homemade breakfast sausage

reducing processed meat intake 🤝 next level delicious

Processed meat is the most important processed food to reduce in your diet. It’s strongly tied to multiple gut-related chronic health conditions, including colon cancer. I’m not trying to scare you because a lot of factors go into that, I’m just saying to swap out processed meat when you can, like making your own breakfast sausage. this recipe is easy to make and meal prep and it’s seriously delicious.

I want to repeat, I’m not trying to scare you! Including some processed meat in your diet is okay. I eat turkey bacon and Chomps sticks and I feel totally fine about that. Eating sausage sometimes is not going to give you cancer. But I also think it’s important to share accurate nutrition information, and processed meat is strongly correlated to colon cancer, among other gut-related conditions like dysbiosis, gut inflammation, digestive issues, and more.

The reason that over-consuming processed meat is so bad for your gut is mostly due to preservative chemicals and chemicals that are naturally released in meat during the cooking & preserving process. Reducing your processed meat intake reduces your exposure to those chemicals.

As with everything in nutrition, dose and quality matter. dose meaning the amount and frequency of your consumption of processed meat, and quality refers to the quality of the meat and the processing.

So what do you do? Decrease your processed meat intake, pay attention to quality and ingredients when buying processed meat, and prepare your own unprocessed meat at home.

Try to limit your processed meat consumption to a few times a week or less. Examples of processed meat: sausage, bacon, hot dogs, jerky, pepperoni, deli meat like turkey or ham.

I hope you try this homemade breakfast sausage recipe! It’s so good and such an easy option for a healthier protein source in the mornings.

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Homemade Chicken Breakfast Sausage
Makes 12
Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
1 ½ lbs ground chicken
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tbsp olive oil
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp ground sage
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp thyme
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp ginger
¼ tsp cayenne

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.

2. Preheat a large skillet to medium heat. Spray with oil. Line a baking sheet with tin foil or parchment paper.

3. Form 12 small (about 2 inches across) patties and place them on the baking sheet.

4. When the pan is heated and the oil is shimmering, transfer the sausage patties. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side, until they have a golden coloring and the center is 165F.

5. Store in the fridge for up to 4-5 days, or in the freezer for 4-6 months. If reheating from frozen, I recommend thawing in the fridge overnight before microwaving or pan frying.