So I got into work Friday and the old man across from me slumps into his cube and takes out some generic, crappy, frosted protein bar. He noticed my look of disgust and apologized “Hey, it’s better than McDonalds, right?”
After I beat him to death I gave his corpse the same lecture I’m gonna give you.
Breakfast is not a meal, it’s a birthright. It was earned by our fathers and our fathers’
fathers and it is one of the greatest gifts they leave us second only to our last names and the ability to pee standing upright.
And yet so many weak, small minded guys have this impression that if a woman doesn’t make it for you then you can’t have a decent breakfast. That it’s a magical reward they conjure whole hock from an ether of love and estrogen. These guys are all single, because married men know that women don’t make breakfast anymore. But they’ve given up on life too fully to make it for themselves. So men resign themselves to a piddling of cold milk on some sugary fiber.
Well I say bullshit. Cereal is not breakfast. McDonalds is not breakfast. Any combination of the word ‘protein’ with something else is not breakfast. Breakfast, true breakfast, requires copious amounts of heat, butter and the flesh of a deceased swine.
I know you have a hundred excuses, but they all boil down to “I don’t have time” and that’s a God Damned lie. That day, I explained to the remains of my former co-worker, I had 2 eggs, 2 pieces of toast and 2 to 8 pieces of bacon(when I start eating bacon I kind of get into a zone, so it’s hard to count). It took 10 minutes of attention and 15 minutes total, you’ll spend more time in the drive through at Carl’s Jr.
The real problem is thought. Thought is the enemy of action. When you think “Should I make breakfast?” your head is already so full of unclear scenarios you don’t know where to start and eventually you talk yourself out of it. Well I know how to deal with people who think.
Here’s the agreement you and I will make. I’m going to lay out each step and how long it will take you, and you’re going to make yourself breakfast for a week. One week, following this exact formula. Once you’ve done it for a week, there’s no more need for thought. You won’t find yourself looking around the kitchen wondering where to begin, you’ll just do.
Step 1: Bacon, the cornerstone of both breakfast and happiness. Go ahead and throw some bacon in an oven as described here. I keep the cookie sheet covered with foil at all times just to make this go faster. At this point I also get out 2 eggs and the butter and set them on the counter.
Time 1 minute
Step 2: Go upstairs to shit, shower and shave. This can be a bit tricky, I know my oven gets up to temperature in 7 minutes and if I don’t mess around I get finished up in exactly that amount of time, but you may have to push some activities until after breakfast. I suggest you don’t skip the shit part, you need to make room for a hearty breakfast.
Step 3: Back downstairs, check the bacon then throw a pan over a medium flame. Spray it with Pam and crack your now room temp eggs into it. Hit them with a pinch of salt(Kosher, as always) and a few grinds of black pepper. Please don’t skip that part, unseasoned eggs taste exactly like the gelatinous sacks of fat and protein that they are. They <i>need</i> salt and pepper, and some red pepper flake if you got it.
Time 30 seconds
Step 4: Slice some bread up and pop in your toaster. And for the love of all that is holy use some real bread here. Every grocery store in the country now has their own bakery that’s producing stuff a damn sight better than Wonder bread. That stuff doesn’t so much toast as accept the cleansing flame of judgment.
Time 30 seconds
Step 5: About now you should pull the bacon out of the oven probably. If you used a cooling rack it’s good to go but if you had to let it sit in it’s own juices just lay it on some brown paper bags or newspaper. That’ll pull the grease right off.
Time 30 seconds
Step 6: Now flip the eggs(or don’t, I like mine over easy) and turn off the flame. If you had your heat right almost immediately after the flip your eggs are ready to go onto the plate. Remember, eggs keep cooking after you take them off the heat, so if you leave them in the pan they will dry out.
Time 15 seconds
Step 7: Now when your toast pops just spread on the butter(real butter, in addition to being worse for you margarine tastes like plastic and cheese had a baby) and put it and the bacon on the plate.
Time 30 seconds
Step 8: Eat.
Time 45 seconds.
I know that seems fast, but I grew up with brothers. If you didn’t eat fast you ate less, and the Fat Bastard is not going to eat less.
Step 9: Clean up. All you have to do is throw out the foil, re-cover the cookie sheet, wash 1 plate, 1 pan, 1 spatula, 1 fork and 1 knife. You can actually leave the dishes in the sink but always make sure to wash your cooking utensils and pans as you use them so you can depend on them to be ready next time. Unless you have a stack of 30 pans, then just throw this one out and grab the next.
Time 2 minutes.
There you go. 6 minutes and zero thought gets you a full gut for the morning. Because starting your day with a belly full of frosted protein is for Tijuana hookers.
