For an easy to cook, versatile, and nutritious, low cost, food, You really cannot beat eggs. You could easily have your own supply simply by building your own chicken coop, and keeping a few hens. They are also very necessary in a number of recipes, particularly in cake baking and in some pastries.

Did you have soft boiled eggs for breakfast as a child? Breakfast is not the same without eggs.  Eggs really are healthy cooking for kids. A more sophisticated (and modern) dish is scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. This is a dish guaranteed to impress, yet is really simple to prepare. It takes minutes to prepare and cook and little or no cooking knowledge to get it right – to make a really impressive meal, serve with chanpaigne and toast. Otherwise, orange juice and/or coffee is fine.

For lunch or brunch, soufflés and omelettes are great. These require a little more skill, but the results are worth the trouble and you can change the fillings to give yourself options – Many different tastes can be achieved with various cheeses and cold meats ham is particularly good, whilst shellfish and vegetables are different again.

Try a Spanish omelette for a tasty quick meal. Much easier that other types of omelettes, this does not require that it be light and fluffy. It’s very simple to make. Break some eggs into a bowl and whisk until they are well mixed. Cut some left over vegetables into small pieces and gently fry in a little low fat cooking oil for a few minutes (not much oil, you only want to stop it sticking), then add the eggs and stir gently. Now let it cook until the eggs are cooked all through. Cut into as many pieces as you want and serve. Delicious.

Eggs are also really useful as a finger bite for parties. Hard boil your eggs. Remove the shells and cut them lengthwise in halfs. Scoop out the yolks and put them in a bowl. Carefully set the whites aside – you will want them whole later. Now flavour the yolks. There are a number of ingredients you can use depending on your taste and your pocket. You could try mayonnaise (or salad cream). Cream cheese. Small pieces of ham. A little garlic butter. However, only use one flavour to an egg. Mix your egg yolk with your flavour of choice, then spoon it back into the egg white halfs. Serve on a bed of lettuce with a garnish of parsley. These can be used as an entree for a main meal, simply serve them with salad.