Good-bye Egg Junk; Hello gooey goodness

Growing up, my family's holiday breakfast tradition was infamous. It was my favorite part of EVERY holiday. We'd wake up, do whatever special thing there was to do(a.k.a. present opening) and then we'd all dive into my mom's egg junk that she served us on her good China.

Her egg junk was just your typical egg bake casserole made with whatever meat, veggie, cheese ingredients she had on hand. No matter how it was made it was always the best part of any holiday.

I just assumed that I would do the same things with my children. My husband loves egg junk, so he was all about making breakfast as big of a tradition for our family as it was for my family.

Then Maisie happened. You can't have egg junk with a daughter who is allergic to eggs.

In fact within hours of finding out she was allergic to eggs, I was talking to my husband and mom asking them what I am going to do now for the holidays if I can't make egg junk.

The beauty of egg junk is that it can be made the night before making the morning rush of holidays a little less stressful.

Well, I think I have found our holiday tradition. We make overnight sweet rolls.


I have now made these a lot, and every time, they are delicious and they are devoured. Are they healthy? Hmmmm. Not really. Are they egg-free? Yep. Are they delicious? Absolutely. 

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

Of course, we don't just eat the sweet rolls. For Easter, I had a yogurt bar with mixed berries and granola as toppings. My husband whipped up some hash browns, sausage, and scrambled eggs. It was a feast and it felt just as special as my mom's egg junk.

Now to come up with a fun kid name for the rolls. Egg junk just had a great ring to it. Hmmmmm.

The Incredible Inedible Egg

With almost everything that has to do with my kids like Calan's body rocking and Maisie's cross-eye and Calan's fused fingers and Maisie's seizures, I scour the Internet to find as much information as I can. This is obviously a good and bad thing since the worst case scenerios always stick out the most.

But, somehow, when Maisie showed an allergic reaction to eggs, I did nothing.

I avoided scrambled eggs and omelets and other breakfast items, but overall, I pretended like it wasn't happening.

I am not sure if I was in denial or I just figured that since none of us have food allergies that her egg allergy would just go away. Or I was just hoping it would just go away.

Living with a food allergy is not easy. And since Maisie is not old enough to know, I have to be her Watch Dog, and I, obviously, have not been doing this. I have been ignorant to her needs.

That was until her molars came in and her drool caused a rash around her mouth that over the last month just has not gone away. I realize that I need to pay attention to everything that she is eating and that includes all the bake goods that are in our house.

I had never noticed this before, but did you know that all packaging has to list if it contains one of the top 8 most common allergies including eggs?

The meal that has been affected the most is breakfast. Frozen waffles, an easy staple in our house, are out. All pancakes, french toast, etc. have to be made egg-free. She has been eating a lot of fruit and yogurt or oatmeal for breakfast.

We love eating out on Saturday mornings as a family. That is not easy for a little girl with an egg allergy. I have been ordering off the sides menu and piecing meals together for her.

I have noticed her rash get better, but it still has not gone away. My next step is to use a little steroid cream to clear it up and then hope that with my new Watch Dog eyes, it won't come back.

While her allergy is moderate, I have to stop pretending it doesn't exist. It does and I, the mom, need to deal with it.

Egg-free Tip: Mix 1/2 cup of applesauce per egg to your pancake batter instead of eggs. To me, it actually tastes better with a little sweet touch.