Reducipe - The Budget Breakfast Sandwich

Posted on October 13, 2007 by Melissa
Filed Under Reducipes

Reducipe
Pronunciation: ri-doos-uh-pee
Function: noun
1 : a recipe that can help lower your food costs in a variety of ways
     a : by scaling back an expensive recipe to be less pricey but still just as tasty
     b : by turning an already inexpensive meal into something special
     c : by using leftovers in creative ways to stretch their use

The Budget Breakfast Sandwich This is one of Eric’s favorite breakfasts. It is simple and best of all cheap! I think the combo of the buttery toasted bread, crispy fried egg, and creamy American cheese is classic and comforting. Sometimes simplicity is sublime!

If you are looking for a way to use up leftover hamburger buns make this sandwich the next morning. Every time we get hamburger buns we have several leftover so this recipe comes in handy!

Keep in mind that this recipe can be changed to use up any leftovers you might have. You can use any type of bun or thick bread for this really. If all you have is shredded cheese, just sprinkle that on top of the egg. If you don’t have bacon grease simply fry the eggs in a little more butter. When I have leftover bacon I’ll fry that up and add it on top, but that’s rare because bacon doesn’t last long in my house.

The Budget Breakfast Sandwich

1 hamburger bun
Butter
Bacon grease, optional
1 egg
1 slice cheese (American preferred)
Garlic Salt
Freshly cracked black pepper

Place a frying pan over medium heat. Add a little butter to the pan. Once the butter is melted, rub the cut sides of the bun in the butter to coat them well. Toast the buns in the pan until they are golden brown and set aside.

Add a little bacon grease to the hot pan (you can use butter if you prefer). Fry the egg to your liking (for this recipe we like sunny-side down). Sprinkle the egg with garlic salt and black pepper. When the egg is almost done, put the slice of cheese on top to warm it. Once the cheese has softened and started to melt around the edges remove the egg and place on the toasted buns to form a sandwich. Enjoy! Serves 1.

The toasted buns and garlic salt really makes the sandwich taste special as opposed to “cheap”. The ingredients are few and inexpensive but they sure make a tasty breakfast!

The Budget Breakfast Sandwich Ingredients

When I added up the costs to make this sandwich it came out to be about $0.54. Compare that to what you can get from a fast food joint. This is better AND cheaper!

Ingredients	Cost	Ingredients	Cost
1 Hamburger Bun	$0.23	1 Slice Cheese	$0.14
1 Egg	$0.12	Butter	$0.05
Bacon Grease	N/A	Garlic Salt & Pepper	N/A
		Total	$0.54 a serving

We used deli-style American slices, store-bought buns, and non-bulk ingredients for this sandwich. Those factors inflated the cost a little but when you consider that I’m using some leftovers I’m getting extra value from it. This sandwich could be made even cheaper if you got ingredients in bulk and you made your own buns at home. Imagine how low you can go! Enjoy!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, get the posts via email, read more about the blog in our about page, or browse our archives. Thanks for visiting!

Comments

6 Responses to “Reducipe - The Budget Breakfast Sandwich”

ValleyGirl on October 13th, 2007 11:26 am

We always make these too, but with English muffins. Yumm. I usually bake the eggs and pre-cooked bacon or ham in a couple of muffin tins (large size; one egg in each) and then after they’ve cooled off, I freeze the ‘patties’ to use at a later date to save time.

I found your site — actually, I don’t remember how I found it, but I really enjoy it. My husband and I are trying to live more frugally and I love all the advice.
~Dawn on October 13th, 2007 12:10 pm

I use regular sliced bread, egg (with broken egg yolk) and bacon strips. YUM!!!
Alison on October 13th, 2007 2:22 pm

What a great way to use up hamburger buns! Thanks for the idea.
Melissa on October 14th, 2007 2:26 pm

@ValleyGirl - Your method sounds good, too! I never even thought about freezing the “patties”. I’m glad you found our site! Welcome and thanks for compliment!

@Dawn - Your way sounds like it would be even cheaper using regular bread. I also break the yolks on my eggs and I’m sure to cook them over-hard. They turn out better that way IMO.

@Alison - I’m glad I could help! I’m always looking for ways to use up bread because it goes bad so quickly. Thanks for commenting!
Chef Tom on October 17th, 2007 4:10 pm

Reducipe….lol Good call! Cheap breakfast makes me happy!
Melissa on October 18th, 2007 12:42 pm

@Chef Tom - Welcome and I’m glad you commented!

Cheap breakfasts make me happy, too. My husband, Eric, gets the credit for coming up with “reducipes”. I love it!