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One of my most favorite parts about being a host on QVC is hearing about your wellness successes! I have really enjoyed reading your Facebook posts about Zumba Fitness (F09618),  Tracy Anderson Method (F09476), Nutrisystem, and Dr. Tabor’s Slim and Beautiful System (A223757). Thank you for allowing me to celebrate alongside you and share in your joy!!!!

Lately, I’ve received lots of questions about what I eat. I eat lots of different things, but I’ve devised my own personal “system” to streamline the process. In order to ensure I’m getting the proper nutrition throughout the day, I’ve devised a plan that I call “Fabulous 400”. The idea was based on the theory that it is better to eat five to six small meals throughout the day. For me and my fitness level, I try to eat somewhere between 2000 to 2500 calories per day. My Fabulous 400 is a collection of “mini-meals” that each total about 400 calories. Are you following me? So, if I ate five Fab400s in a day, I would have consumed 2000 calories; six Fab400’s equals 2400 calories. This not only allows for me to take control of my nutrition, it makes packing lunch for the day super easy. Not to mention TASTY!

As I’ve been doing this for myself, I was prompted to apply the Fab400 principal to some of my children’s meals (more for the ease of preparation than the calories) after a recent incident: 

Last Saturday, while watching cartoons, the Littles all came running to see if we could have “Big and Toasties” for breakfast. “Big and What?!?!” I say. Needless to say it was a fast food restaurant’s version of a breakfast sandwich. (Don’t you just love the enticement commercials have on our children….NOT!) I haven’t looked up the nutritional information on that specific item, but I have to believe that anything that comes via a drive-through wrapped in greasy paper can’t be stellar on the food pyramid.

Immediately, I wondered if I could make a better breakfast sandwich. Here’s the process that took place with our Saturday morning cooking expedition: 

As we’ve discussed on my Facebook page, my efforts with the boiled egg have been DISMAL!

I’ve now switched to a “baked egg” concoction….not only to streamline my process, but also to manage the morning craziness around the house. Somehow, my children have come to think of me as a short order cook…SIGH…

Back to the breakfast sandwich: I called upon some of my streamlining/assembly-line resources to make this happen. Here’s what I did:

I got out two of my favorite mini loaf pans (I’m sure a muffin top pan would work too).

Then, I filled each opening with 1/4-cup of egg substitute. You can use real eggs or egg whites, but for today, I was looking for super quick and easy—plus, I’m watching Hubby’s cholesterol. :~)

The carton was able to fill both pans, which gave me 15 egg “patties”  (for lack of a better word).

(As a side note, the heart-shaped ones came out SUPER cute and I served those to my kids one day as “love” breakfast. They thought it was great. I also served sliced strawberries with the “love” breakfast as they kind of had a heart shape.)

Back to the breakfast sandwich assembly: I gathered all the necessary ingredients: Two slices of wheat bread, sliced Colby Jack cheese, two rectangular egg patties, and 2-oz deli ham.

I dry toasted the bread, pan fried the ham, and warmed the egg patties. Next: Layer the ham on one slice of bread and the egg on the other. Add the cheese slice. Put back in toaster oven or broiler open faced to melt the cheese. Slice and serve.

Here’s what I learned: 

Rectangular egg patties work better than round or heart-shaped if you're using traditional sandwich bread. Heart or round may work best for English muffins or bagels—I think I’ll try that next. Plus, the rectangular patties make it really easy to cut the sandwich in half.

Half-sandwiches were plenty for my two youngest (ages five and seven).

Calorie counts were FABULOUS, but the sodium was ridiculous. I’m still exploring options on this one….maybe reduced fat turkey sausage???

Leftover egg patties are extremely kid-friendly! I stored the extra in a small Lock & Lock nestable (K36184) and the kids were able to serve themselves.  (About 20 seconds in the microwave heated them right back up without making them rubbery.)

Here’s the nutritional information as best as I could gather it. If you have any suggestions on how I can get the sodium counts down, I gladly welcome any and all ideas!

Oh, by the way…get your dancin’ shoes ready…I am so excited to bring you another round of Zumba Fitness next week (March 15 at 11am ET)!!!  Hope to see you there. And don’t forget to call in with your success story…we can celebrate together LIVE!

—Albany