The Commuter's Breakfast : Egg Squares to Go!

I wish Ron and I could sit down for bacon and eggs and coffee before he hits the road for his 1 to 1 1/2 hour commute, a commute that starts too early for a couple of night-owls.  Instead we settled for "coffee talk" on week days and save the more lingering breakfasts for the weekends.

Before we went low-carb/paleo/primal, Ron's go-to breakfast was a deluxe peanut butter sandwich, with raisins and a few nuts like pistachios or pecans, on whole wheat bread with a banana or two or the side.  But now, it's this:

The idea came from a recipe for egg muffins I stumbled on at one of my favorite food blogs, Kalyn's Kitchen.  Later I learned that I am not the first or the only one that came up with the idea to skip the muffin pan.  I almost abandoned the recipe because the cleanup of the muffin pan was so time consuming.  And using the paper liners was messy too.  The pan was still difficult to clean, and the paper seemed to stick to the muffin too much.  Of course, I wasn't using a silicone one like Kalyn.  Maybe they are safe, but I remain skeptical.

This is a very flexible recipe that can be made meat-free, cheese-free, veggie-free.  Really the only thing that is required is eggs, some butter, and a glass casserole dish.  Or it can include all (or any combination) of those ingredients, and a variety of spices and herbs to make the deluxe version as I did with this batch.

In case you are wondering if this is really worth the trouble, let's compare this to breakfast from McDonald's drive-through window.  The closest thing to the deluxe version is the sausage burrito, an item off of the dollar menu.  Here's the nutritional breakdown according to the McDonald's site:

With the egg and sausage accounting for 110 calories, we are talking about one very small egg and about 1/3 ounce of sausage. (I'll skip the rant about the flour tortilla and the processed cheese and stay focused on a cost comparison.) One of the servings pictured above of  "the commuter's breakfast" contains a little over 3 eggs and a bit more than 3 ounces of  meat. So 3 of these sausage burritos, at $3.00 plus tax, would have almost as much eggs, but still only a 1/3 of the sausage. And chances are, a coffee and maybe even hash-browns would be ordered, putting the tab closer to $5.00.

 Now let's look at the cost for this recipe:

18 count eggs - $2.00
1 pound ground pork - $1.60
5 ounces Cheese - $1.50
Veggies, spices, butter, etc - $2.00
Total - $7.10 for the whole week, or $1.42 per day.

So even if you skipped the coffee and hash-browns, The  Mickey D's breakfast will be around $21 for the week.  A savings of $14 every week becomes $700 for a year, assuming a two week vacation.

However, being less expensive is a minor benefit compared to the main thing we're after: they are much healthier!   Three burritos have 900 calories and 78 grams of carbs verses around 730 calories and 13 carbs for the large serving of "The Commuter's Breakfast":

I have made this dozens of times, and about that many different varieties, and learned a few lessons along the way.  One is that as much as we love bacon, it can get a little overdone in the recipe, so the go-to meat has become ground pork.  Ground pork is much cheaper than store purchased sausage and by adding a little sage, salt and pepper you have a quick easy sausage that is much less expensive and free of HFCS (aka "Corn Sugar") or other harmful ingredients.  The second lesson learned is to keep the casserole from being too wet (wet casseroles are not easy to eat by hand while driving down the road) I typically sauté the veggies and then add the ground pork and spices to the same pan.  If you want to make a plain egg or egg and cheese variation, of course you will not have to bother with this step.  And the third lesson is that nothing I have tried works as well as butter to grease the dish with and keep the eggs from sticking.

This is enough for 5 servings for a very active man that likes breakfast to be his biggest meal of the day.  If you prefer a smaller breakfast, you can freeze a few portions or make a smaller casserole.   This will keep very well in the fridge for a week.

Ingredients:
18 eggs
Butter

Optional add-ins:
cheese, any variety, shredded or small cubes,  about 5 ounces
meat (ground pork, sausage, bacon, ham, even ground beef, etc.)
chopped veggies (our sun-dried tomatoes are Ron's favorite, mushrooms, onion, sweet or hot peppers, asparagus, kale, spinach, etc.
spices and herbs (salt, pepper, paprika, turmeric, oregano, etc)
1/2 a cup or so of Heavy Whipping Cream

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 F
Butter a 9" X 13" glass casserole dish.

Sauté veggies in butter, coconut oil, or drippings  for a few minutes over medium low heat, then add the pork and seasonings.  Using a spatula, break the pork apart as much as possible as it cooks.  When it is almost done, turn off the heat.

While the veggies and meat are cooking, crack eggs into a large bowl.

If you are using the heavy whipping cream (or half and half ), add it to the eggs and whisk until blended.
Add the meat and sautéed veggies mixture, and any seasonings you wish to use, to the eggs.
Stir just enough to mix.
Add the cheese and mix enough to evenly distribute the ingredients.

Pour the mixture into the greased dish and bake until the center of the casserole is firm, approximately 30 minutes.  This is where using a muffin pan or smaller dish has the advantage because they cook more evenly.  The large casserole can get overdone at the edges while undercooked in the center.  So I guess a fourth lesson learned is to watch it closely toward the end of the cooking time.  And if your oven runs a little hot, you may want to reduce the temp to 325F.

Allow the casserole to cool, and then slice into desired size.  I typically make 15 squares, with 2 cuts down the length of the dish and four cuts across.

What works for me is to portion the squares out into plastic stackable containers and store in the fridge.  While Ron is getting dressed for work, I take them out of the container and warm them in the toaster oven, then place them back in the container and into his lunch bag.  Add a to-go mug of coffee, a couple of napkins and you are all set!

Healthy, inexpensive, as much variety as you could ever want, can be made ahead, freezes so well, delicious, and is easy to eat on the road.  And you don't have to sit in line behind all those other cars at the drive-through, so it increases the chance of getting to work on time!