Easter excitement includes children hunting for Easter eggs and many kids stuffing themselves full of eggy sweets and appetizers – such as deviled eggs – before dinner is ready.

Deviled eggs are both an easy-to-prepare finger food dish and full of Easter spirit to celebrate this holiday.

According to foodtimeline.org, the “devil” in this recipe originates from medieval Europe, when this dish was garnished with fiery spices.

Eggs are also nutritional, with “the highest-quality protein found in any food,” according to incredibleegg.org. Protein helps you feel full longer and is an energy booster.

There are alternate options to create a healthier deviled egg recipe. Instead of using regular mayonnaise, use a light mayonnaise. The yolks can also be replaced with hummus, plain nonfat Greek yogurt or cottage cheese.

If you want to play devil’s advocate, try adding jalapenos, green chilies, olives, bacon bits, chili flakes, sun dried tomatoes, avocado or relish.

This recipe was adapted from Epicurious.com

Deviled Egged

Easter Chicks

6 large eggs

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ cup mayonnaise

1 pickle, cut into thin strips

1 carrot, cut into small pieces

Fill a medium-sized pot with water. Put a dash of salt in it, and bring to a boil, partially covered.

Reduce heat to low and put eggs in pot, covered, for 30 seconds. Remove pot from heat, and let the eggs sit in hot water for 15 minutes.

Carefully take eggs out of water, and put eggs in a bowl of ice water to stop cooking. Let eggs sit for five minutes.

After eggs have cooled, peel the shells off and cut in half lengthwise. If you want to make the eggs into Easter chicks, cut the eggs width wise. Remove yolk with fork and put in a bowl.

Add mayonnaise, mustard, cayenne pepper and any additional ingredients in a bowl. For this recipe, I added a dash of salt and pepper and a half a tablespoon of chili flakes to the mixture.

Place egg halves on plate and spoon yolk mixture into each egg white half.

To make an Easter chick, fill one half of the egg, which is cut width wise, and fill with the yolk mixture. The yolk resembles the hatching chick and the egg white resembles the cracked egg. Place other half of egg white on top of the yolk mixture. Use writing gels or slivers of pickles to make eyes and a sliver of a carrot for the beak.

You can make all the eggs into chicks or just a few for the centerpiece of your classic deviled egg dish.

Anna Puccinelli can be reached at [email protected]