They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  The problem of course is that it comes in the morning, and no one likes mornings.  The fact that brunch and brinner (breakfast for dinner) are things is proof that people love breakfast foods, just not in the morning.
Generally in the mornings you tend to sleep as late as possible, then run out the door, neglecting breakfast and just grabbing something on the road on the way to your destination.  Unfortunately, a lot of times “grabbing something on the road” means stopping at a place like McDonalds and getting something like an Egg McMuffin.  Which is fine if you enjoy getting 87% of your daily cholesterol intake and 33% of your sodium intake down in your first meal of the day (you can see for yourself if you don’t believe me).  Also, your eggs will look like a hockey puck.

I can practically feel the spongy texture of the eggs from here.

But what if I told you, you could make your own version of an Egg McMuffin (I call mine an Egg MegMuffin, but I realize that won’t work for people not named Meg) at home in under 10 minutes?  Surely you have 10 minutes to spare right?  It’ll be worth it, I promise.

Here’s how I do things, to minimize the amount of time this whole process takes.  First, gather all your ingredients.

You’ll need: an English muffin, cheese, eggs, milk, pepper, and butter.

A dolphin plate is a nice touch, but not necessary.

I get my English muffin in the toaster oven first so it can toast while the eggs are cooking.

Then crack your eggs in a bowl, whisk them with a fork for a bit, add a touch of milk, and whisk some more.  At this point you can add any other seasonings to the eggs you’d like.  I usually just go with some black pepper though.  I used 2 eggs this time, but really you can use as many or few eggs as you’d like.  Melt enough butter to coat the bottom of the pan, then pour in the eggs.  While the eggs are cooking, rinse out the bowl you mixed them in.  Also while the eggs are cooking prepare the cheese you plan on using.  I used cheddar, but again, you can use whatever you’d like.  The real Egg McMuffin uses American cheese.  I’ve made it using an herbed feta I had leftover from something else and that was really tasty too.

Everything is better with cheese.

Fetch the English muffin from the toaster whenever it’s done and put about half the cheese on the bottom.  Once the eggs are done cooking I usually divide it into quarters and then stack it on the muffin, then put the rest of the cheese on top.

Also, just my tip for cooking eggs for this: cook the eggs on medium heat, and once the bottom is cooked  (it starts getting bubbly and there isn’t much egg running if you tilt the pan), flip the eggs over in one piece (don’t scramble them in the pan), then turn off the burner and let the residual heat from the pan finish cooking the eggs.  This helps prevent them from getting over cooked.  They really don’t need that long to cook after flipping.

Rinse out the pan real quick so you don’t get gross egg stuff stuck to it later.  This time will also give the cheese you put on top of the eggs time to melt a bit.

Ta-Da!

And there you have it, a fresh egg English muffin in about 8 minutes, including clean up.

Yes, I timed it. And yes I was eating breakfast at noon. It was a Saturday. Don’t judge.

Now I know some of you are going to complain that this doesn’t have the Canadian bacon on it.  But I mean…are there people who actually like Canadian bacon?  I never use Canadian bacon on mine because I don’t like it, but I have added sausage on occasion.  For those of you that would like to add a meat product, I would recommend getting that cooking first so it’ll be done the same time as the eggs.  If you want to use bacon it’d be best to microwave it while the eggs are cooking, since cooking it on the stove will take a while and be messy.  Honestly, I don’t think it really needs meat though, and it’s likely going to add to the cooking and clean up time.

I have to say, I think the best part of making your own Egg McMuffin is that you really can really make it your own.  You get to decide how many eggs you want, what seasonings to use, what cheese to use, and anything else.  If you wanted to be adventurous you could add some maple syrup to the bottom English muffin, or jam.  And if you want to take it with you to eat on the go, just wrap in some aluminum foil to keep warm.  I hope you’ll consider making your own Egg McMuffins at home.  They’ll ultimately save money, and your arteries.

Seriously, look at it. Doesn’t that look better than the first picture of this post?

For those of you who like things in list form, here’s the recipe for a basic egg English muffin:

1  English muffin

1-2 eggs

1 tbsp. milk

Pepper to taste

1 tbsp. butter

Cheese of your choice, sliced or shredded

Toast the English muffin.  In a small bowl whisk eggs with a fork until well beaten, then add the milk and pepper, whisking to combine.  Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat.  Cook until starting to get bubbly on top, then flip in one piece and cook other side (should only take a minute tops on the second side).  Put some cheese on the bottom half of the English muffin.  Divide eggs into quarters and stack on muffin.  Top with more cheese and top of muffin.  Eat!