Chicken, Eggs, & Lowcarb/Keto

Like a number of lowcarbers, I keep chickens. I live in a rural area where chicken-keeping is even kind of expected. In the spring, we chicken-keepers get showers of eggs, some of which we can put in incubators to make new chickens. 

Last year, all but one of my chickens died in a winter storm, and neighbor provided me with some fertile hatching eggs. They hatched out in good proportions— I have 5 hens and a rooster. They live with my gander, Attila, who protects them from predators and chases the cats away from the chickens. My shy little mommy-cat Moxie hisses right back at him, though.

You can’t get organic eggs unless your local feed mill carries organic chicken feed. Mine doesn’t. Even the chicken-and-egg natural-production guru Joel Salatin can’t get organic feed, and must be content to keep his chickens grass-fed by keeping them in movable pens.

I have had portable chicken pens in the past but made a stationary pen as I can’t drag pens around like I used to. My standard chicken pen consists of a used calf hutch and some cattle panels covered with chicken wire. I also have a couple pens that use chain-link, 6 ft panels, but these pens are not very portable on a daily basis.

During the spring egg rush, it’s hard to keep up with the egg production. I feed my baby poultry some hard boiled eggs, chopped up, to improve their diet. Still, I have to consult my many and varied recipe books to find ways to eat eggs. 

By using the right seasonings, scrambled eggs can substitute for rice and rice-a-roni dishes (savory seasonings) and for flavored outmeal (apple extract & sweetener, or English toffee stevia and cinnamon.) Baked eggs can be good, and are quick to fix in the morning. I use Dana Carpender’s Creamy Parmesan Eggs recipe from 200 Low-Carb High-Fat Recipes (2015.)

Plain old sunny-side up or over-easy eggs are also just fine. I tend to fry up a ham or Spam slice or two in the frying pan first, then fry the eggs, and dip my meat into the yolk (since there is no toast to dip in it.) Some people love to make omelets, and Dana Carpender does explain how to make one, but I honestly prefer to scramble my omelets— it tastes less dry that way. But that’s a matter of taste, I guess.

Eggy days to you,

Nissa Annakindt

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Starting Keto: Love those Eggs!

Cuisinart Egg Cooker

When I first started doing Atkins, I would make up a batch of deviled eggs for the first day. I’d keep them in the fridge and whenever I felt hungry or wanted to eat something, I’d have a deviled egg. It got me through those first few days of getting into ketosis, which can be tough for some people. (For me it wasn’t the first time, but each time I went off Atkins and did Induction again I would have a tougher time. But the reward, greater energy, good blood sugars, and weight control, were worth a few bad days.) 

In the original Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution (1972) eggs were an unlimited food, like meats. In Dr. Atkins New Diet (1994,) it is explicitly listed as a ‘free food,’ as meats are. Eggs do have a bit of carbs— 0.4 g— but it’s hard to wolf down enough eggs that the carbs will give you trouble.

Eggs have cholesterol in them, but eating food with cholesterol doesn’t give you blood cholesterol any more than eating beef makes you moo and eat grass. Eggs are full of nutrients, especially egg yolks.

The best eggs to eat are eggs from pastured poultry, which you probably have to buy from a farm or at least a farmer’s market, and pay more for. Pastured eggs have more Omega 3s. We like Omega 3s!  Farm eggs from poultry that are not pastured are the next best thing. They have stronger shells, which make them easier to get home without cracking. 

The problem with organic eggs is that organic chicken feed is not available everywhere, and where available often not in bulk. It adds to the cost. Organic chicken people also have the money to comply with state regulations for selling eggs in stores— in Michigan I’d have had to have spent thousands of dollars to build a building for handling the eggs from my 40 or so hens— and also have to pay the monthly fee to their organic organization to be allowed to call their eggs organic. So it’s mainly well-off egg corporations that can afford to produce the organic eggs you find in stores. And, frankly, I think that the pastured eggs from my totally non-government sanctioned chickens are healthier than the average grocery-store organic egg.

Are totally free range chickens producers of better eggs? Well, where I live free ranging chickens tend to become dinner for the local foxes and coyotes, which reduces the total eggs produced by the flock. It’s why I built a movable pen for my chickens during grazing season. Chickens can get fresh grass and bugs daily, but predators can’t get in to eat them. I hope. 

Raising your own chickens is not a way to save money on eggs— you have to feed the little darlings whether they are laying or not. And chicken feed in small-flock quantities costs money—plain, non-organic feed mill feed. But if raising backyard chickens is a substitute for you for having half-a-dozen big dogs, you are probably saving money. Chicken food is cheaper than dog food, and their manure can be composted for garden use.

Is cooking eggs a tough chore for you? It’s actually fairly easy to learn, and since eggs are a traditional Lenten food I will be writing some blog posts giving more details on things like cooking eggs over easy, cooking eggs in a George Foreman grill, and so on.

In the meantime I would like to share about a little gadget that I have. It’s a Cuisinart Egg Cooker, and it cooks hard or soft-boiled eggs without fuss, just by following the directions. (HINT: Read the directions.) It can cook from 1-7 normal sized eggs, fewer if you have older hens or egg-laying breeds of ducks that produce bigger eggs. You measure water into it, depending on how many eggs you have and whether you want them hard-boiled or soft boiled. It sets off a timer when the cooking is done. I immediately plunge the eggs into very cold water— ice water if I have ice in the house— and that makes them easier to peel. It’s a great aid to producing batches of hard-boiled eggs for deviled eggs or just for eating hard-boiled eggs. 

How do you like your eggs? What is the tastiest egg dish you have ever had? What kind of eggs do you normally buy/trade-for/gather from your poultry?