In case you haven’t heard, whether you’re an exercise fiend or a couch potato (or anywhere in between), breakfast is your most important meal of the day.  And with a title that literally means to break your fast, it’s no wonder. 

Google a phrase like “important breakfast,” and you will discover no end of articles trying to convince you that a Pop-Tart and a cuppa joe aren’t going to do you any favors in the mental, physical, or spiritual department (even if you’re in a pop-tart cult, which…if you are…I don’t want to know).  That, and you might get some pictures of some foreign dignitaries with hollandaise sauce on their $200 ties.

Anyhoo, my point is that, while a more substantial breakfast may not be any more spiritually uplifting than a crumbly frosted pastry filled with strawberryish goo, the fuel it provides can help you think more clearly and exercise more effectively, not to mention staving off the 3 p.m. Nacho Dorito munchies. 

How?

Well, breakfast is your body’s signal to start being itself again. In fact, experts say that eating something worthwhile within a 2-3 hour span of waking is one of the best ways to give your metabolism a jolt, since that “something” snaps your body out of the energy/food conservation mode it enters every night as a part of your natural sleep cycle. Also, breafkast-eaters tend to consume fewer calories overall throughout their day than breakfast-forgoers.

There are certainly other benefits, but for now, since I’ve told you a few of the “why’s” of breakfast, I’m going to suggest a “what:”

Bacon, egg, and cheese muffins.

Whooooooaaaa! Hold up! Come on back here.  Before you dive for your keys and head to the nearest McDonald’s drive-thru (the blog lady made me do it!), here’s an important word that perhaps I should have included in my above description: homemade.

Homemade TURKEY bacon, egg, and low-cal cheese muffins are a wonderful, filling, reasonably healthy option for breakfast that, at only 250ish calories for one, will leave you plenty of room for a modest snack when/if you feel a little peckish before lunch.

And, what’s better, if you make them in batches like I do, they will save you mucho on both time and money.

Here’s what you’ll need:

IMG_5225Considering that we’re talking about bacon, egg, and cheese muffins, nothing in this picture should shock you.

    • Eggs (duh!): I bought mine in the crates because I plan to use them for a craft project later on (so save yours if you buy them this way too, and we can craft together! Wheeee! Okay, I’m back) – 70 cals/egg
    • English muffins (I bought these from our local bakery outlet for $0.50/package. They cost almost $3 at Walmart, y’all. Whoop!) – 100 cals/muffin
    • Some type of low-calorie butter/spread: this was on major sale, or I wouldn’t have usually gone with the vegetable oil spread, but it doesn’t have any hydrogenated oils, and it’s only 60 cals per tbsp (compared to 100 for real butter) and spreads super-easy…so yeah…I bought it. – 60 cals/tbsp
    • Tocino de pavo (otherwise known as turkey bacon): considerably lower in fat/calories than its oinking counterpart. (Bonus points if you get the lower sodium version, which still tastes great). 35 cals/slice
    • Low-cal American cheese: this is pretty much the worst-for-you part of the entire thing, so feel free to substitute thinly sliced 2% milk cheddar…or any other kind of cheese for that matter. 50 cals/slice

*Optional: Milk (if you make your eggs the way I do)

**Note: One dozen scrambled eggs usually yields about 14 muffins.

1. Crack one dozen eggs into a bowl, add 1/4 cup of milk, and generously sprinkle with salt/ pepper (I basically just shake until I have a good coating of both on the surface of the eggs, but be careful with the salt as you can easily go overboard and can always add more later if need be).

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2. Enlist an adorable helper (who thinks that wearing shirts is always optional) if you’ve got one handy.

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3. Scramble your eggs over medium heat in a large pan with 1/2 tbsp of olive oil. 

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3. Place as many pieces of bacon on a paper towel as will fit, and microwave on high somewhere between 2 1/2 – 3 1/2 minutes (depends on how your microwave nukes things).

4. Lightly (I use a TEA—not table—spoon, tops) butter both sides of each muffin, and slide them onto the top rack of the oven on broil (high) for a couple of minutes. Note: these crisp up super-fast, so keep an eye on them.

5. Set out your prepared ingredients, and stack your muffins up, assembly-line style (I usually do: muffin bottom, 2-3 tbsp of eggs, 1 slice of bacon (halved so it will fit), 1 slice of cheese, muffin top, but you can get as wild and crazy with your order as you like…although, I wouldn’t recommend bacon, eggs, muffin, muffin, cheese, or anything like that).

6. Once they’ve cooled, either individually wrap each sandwich in cling wrap and then place it in a gallon freezer bag (I can usually fit around 7) or just carefully stack/wedge them in the freezer bags and deal with the odd egg bit or two (or twenty when you grab the bag carelessly out of the freezer and fling it on the counter…oops) that escapes.

7. Grab a sandwich from your freezer first thing in the morning, nuke on high (be sure to remove it from the cellophane first if you wrapped it up…mmmm….chemicals) for about 30 seconds, and chow down!

IMG_5254  For those of you wondering why there’s no coffee in that cup…yeah…I can’t stand the stuff.  Feel free to post a rant in the comments section.

Price comparison:

McDonald’s Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit – approx. $3

Homemade Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Muffin – $0.50

Calorie comparison:

McDonald’s: 430

Ours: 250 (using the versions of the ingredients I listed above)

Kind of a big difference, I’d say.  Not to mention that these yummy sammies will save you from waiting in the drive-through with all the other late-for-work commuters.

This is just my little trick for easy protein + filling tastiness to get my day started off, but I’d love to hear what kind of breakfast gets you moving in the morning!

Do tell!

Oh, and come on back tomorrow for Try-it Tuesday!

0 Comments

  1. Hmm…good question, Tabatha. It would work, but you would probably have to play around with times/temps because I’m not completely sure. You could go low and longer, but it would definitely dry out in that case.

    I think I’d go for somewhere between 350-400 for 3-4 minutes and check it every minute or so after that.

    The upside is that it will be nice and toasty!

  2. First of all, I have to say to a comment below that Tami (my mother), inspires me with all the things she accomplishes these days (at home, at school, etc.), and from my perspective seems to have more energy as each year goes by. You do a wonderful job mom! And I’m glad you can gain new inspiration from these fun ideas.

    Secondly, Abbie, what if I was going try and pop this delicious looking frozen sandwich into the oven for a few minutes to defrost it… have you tried it that way, or if not, do you have any idea what temp and time might work? I know the sandwich would end up a bit dryer, but I was just curious since it was such a good breakfast idea and I’d be using the oven to defrost it.

  3. I’ve done this before, Becky, but I really ought to go back to it more because my husband LOOOOOVES onions and peppers and italian sausage…so you actually made the casserole, then put it on the biscuits? Am I understanding that correctly? I’m kind of wondering what would happen if I made the whole casserole and then froze it in wrapped portions so that he could take those out and nuke them. Do you think the egg would be too rubbery?

  4. Do you mind if I ask where you hail from, Jane? I wondered before when you mentioned how hot it was and used degrees in Celsius, but now I’m doubly curious to know where you can get away with using cool phrases like, “pretty cranny.” : )

  5. Girl, I cannot even imagine not eating breakfast. It literally makes me happy when I wake up in the morning and realize I get to eat again (can you tell I’m still nursing? : )).

  6. Already printed out the recipe and am excited to get these made and start eating breakfast again like a good girl!

  7. Your muffins and Mandy’s chicken batch is on my to do list this week. You two are such an inspiration. It brings back memories of when all mine were young and I was so full of energy and desire to be the most efficent homemaker. I’m needing to feel this way again. Nothing satisfies like caring for these wonderful families God gave us.

  8. I used to do something similar when my hubby had a home job and needed something he could grab and go at 4:30 am (shudder). I’d brown sausage and put it in a casserole, then layer in cooked veggies (onions, peppers, mushrooms, whatever I had hanging around), beat the eggs and then pour them over the layers and bake. Then I’d bake canned biscuits. Assemble, wrap, and freeze.

  9. Yumm. This my favourite breakfast! I fond on days that I have something empty (muffin etc) that I tend to get pretty cranny by 11:00. Not good while teaching grade eight.

  10. Wow, girl! Thank you so much for sharing this! I have really been getting bad about not eating breakfast, and boy I can feel it! I sure do need that a.m protein! I feel lazy in the morning and don’t feel like cooking, so this is a wonderful solution! I am excited to give it a try! 🙂

  11. This is my favorite breakfast at work on days that I work out – I just use a couple slices of lunch meat instead of the turkey bacon and cook the egg in the microwave (we have a handy egg-cooker for the microwave at work). It’s a great, filling breakfast.

I love hearing from you guys!