great idea! My mother does this for my teenage brothers. She makes a month's worth of "mcmuffins" and freezes them. Then, my brothers just take them out of the freezer, reheat, and breakfast is served!

My mom's "mcmuffins" are the best. The english muffins stay crispy, less grease on the Canadian bacon/eggs and chedder for the cheese. She made them for me as a kid and will still make them sometimes when I visit.

I have been doing this for years!!!

The best thing is to do a more gourmet twist on the original.

I call them Stampeders because I use a patty that's the official patty for the Calgary Stampede.

Here's how to get a nice, hearty breakfast sandwich without the grease:

Whole wheat English muffin
Pesto
Arugula or spinach
Slice of good cheese (Swiss, Emmental, Provolone)
Slice of proscuitto
Fried egg
Pepper (no salt needed since you have the proscuitto)

I make mine with an egg poacher. Healthier and better tasting.

I also make bacon/egg/cheese/english muffins for breakfast a lot! If you soak up the bacon greese and don't use too much butter for the egg, it's actually a healthy high-protein starter, especially if paired with an orange or something. I'm totally going to steel Sunnydark's idea though to gourmet-it-up one morning.

I think a lot of people turn to fast food for the convenience (aka laziness factor), but there is a toaster on the market that toasts the english muffins while poaching the egg, for a super fast 'mcmuffin.'

"But the 99-cent value menus and rock bottom prices can be tempting. We can understand why there's an obesity epidemic, given the cheap burgers available on every corner. Well, this article proves it's still cheaper to make a McMuffin at home..."

Not cool, folks. Not all fat people live on an excess of cheap junk food. Not cool at all...

Package sizes are an issue for me. If I want to make an egg McMuffin, I have to buy a 6 pack of English muffins (plus sausage and eggs, but those aren't as much of a problem). My English muffins always mold before I can eat them all. I've tried freezing them, but they always seem to come out soggy, not to mention taking up a lot of room in my freezer. Since I would only eat an Egg McMuffin once every couple of weeks, maybe I'd be better off just buying one than trying to figure out 5 other ways to eat English muffins before they mold or get stale.

i started making my own breakfast sandwiches at home:

Arnold's Sandwich Thin
Morningstar Farms soy sausage patty
slice of cheese (whatever's available)
1/4 c Egg Beater microwaved in bowl for 1:30

they taste delicious and i can make them in less than 5 minutes.

I don't understand why she considered burritos too difficult, complex, or requiring special equipment. I think most Californians have most of the ingredients at this very moment.

I also don't understand her stance on pizza--I guess if you're making a homemade pizza that tries to replicate Domino's (i.e. lots of pre-shredded mozzarella, simple tomato sauce, pepperoni), it won't be that great for you.

We make pizzas around once a week--we use a pocketless pita (which crisps up awesomely in the oven and hold up to the large amount of tomato sauce I like on my pizza), tomato sauce (sometimes homemade, sometimes not), a TINY amount of crumbled feta, and tons of mushrooms, spinach, arugula, peppers, anchovies, etc. I don't think you can compare homemade pizza made with lots of veggies to fast food in health or taste.

While I think its great that she is getting her son and his friends off of fast food, the assumptions about class and body size in this article are really upsetting.

The last sentence especially left me with a bad taste in my mouth (almost as bad as that MickyDs hangover), "Besides, wherever you live, it's probably a cozier place than McDonald's. " HUGE assumption. First, not all homes are safe places for young people. Secondly, McDonald's is warm when its cold, cool when its hot out and may therefore be a healthier space for someone to hang out in--even if the food they sell is completely unhealthy. Between homelessness and low income housing in SROs, not all of the poor have kitchens with a working fridge and stove. The cost of a cast iron skillet may seem like nothing to the author, but I am guessing she isn't trying to support her kids on minimum wage.

The article would have been really great if she had stayed away from judging the "bad decisions" that supposedly make the poor obese and focused on how ridiculously unnecessary it is for fast food to be so unhealthy.

Sure, I can make an egg and cheese biscuit at home quite easily... and every once in awhile, I do. However, gasp!, I still will treat myself to bonefide McDonald's version once in a blue moon because I will shamelessly admit, it just tastes better. I can't, and wouldn't want to, replicate that greasy and ridiculously scrumptious biscuit in my own kitchen, because well, it's just not healthy...

My dirty secret is out... ;)

This is a great idea. Of course, sometimes I crave a Whopper or Wendy's chicken nuggets and no healthier, homecooked meal will suffice. There's just something fun and special to going out, even fast food, and in moderation, it's fine.

We could begin solving the obesity problem by cutting the sandwich in half and sharing it with someone instead of eating the entire thing pictured here. That's a lot of food for one serving! Maybe some grapes on the side, too?
:)
Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com

toberead, they keep very well in my fridge w/o getting soggy
I tend to use half for egg mcmuffins and the other half disappear pretty quickly toasted w/ peanut butter
mmmm

Well of course its healthier and cheaper to cook this food at home - the whole point of fast food is that its something you grab when you're away from the house and need to get a quick meal - if you were near enough to go home and cook then you wouldn't need the fast food outlet!

Make your own whole wheat English Muffins and freeze them! I double bag them so they don't get freezer burn. So delicious. I decided to do it b/c I eat half of an English muffin w/ a couple of cheesy eggs every morning and became frustrated when I realized I could not find a preservative-free English Muffin at the grocery store. It's SO cheap, easy and fun to make them yourself. Be careful w/ nitrates in Canadian Bacon, by the way. Always read the labels. (: