This time of year the chickens really get down to business and each hen start laying about two eggs every three days–not quite one egg a day. Egg laying is related to daylight hours, so longer daylight hours this time of years leads to the start of the spring egg glut. {smile}

With 15 chickens in our chicken house right now, we get about a dozen eggs a day! Yes, we do sell eggs. But as we’ve downsized the farm, we have reduced our marketing time and focused more on self-reliance. There were times in the past that we ended up with no eggs at home because we were meeting customer needs first! So our priority right now is using our own eggs, rather than selling them.

Not being much of a Martha-Stewart-type, this has been a challenge for me! But I’ve gotten a pretty good handle on it with freezer cooking. I try to keep two dozen fresh eggs in the fridge at all times for regular everyday family cooking. On the weekend I spend a few hours doing big batches of egg-heavy dishes to put in the freezer for later. And when I’m worn out from that, we usually have a dozen or so that we try to give away to a needy family in the area.

This freezer stockpiling method has a lot of benefits. First and foremost, we don’t waste the egg abundance we’ve been given! We have healthy grab-and-go food in our freezer and aren’t buying junk-filled grab-and-go food at the grocery store. We also have a freezer full of easy-to-share food for stress-free potlucks, a new baby or neighbors, illness or surgery, or any other life circumstance that comes along.

Here are some of my favorite methods and recipes for using eggs in freezer-friendly breakfast foods…

We love breakfast for breakfast, but also breakfast for dinner around here–especially on busy church or school activity nights! And breakfast food is a great way to save those extra eggs by freezing them. We also make sure to freeze everything in single portions for that grab-and-go ease.

Breakfast burritos/tacos

I’ll scramble a dozen eggs, cook and crumble a pound of sausage, fry a pound of bacon, and have the Ladybug grate a pound of cheese. We’ll also pull out any onions, peppers, or potatoes we might have left over in the fridge and use those too.

Then we’ll set up an assembly line of ingredients. She’ll start at one end with a pile of tortillas and I’m at the other end with a pile of parchment paper. She walks down the row filling the wrap and hands it to me. I wrap each one up and we stack them on a tray. Over and over until all the ingredients are gone. We bag them up in quart-sized Ziploc bags and put them in the freezer. The family can pull them out one at a time and defrost and heat them in the microwave right in the parchment paper.

If you need a recipe to follow (I did when I started!) here’s some good ones…

• Freezer-Friendly Breakfast Burritos
• Ham, Egg, and Cheese Freezer Pockets
• Loaded Egg Burritos
• Breakfast Taquitos
• Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Roll Ups
• Breakfast Egg Rolls

 

Breakfast Egg Muffins

I start by cooking and crumbling either half a pound of bacon or sausage (whichever I have). Whisk up a dozen eggs, add meat, add a cup of cheese (feel free to throw in any onions or peppers you want to!), and pour into muffin cups prepped with liners. Cook until firm and cool. They will rise a little bit, but these are not bread-type muffins. Put in a Ziplock bags (we fit six to a quart-size) and put them in the freezer. The family can pull out however many they want at one time, defrost and heat in the microwave. We usually add some fresh fruit to the side.

Here are some recipes…

• Make Ahead Breakfast Omelettes
• 12 Easy Make-Ahead Egg Muffins
• Paleo Breakfast Muffins
• Healthy Breakfast Cups
• Scrambled Egg Muffins

Breakfast Sandwiches

These are easy to do while cooking regular breakfast–although I will do them independently if I get in an egg jam. I just fry up extra eggs and bacon or sausage and cook extra biscuits while making our regular weekend breakfast. Then we throw together breakfast sandwiches with the extras while we’re cleaning up the kitchen. I wrap them in parchment paper and freeze in Ziploc bags. They can be defrosted and reheated right in the paper like the burritos. One tip: only use half a piece of cheese. The microwave makes the cheese super-melty when reheated. {smile} These are my Cowboy’s favorites.

Here are some recipes, specifically with different tips and methods about freezing them so you can figure out what works for your household…

• Freezer breakfast sandwiches
• Freezer-Friendly Ham, Egg, and Pepper Jack
• How to Make Freezer-Friendly Breakfast Sandwiches (this one uses sheet pan eggs–a cool tip for big batch assembly!)
• Veggie Packed Freezer-Ready Breakfast Sandwiches

French Toast/Waffles/Pancakes

This is by far the easiest one for me, so our freezer is always full. This depends on how much milk you like to add when you make your french toast, but I find that 9 eggs usually does one whole loaf of store-bought sandwich bread. Usually, I’ll just cook up an extra loaf or two while I’m cooking a fresh batch for breakfast. All the extras go in the freezer for later. Cool them all the way, then lay the slices flat in a gallon-sized freezer bag–usually, four will fit flat. Then lay a sheet of wax or parchment paper on top and another four slices. Keep going until your bag is full. We usually fit 3-4 rows per bag. This lets the slices freeze individually so you can get however many you want at a time. My Speedracer loves to just get out two pieces and defrost and cook them in the microwave for himself.

We do the make-extras-and-freeze routine any time we do waffles or pancakes as well, but they don’t use as many eggs. You’re already standing there, so the different between one batch and three is just a few minutes on the griddle.

Here are a couple ideas…

• Make Ahead and Freeze Waffles
• Make-Ahead Freezer French Toast (She cuts into sticks, my Speedracer likes to do that with his as well, with a pizza cutter.)
• Frozen French Toast (This is a big-batch recipe)
• How to Freeze Pancakes
• Weekday Freezer Pancakes (dairy-free version, still uses eggs)

Quiches

As I said, I’m no wiz in the kitchen. But we happen to do a lot of quiches because it suits our springtime egg and asparagus rush. I prefer to use pre-made pie crusts and foil pie pans from the dollar store (although these pie pans from Amazon are even cheaper!). Then they are presentable for giving away as well. The great thing about quiche is it uses a lot of eggs, freezes beautifully, and you can put just about any version of a protein, veggie, and cheese in there and it will turn out well.

Here’s a few that we’ve actually used…

• Spinach and Mushroom Crustless Quiche
• Cheesy Ham and Asparagus Quiche
• Cheesy Bacon and Spinach Quiche

 

Casseroles

Breakfast casseroles are awesome! I love having a couple in the freezer to give away or for weekends with company. I have to admit that Mr. Fix-It is not on-board the casserole train, so I don’t overdo it in this department. But I do usually have one or two in the freezer at any given time. For casseroles, I also use disposable foil pans. If we don’t give them away, I’ve been known to wash and reuse them. But it works as a big time-saver for me. (And I usually get them at the local Dollar Store, but again, these Amazon prices are much better!)

Here are some yummy recipes–including a few scramble “bowls” that I’m looking forward to trying for Mr. Fix-It…

• Farmer’s Casserole
• Baked Western Omelet
• Biscuits and Gravy Casserole (This one doesn’t say you can freeze it, but it is make-ahead and I’m going to try it, so I will let you know how it goes!)
• Easy Breakfast Casserole (This is the basic recipe I always use, and modify for whatever ingredients I have on hand.)
• Freezer Breakfast Egg Scramble
• Make Ahead Breakfast Bowls

You’ll find these recipes and more on my Pinterest Board My Cup Runneth Over with EGGS {smile} as well as some additional tips on freezer cooking. There are ladies out there that are real experts in this area! And be sure to include your farm kids in the process–most of these are pretty easy recipes for them to work with as beginner cooks!

Later this week, I’ll also be posting about ideas for using your extra eggs to bless needy families in your community. We use eggs for our home needs, fill our freezer, and then still have a few to give away. I’ll be sharing tips on how to find families to bless with your farm abundance on Wednesday!

What’s your favorite egg recipe?

 

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