You may be wondering what Egg Shake Heaven means, but it’s actually a breakfast dish. Have you ever had such meal?  See, every morning my wife and I get up and work out. After we work out, we make breakfast which is about the time our son wakes up.  This morning, he woke up so excited because he wanted to make breakfast. He told me his plan which included the ingredients and process.  Like any good parent after hearing his ingredients and process, I tried to talk him out of it. If you know my son, when he has an idea there is absolutely no way of talking him out of his idea or changing his idea in any way. So, like any good parent of this kid, I just did what he told me to do.  So here was our conversation

Jackson: “Dad, we need 4 eggs because I’m 4. Open those and put those in a bowl. Now, lift me up and go in the pantry.  We need this (pointing at the coconut oil) and the honey. Now, put a scoop of the coconut oil in the bowl with the eggs.”

Then he squeezes honey into the egg and coconut oil.  

Jackson: “Now I need a spoon to stir.”

Dad: “Ok, use this spoon.”

Jackson: “No, I can’t use that spoon to stir because you used it to scoop out coconut oil.”

Dad: “It’s ok, you can use this spoon so we don’t dirty another spoon.”

Jackson: “No, dad, we can’t use that spoon because we already used that for the coconut oil.”

Dad: “Ok, here’s a new spoon.”

Then he mixes up the egg mixture in the bowl.

Jackson: “Dad, please finish mixing.”

Dad: “Ok, I’m done.”

Jackson: “No, you need to keep mixing.”

Dad: “Ok…now I’m done.”

Jackson: “Ok, here’s a pan and now put the eggs in this pan.”

Dad: “No, we can’t use that pan, get that other one out of the cupboard.”

Jackson: “Why…ok, fine.  Here. Pour the eggs into the pan.”

Dad: “Ok, now what.”

Jackson: “Put that in the oven.”

I was thinking that not a good idea, but I know I’m not going to talk him out of it so I put it in the oven and turn the timer on.  Luckily, he didn’t see that I didn’t turn the heat on since that would have melted the pan handle.

Jackson: “Put it on for 2 minutes.”

Timer goes off.

Jackson: “Now take it out and put the pan on the stove.”

Dad: “Ok.”

At this point, I’m thinking that this won’t be too bad.  I didn’t realize that he had a few more steps that he didn’t tell me about at the beginning.  See, my wife and I have protein shakes with a frozen banana each morning that we blend. While the eggs are cooking, he gets out the blender, gets a frozen banana and puts it in the blender.

Dad: “Jackson, why are you doing that.  We’re making eggs.”

Jackson: “No, it’s not eggs and we have to do this.  Lift me up again and take me into the pantry.”

Dad: “Ok.”

Jackson: “We need the vanilla. Ok, now put some vanilla in the blender with the frozen banana.”

Dad: “Um…why?

Jackson: “Dad, just do it.”

Dad: “ooookkkkk!”

Jackson: “Now get some milk and put it in.”

At this point I’m thinking, ok, that shake won’t be so bad with the eggs.  Boy, I did not have the same idea he did.

Jackson: “Dad, are the eggs done.”

Dad: “Yes, so shouldn’t we blend our shake?”

Jackson: “No, first we need to add the eggs to the shake and blend together.”

Dad: “What?!  No! Why would we add the eggs to the blender?”

Jackson: “So we can eat breakfast.”

Dad: “Well….ok.”

Then we blend up to make a shake.  

Jackson: “Ok, now dump it all in here.”

Dad: “No, try a little bit and then if you like it, you can have more.

We went back and forth for a while.  Finally, he agreed to try a little first. I poured a little bit of our shake mixture into a cup and he tries to drink it, but we didn’t put enough liquid in the shake so it’s pretty solid.  

Dad: “Here’s straw. Do you like it?”

Jackson: “Yes, but I don’t want anymore.”

Mom: “See now you two wasted all those ingredients. Ugh!”

Dad: “No, we didn’t as I’m adding protein powder and more almond milk to the blender and blending it.”

Mom: “You’re not seriously going to eat that?!  I’m going to throw up.”

Dad: “I saw JJ Watt eat a raw egg once and I’m sure people put raw eggs in protein shakes all the time.”

Jackson: “Dad, did you just drink all of that?”

Dad: “Yes and it was…good!  Oh, buddy, we have to name our new recipe.”

Jackson: “Egg shake.”

Dad: “Well, I’m not sure people would order our meal if we called it egg shake.  How about egg shake heaven.”

Jackson: “Yes, egg shake heaven!”

As much as I hate wasting food and money, I feel it’s important that he is able to create recipes and help to make them.  I also didn’t want to completely shut him down so I felt like I needed to eat it so he knew he was successful in his venture. Mind you, this all happened before school.

Have you ever let your child create a recipe?  Did you consume said recipe?