Cooking Up Health for Mother's Day

You never know what might happen at a Dirty Rascals 4-H Junior Master Gardener Club meeting and this month's meeting was no different.  Our youth who made it on time got a chance to get down and dirty by ridding our raised bed gardens of kale that had sprung up since our last meeting.  We are starting to think it might be invasive at this rate.  After getting our frustrations out in the garden we added our scraps to our cold compost pile and went back inside to heat things up a little.
Since Mother's Day is right around the corner we thought we might need to be a little creative and come up with a way to bring the garden to mom.  So our youth learned how to make an omelet in a jar.  Not only can you add ingredients from the garden to make it local and healthy, no stove is needed for this breakfast treat.  Everything is made in the jar, cooked in the jar (and in the microwave), and eaten from the jar.  Therefore there are not a bunch of dishes or mess to clean up after.  Perfect plan right?  We also decided that this was a nutritious snack to make when our youth got home or would be a great breakfast on the go in the mornings. 
Our youth took to the project and were eggcited to try it out!  They had their choice of bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, cheese, and bacon bits to add to their creations and they all thought they were fantastic when they came out of the microwave.  We have included the recipe below.

Mom’s Microwave Omelet

Ingredients

nonstick cooking spray

2 large eggs

1/3 c. shredded Cheddar

1/4 Onion, finely chopped

1/4 c. ham, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tbsp. freshly chopped chives (optional)

Directions

1.     Grease a 16-ounce mason jars with nonstick cooking spray.

2.    Crack two eggs into the jar. Add cheese, onion, ham, and bell pepper (or other ingredients that you enjoy such as spinach, bacon, mushroom) in the jar and season with salt and pepper.

3.    Place lid on jar and shake until eggs are scrambled and ingredients are combined.

4.    Remove lid and place in the microwave. Microwave on high for 2 minutes, checking every 30 seconds. Garnish with chives and serve.

For more on this club please contact Wendy Maynor, 4-H Program Associate, at (910) 671-3276 or Wendy_Maynor@ncsu.edu.