Easter is just around the corner and you know what that means? Easter eggs! I love holidays and being able to do fun activities with my family is always something I look forward to. Obviously this year, things look at little different. There are not family gatherings, no big worship services, no community Easter egg hunts. It is kind of strange to not have all those annual traditions. Well, even though we can’t gather together to celebrate as a group, we can still celebrate Easter and this special holiday with a family and friends (especially with the aid of technology).

One of the fun things I did this week with my children was dying easter eggs. I knew that my oldest, would love doing a fun activity together and what is more festive than coloring eggs? Hard boiling eggs are an easy way to have a healthy snack that you eat throughout the following week. To properly boil an egg, you want to put the egg in the water in a pot. Turn the heat onto hi and get the water in the pot to boil. Turn off the heat and let eggs sit in the boiling water for 15 minutes. Place eggs in ice water to cool, before placing in the refrigerator. I hard boiled the eggs, let them cool and then we dyed the eggs the next day. We now have 9 beautifully dyed eggs that we get to eat for the rest of the week.

I am sure you have heard over the years, that eggs are good for you and then that they not good for you. It can be confusing. Well in 1 large egg you will find 78 calories, 5g fat (2.7g unsaturated fat), 1g carbohydrate, 6g protein. You will also find 11% of your daily value of vitamin D. There is saturated fat about 2g in one egg. This is often the part of eggs that get a bad rap. The American Heart Association recommends that adults consume about 11-13g of saturated fat per day. So if you eat 2 eggs then you are consuming 4g of saturated fat and that is about 30% of total saturated fat you should have per day. Eggs also contain 6g of protein so in additional to the fat in 2 days you are getting 12g of protein. Eggs also provide your body with choline. This nurtient is an essential, water soluble compound (that is neither a vitamin or a mineral) and it helps your body with liver function, brain development, and muscle movement. Adults need 450-550mg/day and pregnant women need 550mg/day. One egg contains 147mg of choline.

As you can see 1-2 eggs are packed with nutrients that can help you get fat you need for energy and protein to help with muscle development. You can definitely work to fit eggs into your diet in a healthy way. Plus, there are so many great ways to prepare eggs. You can hard boil them, fry them, scramble them, make them into a quiche or over easy. You can have them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Eggs are such a versatile food item.

So as we look forward to Easter weekend, think about ways that you can incorporate eggs into your meals. You can make them into a side dish or highlight them as the main entrée. If you are looking for some creative egg recipes - check out this link.

Easter came early this year! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter yesterday. Often this holiday is filled with candy and sweet treats, just like Valentine's Day. It is so easy to pick up a bag of candy for those Easter eggs and find yourself eating all of those bite size goodies. Two weeks before Easter, I picked up a bag of bite size candies and totally found myself snacking on them at night. Terrible, I know! It was just so easy to pop one in my mouth. Honestly, I didn't need to buy a bag of candy 2 weeks before Easter, because really, did it make it to Easter? Nope! Sure didn't!

I am sure that you all had some delicious goodies leading up to Easter and now that the day has come and gone, you probably have some of those candies sitting on your counter or in your cabinet. How do you find balance with those goodies and making healthy choices?

I am a dietitian who does believe that all foods can fit in a healthy diet. Now I don't recommend you purchase candy, when you don't need it, like I did two weeks ago. I would tell you to enjoy a piece or two of candy for the holiday, but don't bring it into your house if it is going to be a stumbling block for you. If you have little ones in your house, then you might think you have to purchase candy to fill up those Easter eggs with, but I am here to tell you that you don't have to put candy in those eggs. We put Goldfish crackers, grapes and some other little food items in our eggs for William. Instead of having him find candy (which he doesn't need) we decided to try some healthier alternatives. You might think goldfish aren't exciting or fruit is lame, but this kid loves both so I think he will be excited.

The two take aways from this post are 1) Those extra treats from Easter, come up with a game plan. Definitely enjoy them, in moderation and then if you have to, throw the rest away. Don't feel guilty about that. If it is going to be a stumbling block for you. Get get of rid it and get rid of that temptation. 2) Your kids goodies don't have to be candy. There are lots of things that you can give your child for Easter that isn't just candy. Don't feel like you are depriving your child anything. I think teaching kids to celebrate with items that aren't food is an important lesson as they grow up.

Hopefully you all had a wonderful Easter and enjoyed the day! I have included some pictures below from our time with family over the weekend!