Muffin Pan Breakfast Sandwiches (AKA, how to feed a hoard of hungry teenagers a healthy, real food breakfast)

Zach and I had 20 teenagers over to our apartment on Friday for breakfast. (GASP! SHOCK! THE HORROR!!!!!!!!!)

I assure you that, despite this being a seemingly difficult challenge on the surface, we had an extremely fun and pleasant time with very little stress- mostly due to these easy, delicious, and healthy Muffin Pan Breakfast Sandwiches! Which, just to be clear, are perfect not only for feeding a hoard of hungry teenagers for breakfast, but also for brunch parties, an easy family breakfast, or to make breakfast sandwiches for just yourself in bulk for the entire week.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Let’s back up a minute. You may be asking yourself. “Why? WHY?! Why in God’s name would you WILLINGLY have 20 teenagers over to your house?!” Let me explain. If you have been following my blog for a while, you will know that Zach and I are both high school teachers. (He teaches Biology, I teach art. At the same school! Right across the hall from each other! It’s extremely convenient.) Out school has advisory groups, and each of us has advised a group of ten students since they were freshmen. It’s their senior year now, and as a last hurrah, we wanted to throw us all a little party to celebrate. 

And boy, do we love these students. We’ve seen them grow and develop from children to adults. They’ve seen Zach and I meet, date, fall in love, and get married (we met during their freshman year- they knew we were dating before we did! Kids can be very intuitive.) We’ve seen them every single day at school for four years. Our lives are certainly going to be different without them in them, but we are so excited that they are moving on to the next, exciting phase of their lives! Making them breakfast was the least we could do to celebrate the end of an era :-)

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

That, and taking lots of selfies. Obviously.

Now, back to these breakfast sandwiches.

Here’s the basic gist. You bake eggs in a muffin tin until they are cooked in perfect circles- ideal for adding to an english muffin or small bagel. While the eggs are baking, cook up some bacon, sausage, or other breakfast meats, and arrange some cheese and sliced veggies, avocado, hot sauce, ketchup, or whatever else you want to add to the sandwiches.

To make the eggs, first grease the cups of the muffin pan with butter or olive oil (I used a 24-cup muffin pan, but the recipe below is for a 12-cup pan). Then, crack an egg into each cup. Now, you have some options.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

In my classroom, I often break tasks down into “mild, medium, and spicy” versions in order to differentiate (easy, intermediate, advanced). Here are the mild, medium, and spicy versions of these eggs, depending on your preference:

Mild (easy) Version: You can leave the eggs as they are (as I did for a few)! The whites and yolks will cook separately creating a sunny-side up egg (in the oven, the yolks tend to cook as well as the whites, so the yolk won’t be runny like a traditional sunny-side up egg). 

Medium (moderate) Version: Beat the eggs directly in the muffin cups and add some milk (about a tablespoon), salt, and pepper for a scrambled egg version.

Spicy (advanced) Version: Beat the eggs directly in the muffin cups and add some milk, salt, pepper, and any variety of cut up vegetables you want for an omelette version. The possibilities are endless! For literal spiciness, add jalapeno peppers or crushed red pepper.

We (meaning myself and my minions- some very helpful students who also love cooking) decided to do a few of each kind of egg, with a combination of cilantro, tomatoes, red onions, green onions, red bell peppers, and green bell peppers for the veggies. OH BY THE WAY. Did you know that green bell peppers are the same as red bell peppers, just not ripe yet? How did I not know this?? Mind=blown.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

You know what else blew my mind? The veggie versions of the eggs were the first to go! We had to make extras in the microwave when we ran out. Maybe some of our healthy eating habits have rubbed off on our advisees :-)

For easy assembly of the sandwiches, cut up the veggies and put them into separate bowls before arranging the eggs. Add what you want to the muffin pan eggs, and use the rest for additional toppings on the breakfast sandwiches. Lay out the english muffins/bagels/bread, meats and cheeses, veggies, and condiments so your breakfast goers can create their own custom breakfast sandwiches with ease. 

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

And for extra deliciousness, we had these with make your own yogurt parfaits on the side- yogurt, berries, honey, and nuts- as well as some mocktails (virgin cocktails). Zach was in charge of drinks- he mixed equal parts orange juice and Sprite and added it over ice to a splash of grenadine and a maraschino cherry. It was the perfect way to say “cheers” to the end of an amazing four years with these kids.

So whether you are feeding 20 hungry teenagers or just you/your family, I highly recommend these muffin pan breakfast sandwiches as a stress-free, easy way to make a lot of custom breakfast sandwiches at once. Recipe below- enjoy!

The post Muffin Pan Breakfast Sandwiches (AKA, how to feed a hoard of hungry teenagers a healthy, real food breakfast) appeared first on Bowl of Delicious.