Here's to all the breakfast sandwich lovers!!!!

Okay, I realize that I just told you about my dinner a few hours ago - but I really can't wait until later this evening to tell you about breakfast! I absolutely love breakfast sandwiches. We don't usually get breakfast out; whenever we go on a road trip, though, getting a breakfast sandwich (preferably something McNasty) is one of the highlights. Is that sad? I don't think that's sad.

My glorious waffle egg sandwich.

A month or so I was cruising the aisles of Target and made one of the best impulse-buys of all time. The Hamilton Beach 25475A Breakfast Sandwich Maker (which is cheaper on Amazon than at Target) has been my breakfast go-to almost every morning since.

Here's how it works - the sandwich maker has a few different layers. You add in half of your bread/muffin and the cheese; then add egg and salt or other seasonings in the next layer and top with the rest of the bread/muffin. It cooks it all together and is ready in about 5 minutes!

At first I started with standard breakfast sandwiches (one of my favorites is the egg-white breakfast sandwich from Tim Hortons). I just used an english muffin, egg, cheddar and some salt and pepper to re-create. It was super tasty, but pretty basic. I started imagining all the possibilities...

Egg sandwich on Ezekiel muffins with spicy cheese

Variations

Hubby's double fried egg experiment

• I bought a spicy shredded cheese from the grocery. Basically once that happened, I haven't gone back to a normal cheddar since. I LOVE spicy cheese.
• Using *special edition* english muffins. I tried the apple and my husband tried pumpkin - both were very good!!!
• Yesterday and the day before, I used Ezekiel 4:9 Cinnamon Raisin english muffins (with said spicy cheese), egg, and salt. That was tasty, but my husband wasn't a fan. He claimed too many flavors. We'll just agree to disagree. I thought it was great. 
• This morning, I attempted my ultimate sandwich...I wasn't sure this was going to work because of the size of the waffles, but it totally did. Two blueberry waffles; 1 egg with salt; 1 slice of colby jack cheese. I could eat this sammie EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Omgosh. I may even try to incorporate syrup somehow. It was SO good and I didn't feel that fast food breakfast guilt. Eggo makes a similar frozen breakfast sandwich, but they are like $6 for 4 sandwiches and not as good. I bought them one time and got one - our oldest daughter got the other three over a couple day time period. 
• Also this morning, my husband used the sandwich maker to create a double fried? egg. It came out beautifully. He's so sensible. 

So, those are just a few of things you can do with this amazing device. Now, can I get my own informercial? 

Everybody has that friend...

That's totally my hand; not a kid's. 

Who is an awesome gardener and brings over delicious garden fresh produce all season long. Right? If you don't have a friend like that, you totally need to find one. Yesterday we were blessed with three ginormous zucchini. I kid you not. These zucchinis were bigger than our newborn babies. 

I love zucchini and I've made quite a few zucchini recipes over the years (remember the zoats I posted about not long ago? How about the zucchini brownies?), but today I was on a quest for something new. I gave Pinterest a whirl for a little bit, but when dinner time came around, I ended up modifying another tried and true recipe that our family loves.

I present to you, Garden Style Fried Rice

This recipe was super flavorful and really the only effort included is sauteeing some veggies and scrambling some eggs. Anyone can make this amazing, flavorful dish. I'll cut to the chase and tell you how.

1.) Cook your (brown) rice (2c uncooked). You guys know white rice is over the foul line, right? Also? If you don't have a rice maker, please get a rice maker. You can even get the el cheapo rice maker at Target. It will make your task of achieving perfect brown rice, easier; promise!

2.) When your rice is nearing the finish line, warm up some oil in your favorite skillet (I used grapeseed). Slice, sauté and season your veggies over med-low heat . I used chopped carrots; sliced onion; and sliced zucchini (when using carrots, add them in way before everything else as they take the longest to cook). Season to taste with: sea salt, cayenne, minced onions (I don't know why I seasoned onion with onion, I just did. Sue me.).

3.) When your veggies are getting nice and tender, crack and whisk some eggs in a bowl, I used four for my hungry hungry hippos. Besides, there's never enough egg in fried rice. Amen? Then, when you're ready, scramble those suckers up in another (non-stick - this is no time to make a mess) pan.

4.) When your rice dinger goes off, add the rice (gently, now) to the veggies. Still gently, incorporate all, then add egg. After that, I gave it all another once over with the salt, soy sauce (about 1/4 cup - don't saturate the rice) and added some tumeric for color, flavor and lots of interest. I LOVE tumeric. It gives the dish that "I'm not really eating brown rice" feel.

Serve and enjoy!!! I really did have to stop myself from eating more of this. I enjoyed every second and I hope you to, too. :) 

This meal is kid and husband approved.