Back when I was in diet mode, these turkey sausage patties were in heavy rotation — a simple way to get real protein into breakfast without a smoker involved at all. I made a batch, I ate off it for days, and I did it more times than I could count.

It starts with Italian ground turkey, which is bland on its own, so it needs a fairly heavy hand with the seasoning: garlic powder, onion flakes, red pepper flakes, black pepper, ground sage, cumin, a dash of liquid smoke, and a little maple extract. I don’t measure any of it out — never have, this isn’t a two-tablespoons-of-this recipe. I shake it in, mix it in well, and judge it by how it looks and how evenly it’s mixed through, not by tasting it — it’s still raw at that point.

Once it’s mixed, I weigh it out into 1 oz portions and fry them up. A pound of ground turkey gets you about 16 servings that way, for under $3 a pound — cheap protein, and at about 47 calories per 1 oz serving (22.5 of those from fat, 5 grams of protein), it did exactly what I needed it to do while I was watching what I ate. I’d bag the cooked portions up and go through them for breakfast, one patty with an egg, pretty much daily.

I haven’t made a batch of these in a while. But looking back at the recipe while writing this reminded me why I made them so often — they were an easy way to get some protein into breakfast without making a big production out of it. It might be time to bring them back into the rotation.

Turning It Into a Breakfast Burrito

This used to be my go-to breakfast during the work week: scramble an egg in a hot pan with a little nonstick spray, dice up one of the turkey sausage patties and add it on top while the egg cooks. Let the egg fully cook, flip it, then add fat-free cheese and some fresh salsa or pico on top. Fold it up, wrap it in a tortilla, and that’s breakfast — high in protein, low in calories, and it travels well if you’re headed out the door.