Our chickens look out over our garden – they are essential food waste cyclers in our household. The kids eat so many eggs, and we always have spare leafy greens in the garden, and often leftovers.

In keeping with my desire to keep the Christmas party at our house a simple and enjoyable day where the focus is spending quality time with my family, I have another idea that will keep the main meal super simple.

There are lots of different food needs amongst our small extended family group – one is dairy free, another gluten free and me, vegetarian.  What one meal can deliciously and simply cater for all these needs?

The Solution…. the kids and I call it Eggy bake. 

Here’s the plan for Christmas lunch…

• The kids take the visitors to see the chooks with some scraps and exchange them for some eggs. (before we head out, we turn on the oven to preheat)
• On the way back through the garden, they collect leafy greens (such as kale, silver beet, land cress, hibiscus spinach, sorrel, comfrey), many herbs (rosemary, oregano, thyme, parsley, garlic chives) and a chilli to spice it up a bit.  
• Back in the kitchen we’ll throw it all in food processor with a couple of extra things – carrots, mushrooms, onion, garlic… 
• Usually I add a little milk and soft cheese, but this time for the dairy-free aunty, we’ll add tofu. 
• We’ll pour the mixture into a baking dish keeping it quite thin so it will cook more quickly and pop it in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. 
• (For the young cheese-lovers, we could possibly pour the mix into two bowls and top dress just one with slices of cheese)

Oregano along the terrace wall – I harvest leaves from this plant a daily for a wide range of dishes. It’s always a good idea to have your favourite and high use herbs close and handy.