Morning is not the favorite time of day for most people. We tend to stay up late, and wake up with only enough time to grab a quick shower and some clothes, and head out the door.
But breakfast starts your day right with your body fueled for whatever comes your way…particularly if you need the mental capacity to power through big projects that require a lot of thought. And no, I don’t think sugary carbs qualify as a significant morning meal. Been doing Whole30 type food too long to go for that. And why do that when you can enjoy simple fried eggs in 7 minutes?
When we were trying to figure out what was causing my daughter to have mono-like symptoms periodically, we took a hard look at diet. First thing the doctor told me was “Feed her a REAL breakfast including eggs.” (Go here for more on why eggs are a good choice!)
Cook eggs? I’m not even awake yet!
At the time, I didn’t do mornings well at all, nevermind actually cooking anything. Our standard breakfast was oatmeal from the microwave and toast with jelly. (I can’t believe I fed this to my kids the entire time they were growing up!) The next day I started with eggs, and now I have it down to a science. I call ‘em 2-3-2 eggs!
Warning, these eggs are fully fried…cooked through and through. If you like ‘em soft or runny, this method isn’t gonna do it for you. But here’s why I chose fried. Not only are they easy to cook, they’re even easier to clean up! SOLD!!! Personally, I hate the smell of egg bits with hot water in the sink…it’s just my thing, but I will avoid it in any way possible. This method does that for me. Let’s get started!
Step One – 2 minutes
Put your fat of choice (ghee, butter, olive oil, bacon grease or whatever other compliant fat if you’re doing Whole30) in an 8-inch slope-sided non-stick skillet and heat on medium for 2 minutes. My burner knobs on my glass top stove go from 1-10, and I use 6. You’ll wanna experiment and stay close by until you confirm the correct setting on your stove (particularly if you have gas burners). Now it’s ready for the egg.
Step Two – 3 minutes
Spread the fat around a space big enough for your egg, crack the egg into it, break the yolk several times with the shell, and cook 3 minutes.
If you get some shell in there (or were aiming for just the white and the yolk got in too), scoop it out with the egg shell itself. So much easier than trying to fish it out with a fork or spoon. Something about the inner shell being covered in the white as well…it’s just magic!
Step Three – 2 minutes
Flip your egg (back into the same part of the pan as before), turn off your burner and let the egg sit in the pan over that burner for another 2 minutes. Slide it out of the pan onto a plate it’s done.
Now look at that pan…almost clean just like that! I had never done it before, but I timed the cleanup when we took these pictures and couldn’t believe it…23 seconds to wipe out the pan, soap it inside and out, rinse it AND dry it! Another 21 seconds for the spatula! YES…that’s the kind of cleanup I like!
If you’re doing two eggs, there’s plenty of room to put both in this size pan. Put enough fat to cover the entire bottom of the pan and put ‘em in side by side. If they run together, that’s fine…you can flip ‘em at the same time and cut ‘em apart as you serve.
Making more than two eggs? Don’t bother cleaning the pan…just add more fat! You may only need one minute for the fat to heat up since the skillet will still be hot if you do ‘em back to back.
Take a seat and enjoy your 7-minute fried eggs…and let me know if you can beat my cleanup time!
