Some of my experience includes cooking for my extended family, which includes extremely picky eaters. I won't burden you with dozens of ideas here, especially if you choose to make the (totally clever) green eggs and ham recipe, but if you want ideas, I've got 'em. Just MeMail me.
posted by Cygnet at 10:49 AM on April 7

To answer your question about whether or not it sounds like it would taste good, to *me*, I say yes, but I'm not a third grader.

My kids definitely wouldn't eat them because of the pesto. I made green eggs and ham for Dr. Seuss's birthday by doing scrambled cheese eggs with bits of ham dyed with green food colouring.

You might run into problems with kids eating ham during lent, not to mention kids not eating pork due to religious reasons (there are a couple of kids in my kindegartener's class that keep Kosher).

Not that you're asking, but in case you need another idea, one of my kids' more favourite 'healthy' foods is turkey in either whole wheat pita or on whole wheat tortillas with a veggie yogurt spread. The spread is nothing more than a large container of 2% Fage plain yogurt mixed with a pack of Knorr veggie soup mix. You mix the yogurt and soup mix together in a container and then refrigerate it for about an hour so the veggies reconstitute. The stuff is disturbingly good and is full of protein thanks to the yogurt. Just smear it on the the tortilla or pita, then throw in the turkey and you're good to go. You can roll it up and do the fancy toothpicks and cut into pinwheels. Add cheese if you want to be extra exciting.
posted by dancinglamb at 11:04 AM on April 7

I'm going to chime in here and say that I don't think kids will eat it, and you may run into dietary restriction issues like lactose intolerance, kosher, halal, etc.

dancinglamb above had a fabulously easy idea, that I can vouch for as something kids will devour.

I've also mixed the yogurt/soup blend with about a pound of chopped spinach, and served that on pita...it's so.very.good.

Alternately, you could do a quick cucumber salad, stripe peel the cucumbers, slice (or rough chop) add salt, let them weep for a while in a towel lined bowl, then rinse and pat dry. Fold in plain yogurt, a dash of salt and a generous sprinkle of dill. Healthy, crunchy and delicious. Yum!
posted by dejah420 at 1:20 PM on April 7 [1 favorite]

Red meat, and to a slightly lesser extent, eggs, are the two foods that are most often considered to be unhealthy (scientifically speaking).

No they are not. Eggs are an excellent source of protein and B vitamins and the old idea that they negatively effect blood cholesterol is bunk, they are not unhealthy. Lean meat is a good source of protein, iron and other important minerals. Again not unhealthy. No nutritionist I've ever talked to has pointed the finger at these two ingredients, things like saturated fat and sugar-loaded soft-drinks are way more likely to be at the top of the list.

Also, pine nuts aren't nuts (they're seeds), and avocado is a good source of omega 3 oils. All of which shows that this thread so far is full of useless dietary advice from uninformed people. h00py, the dish you are proposing to make is perfectly fine form a health point of view, particularly when you take into account the small serving sizes (lots of ham wouldn't be so good but small amounts as a topping? excellent). And, uh, yeah, I'm a scientist working in a nutrition-related field.

I do agree that kids this age aren't really the target audience for avocado and pesto-containing food. But if it's all creamed up together are they going to recognise those ingredients or just see green eggs? You could still add the overly fake green food colouring to this instead of devilled eggs (although I may be biased because I loathe devilled eggs). Keeping the ham on the side would be a good idea for the reasons given above.
posted by shelleycat at 4:10 PM on April 7 [2 favorites]