How to Make Breakfast Sandwiches at Home

Fast food breakfast sandwiches can be a big treat, but sometimes the thought of making a McDonald's run on dark and snowy roads is enough to keep you home. On mornings like that, you can make your own breakfast sandwiches at home. It's a great way to spend time with your family while teaching them an important life skill. Plus, the kitchen will warm up and the house will smell wonderful from the cooking.

Making a breakfast sandwich is pretty easy. Basically, you need to create some combination of bread, meat, cheese, and egg; and you don't necessarily need to use all of those items on the same sandwich.

Let's start with bread. You can use English muffins, bagels, croissants, biscuits, pitas, tortillas, wraps, or even regular toast. Toasting bread, English muffins, or bagels is the easiest way to go. If you want to spend a little more time you can bake biscuits or croissants from prepared dough, or if you really feel like cooking, make them from scratch.

For the meat lovers. Not everyone loves, or even eats, meat; but for those who do there are a lot of options. Breakfast sausage comes in several varieties. You can choose from links or patties, original flavor, smoked, spicy, or maple-flavored. There's also pork, beef, turkey, or veggie sausages. Other meat options include bacon, Canadian bacon, ham, corned beef, or steak.

Cheese. The most popular cheese for a breakfast sandwich is American cheese, probably because it melts so readily. You can use any cheese you like, though. Swiss, Muenster, cheddar, and provolone are all good choices.

Egg. You can use eggs or egg substitute on your breakfast sandwich. I personally like to crack an egg into a hot frying pan, break the yolk, sprinkle pepper on it, and flip it over once the bottom is slightly browned. Some people prefer scrambled or poached eggs on their breakfast sandwich- it's up to you.

Condiments. My husband is a ketchup-on-a-breakfast-sandwich kind of guy, while I go for salsa if I use a condiment at all. Hollandaise sauce is an excellent compliment to a breakfast sandwich, but a bit complicated to make.

Now that you've gone through all the options, think about which combinations sound best to you. My family likes egg, ham, and melted American cheese on a toasted English muffin. They also like a sausage patty on a biscuit; or egg, bacon, and cheese on a toasted bagel. I sometimes like scrambled eggs and salsa on toasted white bread, but it's too plain for them.

The possible combinations for breakfast sandwiches are nearly endless. You don't need to stick with my suggestions, you can use any kind of leftover meat or even throw some vegetables on your breakfast sandwich if you want. Just remember, making breakfast sandwiches at home is easy!