Bryan addressed cost of eating at McDonald’s in his last post. So let’s look at time savings. Unless you work at McDonald’s, stopping for breakfast is going to take you a little out of your way. But, let’s say you have a McDonald’s right on your way to work. You still are going to have to pull into the drive through, wait if someone is in front of you, order, pay, wait for your order to be filled, and pull back out into traffic again. So how long does it take to make, not just one but, four Egg McMuffin knockoffs?
Timer is out and ready, let’s go. First, you’re going to get out your pan and turn on your stove. I have an electric stove, and they take a little while to heat up. If you have gas or if you are making fewer sandwiches, this is going to take less time.
Next, get out your butter, eggs, and Canadian bacon (I think it’s back bacon if you’re actually in Canada).
After you throw a little butter on your pan, go split open one of your English muffins (two if you have a double toaster) and get it toasting.
Then, come back, spread your butter over the whole pan and crack in some eggs. Once the eggs are in, go throw your eggshells and wash your hands. Then, season your eggs with salt and pepper and pop the yolks (unless you want a messy Eggs Benedict style sandwich). Let the eggs cook until they are all white on the bottom and easy to divide and flip.
I just quartered this pan, no need to make perfect circle eggs. Flip your eggs, and continue switching English muffins in the toaster as they get done. Once my eggs had cooked, I put two on sandwiches and left two in the pan to get the cheese melted. (We have a few no cheese and eggs people at our house). I then added the Canadian bacon to the pan. It cooks really rapidly in a hot pan, so it only takes a few seconds. When it was done, I added it to the sandwiches and hit the timer.
Less than 10 minutes from start to finish and that is without any prep before. I had no ingredients out to start with, no pans either. Yes, this will give you a pan to wash, but if it’s been buttered, it will take you all of 1 minute to wash when you get home that night if you need to rush out the door. Also, I would recommend just wrapping the sandwich in a paper towel and heading out the door. You should have time to pour orange juice or make coffee while things are cooking.
The bonus of this happens not only with time and money savings, though. I have a ten year old. Yesterday, she had a sausage biscuit and hashbrown patty from McDonald’s. When she was done, she was still hungry. Today, I haven’t heard anything about still being hungry, and she didn’t even get any hashbrowns. Better quality food fills you up more.
Really, time yourself doing each. Maybe I’m wrong and you can get in and out of McDonald’s in 4 or 5 minutes, but even with McDonald’s a few blocks from our house, I don’t think visiting there saves us any time especially getting in and out of morning traffic.
Now, maybe you don’t like Egg McMuffins. You say, Canadian bacon is icky, Amie. I like sausage. Well, making sausage patties takes a little longer. But, if you give about 30 minutes on the weekend, you can make biscuits (or just use English muffins again), sausage patties, and eggs. Then, you can either freeze them, or just leave them in the fridge for the week. It will take you less than 2 minutes from the fridge or right around 2 minutes from the freezer. So, in 30 minutes, you’ll have breakfast for all week which would again be less than 10 minutes a day and just 2 minutes on each weekday.
What’s your time estimate to run to McDonald’s?
