Why bother? written by Kama Davis

We are a family that is very concerned about our health. I was upset when I recently learned that my teenage son had only eaten a Clementine before going to school. I discovered this when his pediatrician asked him what he’d had for breakfast the morning of his yearly physical. She proceeded to advise him to eat a better breakfast. For someone that is concerned about nutrition, to say I was embarrassed, would be an understatement.

As soon as we got in the car, the first words out of my mouth were, “What do you mean you only had a Clementine for breakfast?” He said that he was rushed and was sick of eating smoothies, after being on a soft foods diet for a week. He had some orthodontic work the week before and had been having smoothies a few times a day. I proceeded to list a bunch of other options that he could have had, like cereal, yogurt, or the Clementine and at least some toast or something to make it more of a meal. He said that he does that sometimes, but gets bored.

I asked him what he wanted and he said, “I can’t have what I want for breakfast. There isn’t enough time in the morning.” Again, I just asked him to tell me and he finally said that he wished he could have a hot breakfast of bacon and eggs in the morning. He was correct that we are pressed for time and making bacon and eggs in the morning would be very difficult. What he didn’t think of is that I am the Queen of bulk cooking.

Despite three kids, a job, volunteer work and all of the stuff that goes along with having a family these days, I still manage to put a healthy, home-cooked meal on the table every night, thanks to bulk-cooking. When I cook, I make more than I need for that particular meal, then freeze the remainder to serve on a night when I don’t have time to cook. Or on weekends, I’ll cook for the sake of having leftovers. Other than stocking my freezer with homemade pancakes and muffins, I’d never really thought about bulk-cooking breakfast. I’m happy with my morning smoothie with Shakeology every day, so it wasn’t really on my radar.

During the ride home, I said that I had an idea for making a bunch of breakfast sandwiches at once and that he could pick the ingredients, so that they’d be exactly the way he likes them. He seemed pretty excited about this and started thinking about different ways that we could make them. Later that night, I mentioned this to my Husband, who also seemed pretty excited about having a hot breakfast during the week. He’ll sometimes make himself a quick egg and a bagel in the morning, but he doesn’t have the time to do that every day.

We finally decided that we’d make three kinds of sandwiches. We’d have red pepper for my Husband, mushroom for my son, and plain sandwiches that would appeal to everyone. We bought all of the ingredients, so that we’d be ready to start cooking on Saturday morning.

It took a little bit of time, but was very easy. My husband cooked the bacon, while I toasted the English Muffins in the oven. I diced some peppers and mushrooms and put them in a muffin tin that had been sprayed with cooking spray. I then took one egg, cracked it into a pourable measuring cup, gave it a quick scramble and poured it into one of the muffin cups. I repeated this until all of the cups were full and baked the eggs at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

After everything was cooked, I just assembled the sandwiches, wrapped them in waxed paper, and labeled them. My husband hates mushrooms, so we must be careful. After all of the sandwiches were wrapped, I put them in Ziploc bags for the freezer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So why bother? I mentioned to one of my friends that I was planning to do this and she said, “Why bother? You can just buy them in the freezer section of the grocery store.” Indeed.

 

Let’s look at a Jimmy Dean Bacon, Egg & Cheese Sandwich.
BISCUIT:  ENRICHED BLEACHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, NIACIN, IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, PALM OIL, BUTTERMILK, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS:  ISOLATED SOY PRODUCT, SUGAR, BAKING SODA,  DEXTROSE, SALT,  ACIDIC SODIUM ALUMINUM PHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, LACTIC ACID,  DATEM,  POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE), MALTODEXTRIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, COLORED WITH (ANNATTO AND TURMERIC), XANTHAN GUM, SOY LECITHIN, SOY FLOUR.  GRILLED EGG PATTY:  WHOLE EGGS, WATER, SOYBEAN OIL, NONFAT DRY MILK, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, SALT, XANTHAN GUM, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL BUTTER FLAVOR (BUTTER [CREAM, MILK], PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN AND COTTONSEED OIL, SOYBEAN OIL, LIPOLYZED BUTTER OIL, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS), CITRIC ACID.  PASTEURIZED PROCESS AMERICAN CHEESE:  MILK, WATER, CHEESE CULTURE, CREAM, SALT, SODIUM CITRATE, POTASSIUM CITRATE, SODIUM PYROPHOSPHATE, SORBIC ACID (PRESERVATIVE), SODIUM PHOSPHATE, CITRIC ACID, ANNATTO (COLOR ADDED), SOY LECITHIN, ENZYMES.
COOKED BACON: CURED WITH: WATER, SALT, SUGAR, SMOKE FLAVORING, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM ERYTHORBATE, SODIUM NITRITE.  CONTAINS EGG, MILK, SOY AND WHEAT

Sounds delicious! Not quite like our Organic English Muffin, an egg, a slice of bacon, a piece of cheese, and oh yeah…a vegetable! I bother because I want my family to eat a healthy diet and try to cut out as many chemicals as I can. Also the look on my son’s face when he realized that I had gone to the bother of making those sandwiches, just the way he likes them, was priceless.

This was our first time and we have some other ideas including trying different cheeses or making our own biscuits or bread. I think this will be a keeper though, because a Clementine is not breakfast.