U.S: Start The School Year Off Right

Eggspert Howard Helmer Brings Mums Back-to-School for a Lesson on Hard-Cooking. As children start heading back to school, make sure they're getting the nutritious breakfast they need for the intense days ahead. Something as simple as feeding your children an affordable, high-quality protein breakfast, like eggs, can help them stay more focused in class.

In fact, according to a recent survey by the American Egg Board, 52 percent of mums serve hard-cooked eggs for breakfast because of their ease and ability to provide the mind and body energy their children need to tackle the toughest days. However, the same survey quizzed mums and also found more than seven out of 10 don’t know how to properly prepare hard-cooked eggs.

Luckily, Howard Helmer, eggspert and Guinness World Record holder for omelet-making, is bringing mums back-to-school for a lesson on hard-cooking, to help guarantee children have the high-quality protein breakfast they need to get through long school days.

"If Home Economics was the last time you learned how to hard-cook an egg, it's time for a refresher course," says Helmer. "The secret to hard-cooked eggs is to COOK them, not BOIL them. Once you've mastered this, you'll be surprised at how incredibly easy hard-cooked eggs are to make!"

Helmer suggests following these three simple steps for hard-cooking eggs:

• Place eggs in a saucepan large enough to hold them in a single layer. Add cold water to cover eggs by one inch. Heat over high heat just to boiling.
• Remove from burner. Cover pan. Let eggs stand in hot water about 15 minutes for Large eggs (12 minutes for Medium eggs; 18 minutes for Extra Large).
• Cool completely under cold running water, or in a bowl of ice water. Peel and eat, or store them unpeeled in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Egg-Ceptional Child-Friendly Breakfasts
Breakfast should be an essential part of a child’s school routine, since several studies have shown that eating breakfast has cognitive benefits, such as improved memory recall time, improved grades and higher test scores.

"The advantage of having hard-cooked eggs for breakfast is that eggs contain high-quality protein, which gives your kids the mind and body energy they need to succeed," says Helmer.

Helmer encourages mums to dodge the madness of school mornings by preparing a batch of hard-cooked eggs at the beginning of the week. And because eggs are affordable and incredibly versatile, Helmer also suggests making enough hard-cooked eggs to have on-hand for child-friendly afternoon snacks.