5 Tips to Simplify Holiday Baking & Christmas Tree Deviled Eggs

I have never been one who loves to cook but I do love baking. By baking though I mean simple recipes as I am not at all creative in the kitchen. I am pretty comfortable in the kitchen though as I’ve been cooking and baking for what seems like forever now.

Here are some tips I use with for holiday baking:

Start simple. Believe me Pinterest is amazing but don’t try something that you’ve never tried before and expect perfection – unless you are of course an expert in the kitchen.

Make a list and check it twice. I actually make two lists – one for my ingredients I need to buy and one for the cookies (or whatever) I am making. I always think I am going to remember what I bought certain ingredients for but then I end up forgetting and not being able to figure out what recipes I was planning on using.

Stock up as soon as possible. You don’t want to have to shop multiple stores last minute to find a certain color sprinkle, frosting or spice ingredient.

Use an apron. While you make thing an apron is silly or that you just don’t need one, it is so helpful to wear one. Not having to worry about staining your clothes is one less think to stress about! This is great too when baking with kids as you don’t have to worry about them getting messy.

Make it fun! Play some Christmas music, have family and friends over and make some memories! Don’t make baking a chore!

To get started I have a fun recipe to make – Christmas Tree Deviled Eggs:

So they are not the best looking as I didn’t have the right tips to use but they are easy to make and look enough like a tree…if you really use your imagination…

Ingredients:

• Eggs such as Nellie’s Free Range eggs
• 4 tablespoons Mayo
• 2 teaspoons Ground mustard
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Dash of hot sauce
• Green food coloring
• Black olives cut in half to use a the stem of the tree
• Bacon pieces to use as ornament decoration

Directions:

• Boil the eggs then set in fridge to cool off so you have hard boiled eggs.
• Peel the shelves off the eggs and discard.
• Cut the eggs in half and scoop of the middle into a bowl.
• Mix in the egg mixture the following until its creamy: paprika, ground mustard, hot sauce.
• Seperate out mixture so you have a little bit yellow and then some that you will add some food coloring to make green (for the christmas tree).

• I used piping tips and ziploc bags but you could just use a spoon to create the christmas tree then star on top.

• Decorate with bacon and add the black olive to be the christmas tree stem. You can also sprinkle some additional paprika on top for added flavor.

About those eggs…

For the recipe, I mentioned using Nellie’s Free Range eggs. I wanted to share why as I recently discovered this awesome egg brand.

Nellie’s is Certified Humane, Free Range, and a B Corp. Nellie’s became the first egg company in the world to achieve Certified B Corp which means they are committed to the environment, workers, farmers and communities. The hens that lay the eggs are treated with kindess and are able to able to roam in a wide-open grassy pasture. The eggs themselves are packed with 6g protein, 70 calories and have 0g sugar.