This weekly breakfast is one of the only rituals I’ve consistently maintained since leaving college: hash browns, sausage links, and an egg, over-medium. I hate cooking, but I love my American-farm breakfast. With sufficient practice, I’ve got this down to a science. To prepare this delicious meal, you need the following equipment:
- George Foreman Grill ($49.99 from Amazon). There are many varieties of Foreman Grill; ours has only a timer (one-minute increments) with no heat control.
- 10″ sauté pan ($16.99 from Amazon)
- 8″ omelette pan
- Olive Oil Sprayer ($19.99 from Amazon)
- Large spatula for hash browns and sausages
- Small delicate spatula for egg
Groceries:
- Jimmy Dean Maple Pork Sausage Links: $3.79, 12-link (10 oz.) package. We used to eat turkey sausage, but the supermarket stopped carrying them.
- Oreida Hash Browns: $2.99, 30-oz. package
- Large Brown Cage Free Eggs: $2.99, 1 dozen. Aside from guilt-free consumption of eggs laid by humanely-treated hormone-free vegetarian chickens, the eggshells are sturdier, and the eggs taste better. These “gourmet” eggs do not come in “extra large” or “jumbo” sizes.
- Tropicana “Pure Premium” Orange Juice: $3.99, 3-qt. (96 fl. oz.) container
- Crisco Pure Canola Oil: $3.49, 48-oz. bottle
- Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil: $25.99, 3L container
Preparation:
- Foreman grill
- 10″ and 8″ pans
- Frozen sausage links
- Frozen hash browns
- Egg, cracked open and poured into a bowl, set aside for later
- Canola oil
- Olive oil sprayer pumped and ready
- Hash brown spatula, egg spatula
| Timeline | |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Get everything ready (described above). |
| 1:00 | Plug in the Foreman Grill to get it pre-heated. Ours is preset to pre-heat for 5 minutes, after which it will beep. |
| 1:15 | While waiting for the Foreman Grill, pre-heat some canola oil in the 10″ saute pan; pour in at least enough to cover the bottom of the pan with a thin film (1-1½ tbsp.). You can’t really go wrong here; you just have to prevent the hash browns from burning. After that, you just have to strike your own balance between healthy hash browns (less oil) and tasty hash browns (more oil). The oil is ready when it has liquified and easily flows around the bottom of the pan. Heat-wise, all stoves vary; we use 75% heat. Too little heat, and the hash browns won’t cook. Too much heat, and the hash browns might not cook properly (burned on the outside, cold on the inside). |
| 2:15 | Pour in the hash browns: cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of hash, just enough to not see the bottom of the pan. This will yield two 1¼-cup servings (the recommended serving size). Let the hash browns cook. |
| 6:00 | The Foreman Grill beeps. Spray the top and bottom of the Foreman Grill with olive oil. Lay four sausage links on the grill, cross-wise 45° to the grill marks (for that nice outdoors-grill grill-stripes look). Set the timer for 4 minutes. |
| 10:00 | The Foreman Grill beeps. Turn all sausage links (to cook all surfaces), and rotate them so they all sit in the grill grooves for maximum contact (to make sure they all get fully cooked all the way through). Set the timer for 4 minutes again. |
| 10:30 | Flip over all the hash browns. One side should be a nice golden brown now. Feel free to add more canola oil if things look dry. |
| 11:00 | Pre-heat some canola oil in the omelette pan, maybe two quarters’ worth of surface area, at about 75% heat. Too little oil yields a burnt egg; too much oil yields a greasy egg. Too little heat and the egg takes longer to cook, or comes out too rare. Too much heat and the egg cooks unevenly (burned on the outside, rare on the inside). Practice makes perfect. Carefully monitor the egg. Cook to taste. |
| 12:30 | Egg is probably done by now. Turn off heat, serve egg on plate. |
| 13:30 | Pour two glasses of orange juice. |
| 14:00 | The Foreman Grill beeps. Unplug it, serve sausage links on plates. |
| 14:15 | Hash browns are also done. Turn off heat, cut them into quarters, and serve on plates |
| 15:00 | Season breakfast to taste (salt, pepper, Tony’s, etc.). Serve and enjoy breakfast. |
| 20:00 | Clear table, bring dirty plates and utensils back to kitchen. |
| 20:15 | Clean cookware: omelette pan, saute pan, spatulas. |
| 23:00 | Rinse and load dishwasher: silverware, dinnerware, glassware. |
| 25:00 | Scrape and clean Foreman Grill. This is the most painful part of the process, but with practice, only takes a few minutes. |
| 28:00 | Hand-dry and put away Foreman Grill. Clean and wipe down counter. |
| 30:00 | All done. |
Cost and nutritional analysis:
| Entrée (single portion) | Cost | Total calories | Calories from fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sausage (2 links) | $0.63 | 100 | 73 |
| Hash browns (1¼ cups) | $0.30 | 70 | 0 |
| Canola oil (1½ tbsp.) | $0.06 | 180 | 180 |
| Egg (1) | $0.25 | 70 | 40 |
| Orange Juice (7-oz. rocks glass) | $0.29 | 96 | 0 |
| Total | $1.53 | 516 | 293 |
I researched this meal with a very expensive board-certified nutrition specialist for a medical opinion: “The recommended daily diet is 2000 calories (25-35% fat), spread out over 3 meals and 2 snacks. Calorie-wise (516), this meal is not bad. Fat-wise (57%, or 33g), not so good.”
Taste-wise, excellent.
“Also, you should know that most Americans eating a variation of this popular meal are probably eating much larger portions of everything, such as 2 or 3 eggs, and a large glass of orange juice.
“Possible side-effects from eating this delicious meal three times a day every day include (but are not limited to):
- Weight loss (yes!): eating this tasty 516-calorie meal three times a day will result in less than the recommended daily 2000 calories.
- Osteopenia (brittle bones): this diet is low in calcium and vitamin D.
- Constipation: this diet is low in fiber.
- Increased risk of type 2 diabetes (poor wound healing, heart attacks, blindness, kidney problems, neuropathy, amputation): potatoes have a high glycemic index, which causes increased insulin levels.
- High cholesterol (strokes, heart attacks): the sausages are high in animal fat.
“For a healthier meal, substitute the hash browns with buttered multi-grain toast. This will reduce the glycemic index and fat (depending on the amount of butter) and add some fiber.”
#1 by drdrtsai on Mon Apr 3, 2006 - 1:04 pm
Or you could just go to Bob Evans. Of course, you’d be $10 poorer, 50 min later, and 1600 calories over.