Diet tip: The breakfast sandwich, even some of the fast food ones, are not the enemy.
Product tip: Thomas "light" multigrain English muffins,
specifically the ones that say "light" on the label.
In spite of my previous post about going organic for all breads in the future, I have to cycle through what's already in the freezer. I had two of these left in the package, so I saved yesterday's post for today, to have a part 1 and a part 2.
This multigrain "light" English muffin is 100 calories, same size as regular. I had no idea, and it will be my next hard search to find an organic variety that is equally low in calories. I made a big satisfying breakfast-lunch from one of them yesterday, split, toasted with a dab of butter, one slice of cheezefood divided between the two halves (I know, cheezefood, but I used the organic store brand). No other kind of cheese is as low in calories, and it keeps in the fridge for a long, long time.
Breakfast sandwich part 1: Cheezy
I pressed the cheese a little bit with the palm of my hand to thin it out before putting it on the muffin, because it takes a long time to melt. So for the serving pictured above:
One muffin = 100 calories
A dab of butter for toasting, half a tablespoon or less = 50 calories
One slice cheezefood divided among the two halves = 60 calories
Red pepper flakes sprinkled on when it's hot and melty
Total for the serving pictured: 210 calories
This super filling low calorie breakfast allows for the addition of an egg at 60 calories, cooked, half the egg on each piece, or the whole thing stacked into one big fat breakfast sandwich at 270 calories. Even that still leaves room for a glass of V8, or a spoonful of sugar in your coffee if that's what you like.
Part 2: PB & banana
The same kind of breakfast can be done for low calories with the Trunut organic peanut butter powder, mixed with water, 25 cal. per tablespoon mixed. Skip the butter when toasting the muffin halves, then top the toasted pieces with the mixed peanut butter (the chocolate peanut butter powder tastes kind of like Nutella, still only 25 cal. per T., but I used regular), then add sliced banana. A medium banana is 105 calories, but nobody is going to save half a banana for later, not me anyway, so the whole thing, including the whole banana, comes in at 255 calories. That leaves room for a cooked egg on the side, or a slice of melon, piece of bacon, or whatever other judicious choice makes you feel full and happy.
Disclaimer: I do NOT recommend fast food breakfast, but we do what we do. I used to do it when I worked at the brick & mortar. I'm just saying that awareness is the powerful key to establishing permanent habits you don't have to think about every second.
The Egg McMuffin is 310 calories
The original Breakfast Jack sandwich is 350 calories
Wendys egg & cheese croissanwich is 320 calories
Here is a link to a June 2022 article with lots of specifics:
https://cheatdaydesign.com/low-calorie-fast-food-breakfast/
So you say you want a hashbrown on the side. Okay. I looked at the calories on my package of Alexia organic Yukon puffs (tater tots, which you can consider mini-hashbrowns). 100 calories for 14 puffs, but maybe you only want 10. It's pretty easy to look up fast food item calorie counts online. Knowledge is the important ingredient.