Breakfast Sandwich

Hooray, another recipe!  Or really not a recipe, it's too basic for that...

You know those breakfast sandwiches a lot of fast food restaurants sell?  An English muffin or a bagel, egg, meat, cheese, all grilled up together?  I love these, but I don't like McDonalds and I can't afford Panera on a daily basis.  But I figured, how hard can they be, really?

Basically, you take your bread - shown here as an English muffin, but bagels are really good too - and butter the outsides.  Fry an egg.  I recommend you break the yolk towards the end and let it squish out and then firm up a bit - otherwise it'll break when you grill the sandwich and make a mess.  Layer cheese, meat of your choice (bacon, breakfast sausage, sandwich meat -- bacon is my favourite but I used deli turkey here), and the egg on top.  You can use any kind of cheese - or several - and whatever meat strikes your fancy.  If you want a little more kick to your sandwich add some mustard.  I always do a sprinkle of salt and pepper also.  I guess you could also add things like a slice of tomato... some fresh herbs... maybe bannana peppers?  Top off with the other side of the bread, and pop into a panini grill or other counter-top grill. 

If you haven't got a grill, don't despair!  You can get a similar effect in a frying pan, you just won't get the little "panini lines" in your sandwich.  But it tastes just as good.  Just cook on one side until bread begins to brown, then flip over, pressing down all the time with a spatula to get the flattened panini effect.

There you go!  Breakfast in about five minutes, for a fraction of the cost of a fancy sandwich from Panera.