Chef Katie Lee's perfect breakfast for busy moms: 'This is just like brunch'

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Take the Yahoo Life post-Thanksgiving 5 Day Reset Your Breakfast Challenge to kick start your week. Follow along with us as we feature celebrity chefs who show us how to make a different breakfast every day this week.

Chef Katie Lee is a new mom with a high-protein breakfast challenge.

For the host of the Food Network’s Saturday morning show The Kitchen, life at home has been a little chaotic recently. “I just had a baby,”Katie Lee Biegel tells Yahoo Life. “We’re all a little crazy!” That means most mornings she just eats a quick bowl of oatmeal – and very much needs to take on the Yahoo Life Reset Your Breakfast 5 Day Challenge to remember what it’s like to make a little something special for the first meal of the day.

In looking for a recipe that matched her nutritional needs as a hardworking new mom as well as her wish for a breakfast that adds a little something nice but simple to the day, Biegel decided to demonstrate how to make her Gardein Burger Twist – a dish that brings together a vegetarian burger with avocado toast.

She starts with the Gardein Ultimate Plant-Based Burger, which she likes because the 19 grams of protein for breakfast boost energy levels and metabolism during the day. “As a busy mom,” she says, “I need to get protein where I can.” But it also makes life easy, since she can just slide it straight from the package, frozen, into the skillet with a little olive oil. “It smells so good,” she exclaims, marveling at the nice browning it gets in the pan.

Chef Katie Lee's special breakfast: A Gardein Burger Twist.
Chef Katie Lee's special breakfast: A Gardein Burger Twist.

While the burgers cook, she slides eggs into another pan, also with olive oil, sets it over low heat and lets them cook covered to get a nice runny yolk. “I missed that when I was pregnant,” she says. She grabs her whole wheat toast (“To get my fiber in,” she says) to use as a base and the avocado to prep. “Always wash the avocado,” she advises, “so what’s on the outside doesn’t go on the inside.” Then she saves herself from dirtying more dishes by just dropping the avocado half directly onto the toast. “I’m not a fan of dirty dishes,” she laughs. So she just gently slices the avocado right on the bread, then uses a fork to mash it up. “I love all the healthy fats.”

“If we were living normal life, I’d be having this at a restaurant with my girlfriends, drinking a bloody Mary.”Katie Lee Biegel

Once she finishes with that, she slides the burger on top, then the egg right on top of that before turning to the special flavor additions. “It’s about to get better,” she says, with bright pink of her husband Ryan’s pickled onions – which are good enough she’s got them posted on her Instagram for easy access – and a crumble of feta for that funky cheese flavor. Finally, she recommends adding a little Sriracha if you like, even though she can’t, because, she says sadly, she’s still breastfeeding and “the baby doesn’t like spicy.”

The big burger flavor – which, according to Katie Lee, tastes just like beef – and her toppings mean that there’s something for everyone in this breakfast (or maybe breakfast for dinner), she says. “This is just like brunch,” she adds. “If we were living normal life, I’d be having this at a restaurant with my girlfriends, drinking a bloody Mary.”

Ingredients:

One ripe avocado

Salt and pepper to taste

Two slices of whole grain toast

Two Gardein’s Ultimate Plant-Based Burgers

Two eggs

Hot sauce

Instructions:

Use a fork to mash a ripe avocado with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Spread it onto two pieces of whole grain toast. Top with a cooked Gardein’s Ultimate Plant-Based Burger, a runny egg and a dash of hot sauce. Tada! Brunch is served. Bonus points if you add some fresh sliced tomato, crumbled feta, and pickled onion.

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