I firmly believe that most meals can be zhuzhed-up very easily. You can take an average meal – pasta, soup, eggs and bagel – and transform it by just putting in a bit more care, a bit more seasoning, a bit more butter… a bit more sauce! And I have to say… taking an average meal and transforming it into something a cut above can really transform a day. How can your work day be that bad if you had a meal that tasted like takeout? Like a professional made it? I’m not saying that I’m a breakfast sandwich professional. But I am saying that if I ordered any of these from a bagel shop, it would have been money well spent.
I have publicly roasted my brother before, for his #BoyDinner of eggs and ground beef. Sorry! But I have recently learned that he has transitioned from eggs and beef to often having eggs and a bagel for lunch. He has even started making sausage egg and cheese sandwiches from scratch! A far more respectable lunch. We’ve been parallel breakfast sandwich journeys, without even discussing it ahead of time. Not the first sibling mind meld I’ve been a part of, but this one was more unexpected!
I got a few extra bagels last time I went to get a bagel sandwich, and I decided I would put in a little bit more effort into creating a crave-worthy sausage egg and cheese sandwich at home. Because, I believe a sausage egg and cheese is the best kind of breakfast sandwich. And I also believe there’s ways to make it even better.
For one, I made my own sausage. Not totally necessary, but it was a big game changer because it allowed me to make a sausage the right size for my bagel. Essential! Not too small and not too big. Store-bought and pre-shaped sausages are often too small. You could also just get ground sausage without making a homemade sausage mixture. But I was focused on doing “The Most” to make these good. Also, the store was out of sausage but had ground pork.
Then, I also only used one egg. Two eggs makes too much, and it throws off the ratio. And it’s not sausage eggS and cheese. It’s sausage egg and cheese. One egg, contained to the size of my bagel.
I thought about trying tried a different way of making the eggs (besides just scrambling one and cooking it), inspired by this video of a guy who is obsessed with breakfast sandwiches. I respect his obsession. And I wanted to try to get on his level, but I also was making these for lunch in the middle of the day and only had so much time. Maybe I’ll devote the extra energy on a weekend.
So… how did I zhuzh things up? The cheese, the sauce, and the toppings are where the variation and excitement really come in to play. I made a few different versions, pictured in this post:
- Calabrian cream cheese instead of sliced cheese.
- Green goddess sauce and pepper jack cheese.
- Caramelized onions with sage + thyme cream cheese (probably amazing on a pumpkin bagel)
- Smashed and spiced avocado with cotija cheese
It’s hard to declare a “winner” from this selection. But I think my favorite was the one above – the sage and thyme cream cheese with caramelized onions. I think it would taste amazing on a pumpkin bagel (stay tuned), and it’s really easy to pull together. Also I liked who I was when I had a container of caramelized onions in my fridge, ready for sandwich use. I want to be that person all the time.