The last few months of the year caught Hungry & Tired, well, hungry and tired. I was too busy enjoying the holidays and devouring sugary treats like I was in an eating contest to cook fresh food and write about it. I apologize. Like many of you, I like to set some good intentions at the start of the New Year: I will eat better. I will work out. I will eat breakfast (not fast food breakfast).

Eating breakfast has always been difficult. I very much dislike waking up in the morning at the required time. I am one to sacrifice that important morning meal for a few more minutes of shut eye. Not this year! I also have a penchant for those oh-so-delicious yet oh-so-bad-for-you breakfast sandwiches that can be procured from the drive-through fast food restaurants around the corner my work. In an attempt to start the morning off right, I discovered that you can prepare all of the ingredients for a healthy breakfast sandwich on Sunday, and be ready for every morning of the week!

I prepare each element of a turkey bacon breakfast sandwich on a Sunday night, let it cool, and then package it all up separately. In the morning, all I have to do it put the pieces together. It’s delicious, it’s nutritious, and it’s expeditious!

Hungry & Tired’s Week of Breakfast Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• Eggs
• Avocado
• English Muffins
• Sliced cheese
• Turkey Bacon

Note on preparation: I have found that the egg white patties will last from Sunday night to Friday morning. You prepare more or less depending on how many folks you’re cooking for, or how many days of the week you want the same thing for breakfast.

The first thing to do is to turn on the oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is heating, spread some aluminum foil over a baking sheet and top it with the turkey bacon.

I use turkey bacon because it’s much better for you than regular bacon, but it’s still really good. You can see that I forgot to put down aluminum foil in the above photo. You don’t need to use the foil, but it does make clean up a lot easier.

Place the turkey bacon in the oven and bake for fifteen minutes.

While the turkey is cooking, you can prepare your egg whites. Egg whites are delicious, and according to the internet, contain no cholesterol. I also feel like they keep longer than the whole egg, but I don’t have anything proving that. Place a nonstick pan on the stove top, and heat to medium high. Coat with some oil, and let heat for about 45 seconds.

After the oil is hot, crack your egg on the side of the pan (no need to dirty a dish!). Using the shells as cups, transfer the yolk from one shell to the other, allowing the egg white to splash onto the pan. Discard the egg yolk.

Using a flat-edged spatula, form the egg into a small circle that will fit on an english muffin.

After about a minute, your egg white will be ready to flip. You can flip it with a spatula or with the pan. I’ve been working on my “pan flip” — it’s really all in the wrist. If you want to try a pan flip, grab the pan off the stove, quickly pull down and flip your wrist up. It sounds much more complicated than it is — give it a try!

Depending on how how your pan is, your egg white will finish cooking in the next thirty seconds to two minutes. When the egg is “white” and no longer transparent, it’s cooked. Transfer to a tupperware:

Repeat with however many egg whites you desire. You can just put the eggs right on top of each other in the tupperware.

After you cook the egg whites, cut up an avocado, and put it in tupperware.

I truly love avocados. They will likely brown slightly after being in the refrigerator for a few days, but they are still good, and they still taste great. It’s much easier than trying to cut up an avocado before that first cup of coffee.

After you’ve prepared the egg whites and avocado, pull the turkey bacon out of the oven, let it cool, and put it in a plastic bag or tupperware. Arrange your egg whites, turkey bacon, and sliced avocado packages in your fridge, and mentally prepare yourself for an amazing morning!

That’s all the preparation you need! In the morning, you’ll grab all of your tupperware out of the fridge and put the sandwich together, which will take about a minute or two. Here’s what you’ll do:

Toast your english muffin:

Top with one of your cooked egg whites:

Add some cheese (you can buy so many different types of sliced cheese, and it’s all delicious. You can also skip the cheese if you’re cutting down on the dairy products):

Add a piece of turkey bacon, broken into two strips:

Garnish with a couple slices of avocado:

Put it all together, and you’ve got breakfast! You can even take it on the go wrapped in a paper towel. You can microwave it if you like, or not. Just enjoy! It’s easy, fast, much more nutritious than a “McBreakfast Sandwich Jack” [something that I hate to admit that I love] and it will increase your confidence in the kitchen. What a wonderful way to start the year!