The Healthier Breakfast Sandwich(es)

Anyone who knows me well knows that I don’t like to get up early.  I’m a proverbial snoozer,I lay in bed and go through what I could skip so I can stay in bed a little longer: drink coffee at work, take a frozen meal for lunch or go out to eat, put my make-up on at work (I keep a cosmetic bag in my desk drawer on stand-by), take the truck so McGyver will have to stop and put gas in my car on the way to work (I know, how evil).  I would even skip breakfast for 5 more minutes of sleep.

I know, I know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  I truly believe that, so I make a real effort not to skip breakfast.  There in lies the conflict.  Sleep or eat, eat or sleep?  Sometimes I have to be to work by 5:30 am, there is only one place that is open that early in our town and it’s a fast food  joint, not exactly the healthiest choice.  Plus I never understood how someone would leave home earlier so they could stop and get breakfast.  If you have to leave early in order to make it to work on time why not just take the same amount of time and make breakfast at home?

I personally would never be able to leave early enough to stop and pick-up breakfast, I’ve already established that I would still be hitting the snooze button. 

Here’s my issues:

1. I like to snooze

2. I have to get up too early

3. I need to have breakfast

4. I like to snooze

5. I won’t wake up early then I have to—ever

6. I’m lazy

7. I need a healthy breakfast

8. I need a fast breakfast

9. I like to snooze

Dilemma solved!  Make my own breakfast sandwiches and freeze them.  Benefits: quick, easy, portable, healthy and I can snooze 5 more minutes (or 5 more, maybe even 5 more).

There are approximately 3oo calories in an Egg McMuffin, I knew I could do better then that. 

My version:  Light and Healthy whole wheat muffin, 100 calories, 1 slice 2 % Kraft American Deli Slices 50 calories, 1 slice Canadian Bacon 20 calories,  Egg Beaters 30 calories and spray margarine 0 calories for a total 200  calories.  That saves 100 calories!

And there are 430 calories in a McDonald’s Sausage Biscuit and 340 calories in a Jimmy Dean Biscuit Sausage.

My mini version:  Biscuit 50 calories, Turkey Sausage 45 calories, 1/4 of Kraft 2% American Cheese approximately 12. 5 calories and Spray Margarine 0 calories for a total 107.5, even if you ate two of them (they are small) you would save 100 to 310 calories.  WOW!

Besides saving the calories and fat, the time you save is invaluable.  So go ahead take an hour every couple of weeks to make up some breakfast sandwiches and hit the snooze button, amybe hit it a few times!

Ingredients

For the muffin sandwiches:

6 reduced calorie English muffins, toasted

Spray Margarine

1 1/2 cups Egg Beaters (plus seasoning salt)

6 slices Canadian bacon

6 slices Kraft Deli Deluxe 2% American cheese slices

For the biscuit sandwiches:

1 can pillsbury (4 pack) biscuits, cooked according to package directions

Spray margarine

10 pre-cooked turkey sausage patties

4 1/2 slices Kraft Deli Deluxe 2% American cheese slices

Directions

For the muffin sandwiches:

Spray a small non-stick pan with a cooking spray (any type is fine) and heat over medium.

Add some Egg Beaters (1/2 to 3/4 cup).

After the egg cooks for about 30 seconds, with your spatula pull it away from the sides.

Then tilt the pan to allow uncooked Egg Beaters to run into the exposed pan.

Repeat until there isn’t any more liquid to pour.

You can season the Egg Beaters if you like…I like, so I did.

Put it onto a cutting board and cut into 4 pieces.  Then repeat with another batch.

If you have a small single egg pan and want the perfectly round egg that fits your muffin, please do so.

Me, I like cooking up 4 portions at one time.  I don’t really care early in the morning if my egg is shaped like my muffins!

Spray your toasted English muffins with the margarine.

I like to toast mine because they seem to taste better, freeze better, and prevent sogginess when I reheat them.

Now for the ham, I mean Canadian bacon….

Add your prepared Egg Beaters.

Then the cheese, mmmmm, cheese!

Pop the tops on.

There you have it, in no time at all your very own healthy muffin sandwich.

To store mine, I wrap each one in microwave safe plastic wrap.

Stack them right back in the muffin bag and freeze them.

To reheat, nuke for 1 minute, and you are set.

Trust me, nuke them at work and the coworkers start gathering…

“Mmmm, what smells so good?”  “Where did you get that?”

“Why didn’t you bring enough for everybody?”

Ignore them and enjoy.

For the biscuits:

Cook them according to the package directions.

Sorry, no picture of them fresh out of the oven…

Split them open.

Spray the margarine.

I’m not really sure if this add flavor?

I think it’s just mental for me…..

Add a frozen turkey sausage.

Then the cheese 1/4 slices of cheese.

Put their little hats on…how cute are they?

So cute you just want to eat them up!

Side note here.  I only had 6 turkey sausages left in my box.

I think I have a turkey sausage thief in my house.

Don’t worry I’ve set up a neighborhood watch to try and catch them.

So I used some egg beaters and cheese for the remaining guys.

Couldn’t leave them out, oh no, I couldn’t; can’t let cute little biscuits like these guys go to waste.

Same method as above, wrap ’em up in microwave safe plastic wrap.

No biscuit packaging to put them back into, so I just used a gallon bag.

Toss them into the freezer and they’ll hang out until you are ready to devour them!

To heat these guys, you got two options.  Let ’em defrost and nuke for 30 seconds or for the impatient bunch:

Unwrap,  remove the sausage patty, heat it for 30 seconds, reassemble and nuke for another 30 seconds.

Have you ever nuked a biscuit for too long, yep, gets hard as a rock fast!

So don’t be too impatient, follow the directions.

After all, you got a little extra sleep, surely you can wait a few more seconds for your breakfast!