Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Breakfast on the Run



Sunday mornings at our house are often a hurried affair.  Getting 7 people ready for church does not leave a whole lot of time to prepare a hearty breakfast, but not having breakfast is not an option.  The few times I've hustled my family out of the door before feeding them I ended up regretting it - seriously.

Although I am sure that breakfast cereal is the quickest option, I can't quite reconcile myself with throwing sugar-laden fruity-O's at the children right before I expect them to sit quietly for 3 hours.  And so, I am always looking for ways to produce a good, hearty breakfast with the least amount of work in the shortest amount of time.  Well, a girl can dream, right?!

One of my favorite standbys is eggs in sausage cups.  They take about 5 minutes to prepared and 25 minutes to cook (during which time I can get everybody ready).  During the last 5 minutes of baking, I put homemade bread in the oven to toast and by the time the sausage and eggs are done, we have a complete breakfast - hot, hearty and full of protein.

Cracking eggs into the sausage cups

Notice the ones with just the whites?
The sausage cups are ridiculously easy - pinch off about 3 tablespoons of bulk sausage and press into each cup of a muffin tin.  Although the original recipe used olive oil to grease each muffin cup I thought that step was unnecessary since sausage really is self-greasing.  After the sausage has been pressed into the tin, I crack an egg into each muffin cup.  Generally, when I crack the eggs, there is too much egg for each cup, so I reserve a little of the egg white from each cup.  This works out really well since a couple of my children love egg whites but not the yolks.  With the reserved whites, I fill a few sausage cups with whites only - the children love them!  I fill all of the sausage cups with egg, except for the ones Sir Knight and I plan to eat - those we cook without egg.  We allow the sausage cups to cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, pull the muffin tin from the oven and break eggs into Sir Knight and my sausage cups so that the yolks are a little runny when the cooking is complete.  Cooking the eggs for different lengths of time works perfectly.  The children have eggs cooked through thoroughly and Sir Knight and I have eggs "over-easy".  Paired with toast, these sausage cups are a perfect way to start the day!

Mostly cooked - I add Sir Knight and my eggs now

Add some toast and breakfast is ready!

Bake the sausage cups at 350° (or thereabouts) for 25 to 30 minutes (or until the eggs are done to your satisfaction).

Remember, sausage doesn't have to be pork.  Just about any ground meat mixed with sausage spices will work well.


NOTE:  Our children love to eat these cold - grabbing one on their way out the door to work or to play!

12 comments:

  1. I'm coming for breakfast. It looks great.

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  2. Enola,

    Looks real delicious for a quick breakfast.

    I also like to make biscuits and green chile sausage gravy, yum!!!

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    Replies
    1. Sandy,

      You can't say something like green chile sauasge gravy and not include a recipe! It's just not right! ;-)

      Blessings,
      Southern Gal

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  3. Enola,

    Thanks for the quick breakfast idea. I would have never thought of sausage cups. Awesome!

    Here is another idea for you. We often make a family size version of a popular fast-food chain sandwich by cooking 12 eggs at a time in a greased (we use Organic Olive Oil Pam) Whoopie Pie pan in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. (The whoopie pie pan makes the eggs a perfect size to fit on your muffin.) You can toast the English muffins and heat the ham on another rack while the eggs are cooking. When the eggs are done everyone grabs some cheese and assembles their own sandwich on the way out of the door.

    Here is a link if someone hasn't seen a Whoopie Pie pan, but I can find them locally for around $6 with a coupon.

    http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Nonstick-12-Cavity-Whoopie-Pie/dp/B004CYELQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384970903&sr=8-1&keywords=whoopie+pie+pan

    Blessings,
    Southern Gal

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    Replies
    1. I'm with Southern Gal... Green chile sausage gravy recipe? Sounds scrumptious!!

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  4. We do this also but use sandwich ham to line the muffin tin cups with. Then crack the egg in each one and top with shreadded cheese. Yum and very pretty to serve.

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  5. Mmmmm...my mom used to make a big pot of oatmeal which we all loved and served sausage with it. That was truly a great Sunday breakfast. Or she would whip up pancake batter the night before and whichever child was ready first got to do the flipping. And yes, the ubiquitous sausage.
    I cannot help but think that since most families do not go to church any more, there will be no memories of such great times. Coming home and eating a roast beef dinner with our gradparents or other family members, reading the comics, waiting for Dad to finish watching baseball so we could take a ride in the car, popcorn for supper.
    Sundays growing up were such a blessing!
    Betsey

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  6. Enola,


    (captaincrunch)


    Wow, cooked food!

    That's what it looks like.

    Breakfast for me is a microwavable TV dinner, microwavable bacon, microwavable sausage, microwavable whatever. Somebody ought to come out with a "Multi fuel powered or Solar powered Survival Microwave" that can be folded up flat and stored in a backpack like a laptop.

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    Replies
    1. Go to Mexico and get a wife bro...

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  7. Your muffin tin is beautiful, is it cast iron? I'm guessing it is an antique, but if not do you mind if I ask where you purchased it?

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  8. I use an extra large muffin tin so I can add cheese and biscuit dough on top

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  9. I tried your delicious recipe using vegetarian sausage! It was wonderful!

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