Breakfast--Fast, Filling & Frugal

I love breakfast, but I also love sleeping until the last possible minute. I know I need a good breakfast to function well at work, though, so I've found a hearty sandwich that I can make in about 5 minutes and eat in the car if necessary. Sausage, egg and cheese on an english muffin costs about 50 cents a serving, has 282 calories, 14.5 fat grams, a very respectable 5.5 grams of fiber and 16 grams of protein. I calculated the cost and nutritional info based on the following items:

Aunt Millie's whole grain English muffins .90/6 pack
Banquet brown & serve sausage .90/10 links
eggs 1.69/dozen
8 oz block of Kraft 2% cheddar cheese 1.66

The sausage and english muffins regularly go on sale as part of Meijer's 11/$10 promotion, and we always stock up when they do. Eggs are regular price, and Kroger frequently has their brand of cheese or Kraft available at that price.

Here's my workflow to make a sandwich in 5 minutes:

• heat small nonstick skillet over medium & spritz with nonstick spray
  
• put muffin in toaster
• put 1 link of sausage in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes on medium
• crack egg directly into skillet and stir to scramble (I see no need to dirty up an extra bowl for this! I use a small plastic fork so it won't scratch the pan when I stir.)
• put a lid on the egg and get sausage out of microwave and cheese out of fridge
• chop or crumble sausage
• slice or shred cheese if using a block (I use my veggie peeler to shave off a few thin slices. I calculated based on 1/2 oz of cheese.)
• sprinkle sausage and cheese over egg
• cover pan and finish cooking until egg is set and cheese is melted
• remove muffin from toaster, top with egg, and enjoy!

If you're really pressed for time in the mornings, you could make these ahead and just reheat in the microwave. At my local McDonald's, a sausage egg & cheese mcmuffin is $2.19, so you can make these at home for a family of four for less than you'd pay for one! And it really doesn't take any longer to cook these than it does to go through the drive-thru. A homemade mcmuffin also has 1/3 fewer calories, 1/2 the fat, and almost three times more fiber than one from McDonald's. You can view their nutrition info here.

(I really need to work on my food photography skills! Anyone have any tips?)

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