It's Thursday again.... you know what that means? It's time to share another
"Simple Lives Thursday" connection! It is fun to come up with ideas to share... what is hard is to limit each week to ONLY one idea!
I saw this idea SOMEWHERE online!For the life of me, I can't remember where!! It must have been 6-12 months ago, so... if this was you, let me know and send me the link in a comment and I'll give your link credit!! The idea was just so cool, that I just remembered the idea, but sadly, not whose idea it was!
We've gone through lots of glasses because of breakage and finding replacements of the same style is almost impossible! A few years ago, I decided to swap out ALL of my glasses for wide mouth, pint canning jars! I LOVE the large size, holding a solid glass in my hand and it is SOOO much easier to wash without fear of breaking it and cutting my hand!! (Yes, I wash dishes by hand!)
Now the question is... what do I do with all the lids/rings??! I've just kept them in a zip lock bag thinking that at some point I'd come up with an idea! Well, I've taken the idea and elaborated it just a bit....
The kids have grown and now we are a family of 6 adults and everyone is on a different schedule. So, to make things flow a bit easier for all, I make up breakfast sandwiches and freeze them!
I put a dozen of frozen biscuits in the oven, turn on the griddle and spray with cooking spray or use shortening and then......
The idea that I saw was to use the rings of wide mouth jars and spray them with baking spray or shortening, put them on the griddle or fry pan (already coated with the spray or shortening)
And then break an egg into each of the rings....
Using a fork, I break the yokes so the egg will cook all the way through.
After they've cooked a while, carefully remove the rings.
I use a fork because the rings are HOT!
See how nicely the eggs hold their shape!!
Now flip them over to finish cooking.
These will fit perfectly on a biscuit, a bagel or
an English muffin!
After they've cooked through, turn off the griddle and
.... add a piece of ham or sausage,
and when they've cooled down, add the cheese.
Now it's time to cut the biscuits in half and
add the egg, ham & cheese!
Don't they look yummy!
Two of them were eaten before they even made it to the freezer!
One sandwich per baggie, or wrap in plastic wrap
for freezer protection.
Then put them into another larger freezer bag
or a plastic container!
In the freezer & ready to be eaten!!
When the kids are hurrying around to get out the door they just pop one in the microwave on a plate (without the baggie or wrap) and they are ready to go! (They can also take them in lunchboxes or have them for a quick dinner .... etc.)
I looked at the prices today.... a package of 4, ready made biscuit/egg/cheese sell for $5.79 and with ham or sausage it was $6.79. I'm gonna price this out for a comparison!
Biscuits 12 frozen Pillsbury $ 3.39 (.28 cents each) Even less if you use your own recipe!
1 dozen eggs $ 1.69 (.14 cents each) Admittedly, straight from the chicken coop is best!! But, figuring out pricing was a bit more then I wanted to undertake for this post!! :)
cheese pkg of 24 slices $ 2.29 (.09 cents per slice) Obviously, varying types of cheese altar the pricing and overall flavor of the sandwich! (provolone, swiss, cheddar, cheddar jack... all yummy!)
Ham precooked 16 oz pkg. cost $4.29 (7 pcs. that I cut in half .31 cents per half) Again, using my great grandmother's sausage recipe with fresh ground pork would make these more delightful!
Now, let's use this information to figure out the cost.
Each ham/egg/cheese biscuit cost me .82 cents PLUS the cost of baggies ($1.99 for 100 baggies breaks down to .02 cents per baggie) which raises the cost to .84 cents per breakfast sandwich and
.53 cents per sandwich without the meat!! I didn't add the additional .05 cents per large storage bag... since there is NO food contact they are reusable!
The cost per breakfast sandwich of a well known brand is $1.70with meat and $1.45 without meat!
Another option would be to use my own biscuit recipe, which would lower the costs even more!!
We start our birds (layers & meat birds) in a BIG cardboard box! Actually, two dishwasher/washer/dryer sized boxes or 1 refrigerator box will work great!! Lay the box on its side. You'll need to keep the bottoms of the boxes but cut off one side piece. This becomes the opening or top of the brooder. Do this to both boxes and then slide the two together, kinda like an accordion! This way they have a small space to start with and as they grow, you slide them apart to give them more space! Clip a heat light in there and cover with a large screen! (a junked slider door screen works great!) This entire creation needs to be kept in a barn, garage, shed or basement for protection from the elements & predators!!
Wash, stem, remove seeds and finely chop the peppers. (NOTE: wear rubber gloves when working with hot peppers!) Put the peppers into a cooking pot and stir in vinegar & pectin. (Add butter to reduce foaming if desired). Measure out the sugar and set aside in another bowl. Bring the pepper mixture to a rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar and return to full rolling boil for 1 minute, while stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim foam from surface. Ladle quickly into jars, leaving 1/4 inch of head space. Tighten lids and process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Makes 8 half pints! 
