On weekdays, I usually skip breakfast because I’m always in a rush to get out the door, but that’s a habit I want to break. Skipping breakfast is detrimental, especially since it helps boost energy levels and provides essential nutrients for the day. Rather than settling for bland bars or a basic bowl of cereal, I challenged myself to create something that is not only delicious and healthy but also quick and easy to prepare in the mornings.
I decided on breakfast sandwiches that can be frozen and quickly reheated when I’m ready to eat. However, when I think of breakfast sandwiches, I usually picture a greasy bagel loaded with eggs and bacon drenched in oil. I wanted to avoid all that grease, which turned into a challenge, especially since I chose to make everything by hand, including the bagels. I also wanted to incorporate everything that makes “the perfect breakfast sandwich,” at least in my opinion.
For me, the perfect breakfast sandwich starts with an everything bagel, lightly buttered and piled with crispy bacon, fluffy scrambled eggs and melted cheese.
Apparently, according to Google, it only takes three ingredients to make a healthy bagel, which I was a little skeptical about. One cup of cottage cheese, one cup self-rising flour (I used all-purpose flour, which just needs two teaspoons of baking powder to ensure the bagels rise) and one beaten egg. The recipe required the cottage cheese to be smooth, which was a pain. Getting the cottage cheese in a blender and successfully making it smooth was not a fun start, as it constantly needed to be scraped from the sides. After at least five tries of blending, I incorporated the flour, baking powder, and cottage cheese, separated them into four medium-sized bagels and baked them at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.
Upon seeing them come out of the oven, I immediately realized that a career in cooking, or even basic portion control, was not meant for me. I basically made four different-sized bagels, ranging from intensely tiny that the hole was the size of a black hole, to overwhelmingly large, where the hole in the middle is non-existent. I let the four bagels rest out of the oven before transferring them to an air-sealed container while I made the rest of the add-ins.
A trick I’ve learned to make my scrambled eggs fluffier is whisking in about ⅓ cup of milk, as well as salt and pepper for extra flavor. After lightly greasing the pan, I cooked the eggs and finished by turning off the heat and sprinkling shredded cheese on top. Lastly, I cooked turkey bacon in a lightly greased pan. While I enjoy scrambled eggs in my perfect breakfast sandwich, it is not in sophomore Nicole Matcharadze’s sandwich. “To me, the perfect breakfast sandwich does not include eggs because they are nasty,”
This homemade breakfast sandwich experiment proved to be successful. Despite creating a lopsided handmade bagel and fist-fighting with the blender, the final result was a perfect freezer-ready breakfast.
