I totally agree that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. All the experts have been raving on about it for years. Eating a good breakfast helps break the fast from not eating all night and nourishes your body ready for the day ahead. Starting the day in a rush with a coffee and a plate of sugar filled, cardboard textured cereal isn't going to help you put your best foot forward. It will set you up for cravings of epic proportions by morning tea and whatever is in your reach at that point will be demolished in seconds. God forbid a chocolate bar or sugary biscuit is in reach.

This is how I use to start my day many moons ago. It left me either feeling ill by mid morning or my blood sugar would drop and I would get the shakes before lunch. Thinking I needed a sugary fix to get my levels back up I would indulge in a "healthy" sugar filled muesli bar to try and get things on the right level again. I would then continue the yo-yo of up and down through out the day all because I didn't start my day off on the right foot and not making the correct food choices through out the day. It took many many years to figure out my issues and realise I needed to be eating a protein filled breakfast to get my body fueled and humming for the day. None of these boxed cereals for me any more. If I do eat cereal it is generally muesli I have made myself sweetened slightly with rice malt syrup to keep my sugar levels balanced and not spiking throughout the day. You can read about my sugar quitting journey here.

Enter the perfect breakfast... Oven Baked Eggs & Ham. It makes the perfect start to your morning, filling your body with the needed energy to start your day on the right foot. It is sugar free, gluten free (if you don't eat it with toast) and can be dairy free if you leave off the goat's feta sprinkled on top. It all comes in a cute little package, cooked together with the flavours of each component melding together to create a truly wonderful breakfast. If you think this will be time consuming prepare - it isn't! Simply place in component snugly together in a ramekin and bake in a over for around 15 minutes for soft centered eggs.
You could have these prepared the night before ready to pop into the oven in the morning. If you have an oven like mine with a timer you could set it to be pre-heated before you get up in the morning and all you simply need to do is pop it on a tray and into the oven and it can cook while you get dressed. Obviously if you have children to get ready for school this may be a little bit more difficult but still these still would make a wonderful brunch or breakfast over the weekend.

My favourite part of this dish was dipping in some homemade spelt and rye bread into the soft, gooey egg yolks and watching it spill over the side. It reminded me of my child hood dipping my toast soldiers into my boiled eggs and trying not to spill any yolk over the edges of the egg. Soft centered eggs is the epitome of a good cooked breakfast I think. I really missed them when I was pregnant with J.D and couldn't wait to get out of hospital to get hubby to make me some.

Good quality ingredients will make this dish sing extra loud, such as freshly laid eggs from healthy, happy free range chooks. Freshly cut ham of the bone and freshly picked, vine ripened tomatoes that smell like the sun and taste like tomatoes not bland, flavourless offerings that have been shipped from who knows where. This is why I grow a lot of my own vegetables because the you don't realise what you are missing out on in the flavour department until you taste a warm, juicy tomato fresh from the bush on a warm summers day. Paired with basil, avocado and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. They taste truly remarkable. Yes I know I sound sad getting excited about tomato's and freshly laid eggs but trust me once you have tried it you know what I am talking about. One of my other favourite dishes for breakfast, lunch or a light supper is when it is zucchini season in the vegetable patch. I peel fine ribbons of zucchini and toss them in a little olive oil and saute them off over a high heat with some freshly picked cherry tomatoes. Paired with a softly poached egg and some sprigs of basil this is a lovely dish to start the day on. Yes you can eat vegetables for breakfast!

Oven Baked Eggs & Ham

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

8 eggs
4 slices shaved leg ham
2 large tomatoes, sliced
80g feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan forced
Brush the inside of four ovenproof ramekins with oil and place onto a roasting tray.
In each ramekin tuck in to the side a bunched up slice of ham, a couple slices of tomato and crack in two eggs. Repeat with the remaining ramekins.
Divide the feta among the ramekins and sprinkle over the top before placing into the oven.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until the eggs are done to your liking.
Remove from the oven and top with a sprinkle of parsley.
Serve with buttered fingers of toast for dipping.