Shirtless Chef has breakfast for dinner

Local fitness enthusiast Jason Murphy remakes favorite meals of his youth into healthy dishes. See the full list of his recipes at www.mysaline.com/shirtless.

Time. To quote Joe Jackson, it just keeps tick-tick-ticking in my head. If you are like me, it feels like there’s less of it every day. It can be a real struggle to get everything done in a day and cooking healthy from scratch is very time consuming. Most of the recipes I’ve featured in this article can be a bit long-winded and have as many steps as assembling an Ikea cabinet. Those are my weekend recipes, when I can carve out a bit more time and food prep big meals to eat throughout the week. But what to do when you have a 17-year-old boy in the house that mows through your carefully prepared food containers for the week in one night like a crazed goat on a caffeine rush? Do you give up and get fast food or takeout pizza? Or grab the dreaded frozen meal, nuked in the microwave to unleash its horrors into your kitchen and insides? That used to be my go-to answer. It’s also why I used to get out of breath bending over to tie my shoes. So, the answer is No! You do not have to resort to old habits. You just have to find simple, quick to prepare meals that are still healthy and unprocessed.

Most everyone keeps eggs in the fridge. If you don’t believe me, just go watch them fly off the grocery store shelves the next time the news says 1/4 of an inch of snow might fall in two days. Eggs are one of those perfect foods, a perfect balance of protein, essential vitamins, and healthy fats. However, just like when your mom used to say “You are what you eat” back when you were a youngster begging for candy, the same holds true for chickens. The quality of the eggs depends on the diet of the chickens and their lifestyle. Chickens kept locked up in a big factory farm eating cornmeal are just not going to produce the same quality eggs that outside chickens eating bugs in the grass and sunshine will make. Are those eggs more expensive? Yes. Are they worth it? Yes. The color, taste, and texture of outside chicken eggs are on a completely different level for taste and nutrition. If you don’t have your own hens or access to fresh local eggs, buying certified pasture raised chicken eggs is definitely worth a couple of dollars.

Breakfast for dinner can certainly get into calorie dense, ultra-processed territory in a hurry. I know the way I used to do it would, with homemade buttermilk biscuits, ultra-processed bacon and sausage, hash browns, and pepper gravy. Not only would that dinner sit on my stomach like a brick all night, but it’s a pretty time-intensive meal to prepare, which are both things we are trying to avoid. Not to worry, I have hacked all those recipes and will be featuring that meal in a future weekend meal article, but for now, let’s focus on a light, quick meal that also will completely satisfy your hunger and any time constraints you are working against on a weeknight. At the same time, there’s nothing sadder than just two eggs sitting lonely on a plate with nothing to complement them. Eggs don’t have to be some boring meal served up by themselves. You just have to make sure the additions are unprocessed, and the ingredient list is short and sweet, which is an oxymoron in this case as we don’t want to see any added sweeteners. If you are familiar with this series, you are hip by now to the words to watch out for, basically if the ingredients list has words with more than two syllables and you need a degree in chemical engineering to pronounce it, put it down and just walk away. The bacon, turkey sausage, and grass-fed cheddar I use here all have very short and easy to read lists. Read the labels and know what you are putting in your gullet… remember, your mom was correct all that time. You really are what you eat.

Avocados are an egg’s best friend, and the healthy fats will keep you feeling full all night and give you the energy to finish off whatever is left on your to do list for the evening. Eating avocado and eggs in the evening is also great for your internal organs and your brain, which depend on healthy fats to repair damage and function properly. Always keeping some high-quality eggs and avocados around means you will never be far from a quick meal that is both delicious and healthy. Give it a try, it might be your new go to favorite on nights when there is no time to cook.

Eggs on Avocado

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Avocado oil
2 pasture raised eggs
2 strips unprocessed bacon
3 links unprocessed turkey sausage
Sliced red onion
Grass fed Cheddar cheese
Plain grass-fed yogurt
Fresh squeezed lemon juice
Sea salt and pepper
Smoked Paprika

Instructions:

Place two strips of bacon on a microwave safe plate layered with paper towels and cook until crisp, usually 2 – 3 minutes, flipping as needed. Listen for the bacon to stop popping. When it stops popping, it starts burning. I prefer Nature’s Rancher brand as they have the cleanest ingredients and best taste that I have tried:

Place the 3 frozen sausage links in the microwave and cook on paper towels for 1 minute to thaw out. I prefer Applegate frozen turkey sausage for their ingredients, taste, and nutrition:

Place a skillet over medium heat. Spray it with a quick blast of non-stick to coat and then add 1 tbsp of avocado oil to the pan. When the oil hits 300 degrees or starts to shimmer, add the two eggs, sliced red onion, and the three sausage links:

Season the eggs with salt and pepper to your personal taste. Stir the onions, flip the sausage to brown both sides, and flip to cook the yolks to your personal preference. Note the deep orange of the pasture raised egg yolks.

Slice half an avocado and spread out on a plate. Mix a half cup of plain grass-fed yogurt with a tbsp of lemon juice and drizzle over the avocado. Sprinkle with smoked paprika. Take a slice of grass-fed cheddar like Kerrygold brand sliced cheese and tear into pieces. Place it on top of the yogurt sauce and then top that with the cooked red onion and crumbled cooked bacon: