Frugal Homemade Breakfast Sausage

chicken breakfast sausage with basil scrambled eggs, cherry tomatoes, and homemade bread

My husband has a breakfast dilemma.  He doesn't like oatmeal. He doesn't like eggs. He doesn't like yogurt. He does like toast with peanut butter, but it doesn't keep him going. He's not into the idea of eating dinner food for breakfast. And we don't buy cereal.

(He's really not that picky...it's mostly just breakfast foods...)

What's a wife to do? I'm not usually up in time to make him something (french toast sometimes hits the spot, or I'll doctor up some eggs so there's enough to distract him from the eggs themselves), so he's left to eat some peanut butter toast and then be shaky hungry an hour into his first class. No good!

He does love breakfast meat. Give this man bacon or sausage and he's a happy camper.

However, it's hard to find good breakfast meats that fit the budget. So finally I came up with this solution, enabling him to feast on sausage all he wants: I made my own.

I can buy ground chicken for a good price from a local farm that feeds their chickens non-GMO feed and lets them run around outside. It's much cheaper than buying local/organic pork breakfast sausage, or even ground pork.

I make two pounds worth at a time, form into patties, and bake them in the oven. Then I throw them in the freezer. When my husband wants sausage for breakfast, he just pulls one out and browns it in the iron skillet. I like mine with eggs or french toast or pancakes, but he's been known to eat them by themselves. :) We also pull them out occasionally when we need to bulk up a meal a bit or don't have any leftovers to eat for lunch. I've even made biscuits and gravy with these fellers. Take that Bob Evans!

Homemade Chicken Breakfast Sausage

(adapted from "Turkey Breakfast Sausage" in Nourishing Traditions)

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground chicken
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 t. each cumin, oregano, marjoram, nutmeg, black pepper, ground ginger
1 t. each basil, thyme, sage
a couple pinches cayenne, to taste
2 t. salt
1/4 c. homemade breadcrumbs (I just grind up ends of bread in the blender/food processor)
2 eggs (I've left these out, too, and they were just fine)

Directions:
Mush all ingredients together with your hands. Form into patties. Bake in a 350 degree F oven until no longer pink, about 25 minutes. Or fry in butter in a skillet. (Be careful not to over-brown if you plan to freeze and reheat them.)

To reheat, place in a cast iron skillet with a little butter and cook on low heat until hot all the way through.

Have you ever made your own sausage? Tell us about it!

This is part of: Fight Back Friday, Farm Girl Blog Fest, Simple Meals Friday, Figure Friendly Comfort Foods, Foodie Friday, Thank Your Body Thursday, Monday Mania, Make Your Own Monday