Introduction: A Good, Quick Breakfast for the Single Guy

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About: I miss the days when magazines like Popular Mechanics had all sorts of DIY projects for making and repairing just about everything. I am enjoying posting things I have learned and done since I got my first to…

Single guys may skip breakfast, or grab something at a drive-up fast food place.  Here is a delicious, quick, inexpensive alternative.

I am not single, but my wife often travels without me.  The photo shows my favorite breakfast: an English muffin with orange marmalade, crisp bacon, hot tea, and a scrambled egg cooked with cheddar cheese and minced onion.

Most of these things are cooked in a microwave in just a few minutes. The muffin is cooked in a toaster. Although I most often eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast, this breakfast keeps me from feeling hungry mid-morning, and that keeps me from snacking on candy.  A very small number of dishes are used, so clean-up is easy.  

Step 1: Ingredients and Supplies

These are the basic supplies I used.  
-Coffee cup and tea bag
-Bacon
-Egg
-Paper towel
-Marmalade (low sugar)
-Dish
-Salt & Pepper
-Cheddar cheese and knife
-English muffin

Items missing from the photo are: dried minced onions, a paper napkin, a dinner plate, butter knife, a common fork, the microwave, and a toaster.

Step 2: Bacon

It is good if all of the things that should be hot when finished are hot.  That means planning what is cooked in what order.  

I began with the bacon.  It cools quickly after cooking and is just as good at room temperature as "hot."

 Pull a square of paper toweling from the roll.  Place one piece of bacon at one end.  Fold the towel over twice and add a second piece of bacon.  (Second photo)  Fold twice more until the rest of the toweling is wrapped around the bacon.  Place it onto a dinner plate.  (Third photo)  Cook in the microwave on high power in 20 second bursts.  Allow a few seconds before the next burst by waiting until the sizzle sound stops.  Periodically pull the plate out of the microwave and unfold some of the paper towel to check the cooking progress. (Fourth photo)  Most of the grease will be absorbed into the toweling, and the bacon will be cooked to a crisp perfection when done.  In nine bursts of 20 seconds my bacon was done the way I like it.  In the fourth photo you can also see how little grease is left on the plate.  Most of what grease there is can be wiped up with what is left of the paper toweling.  Throw the paper toweling into the trash.  The plate can be used for serving the breakfast.  This helps minimize the clean-up.  

Step 3: Muffin and Tea

Put the English muffin into the toaster and the tea into the microwave.  When the tea is done, preparation for the egg will be done.  (I gave up coffee a few years ago because it bothered my stomach, and switched to tea.)

Prepare the tea.  We have a water filtering pitcher in our refrigerator.  I pour cold water from it into a cup and put a tea bag into the cup. Put the cup into the microwave for 2 minutes.  


Step 4: Egg

Use the time while the tea is heating to prepare the egg for cooking.

I cracked the egg and put it into the dish.  Try to avoid dripping raw egg onto any counter surfaces.  Wash your hands frequently when dealing with raw egg.  Single guys do not need to be rushed to a hospital.  

I am using a piece of sharp cheddar cheese to break the yolk. I decided to add a bit more cheese than what is shown here.  Few things are better than the combination of egg, cheddar cheese, and onion. Sprinkle the egg with dried minced onions according to taste. Add some black pepper and a little salt. Add about a teaspoon of water. It is paradoxical, but milk added to eggs causes watery scrambled eggs, but water added to eggs makes scrambled eggs that are not watery.

Just before placing the dish into the microwave I like to stir the mixture with a common fork. I do not want raw egg on the counter and cannot put the fork into the microwave, so I rest the fork on a paper napkin near the microwave. Cook on high power in 9 to 12 second bursts. At the end of each burst, remove the dish from the microwave and stir with the fork.

The problem is that the fork has raw egg on it. When the egg is nearly fully cooked I submerge the fork in the egg. Eggs are famous for continuing to cook after the heat source is removed. The hot egg cooks what raw egg residue is left on the fork. (See again the photo in the Introduction.)

Step 5: Time to Eat

Add marmalade to the muffin and enjoy.  Only a little uncooked egg was on the paper napkin.  I folded it to the inside and used the napkin.  

Someone will surely object that this breakfast is high in fat and high in cholesterol.  Last summer I began to try The Belly Fat Cure by Jorge Cruise.  In some of his on-line things through FaceBook he cited information from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that dietary sugar causes hypertension and high cholesterol, not eggs and bacon.  Similar findings are available through Dr. Oz' web site and through his television show.  After four months of trying it out I had my annual physical. The blood work showed improvements in my cholesterol and triglycerides with very good readings in both.   

Step 6: Clean-up

If you dripped any raw egg onto a counter surface, rubbing alcohol makes a good germ killer.  I pour a little on the counter surface and spread it out with my hand.  I let it evaporate and dry.  It is unlikely anything in the raw egg will survive the alcohol.  

Put the dishes into your sink.  Fill the dish in which you cooked the egg with water and let it soak.  A few hours later the egg will be softened and will come right out with running water and a very light scouring.  

You just had a very good breakfast.  It was tasty and will keep you working well without a mid-morning let down.  You will not be reaching for a doughnut or candy at 10:45 AM.  It did not cost you an arm and a leg, and clean-up was minimal, as well as easy.  What could be better for the single guy?