Healthy Homemade McGriddles (2024)

Happy New Year, everyone! It's a new year and I'm back on track and hitting the ground running with a breakfast sandwich I know I'll be making year-round--McGriddles. These Healthy Homemade McGriddles were the perfect breakfast meal prep to start 2020.

If you have followed me on Instagram in 2019, you know I've been all about Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuits. They were my most popular recipe of 2019 and rightfully so. I wanted to expand my horizons a bit and remake another drive-through favorite--McDonald's McGriddles.

Why the homemade healthy McGriddles are a perfect breakfast meal prep for WW

These healthy homemade McGriddles are only 400 calories and 26 grams of protein. They are also huge compared to the drive-through version at about 5 inches wide. Only 5 smart points on blue and purple (10 smart points on green), these are a great, protein heavy breakfast meal prep for Weight Watchers (WW).

Anyway, these McGriddles are not made with a box mix, but instead they are made from scratch--no hard to find or expensive ingredients. I take my healthy banana pancakes recipe and add a little bit of sugar-free syrup. If you know me, you know I usually don't reach for the artificial stuff, but McGriddles from McDonald's have those little nuggets of syrup, and I wanted a little extra sweetness to these. It's optional, but hey it's not McDonald's. Balance.You could also use a tsp of maple extract or the real deal syrup if you prefer.

How to cook bacon in the oven

90% of the time I meal prep breakfast sandwiches, I add center cut bacon to them. My wife prefers bacon over sausage, it's cheaper, and Wegmans sells the best center-cut bacon that happens to have exactly 16 pieces so I can cook a whole pack and make eight breakfast sandwiches. If you don't have a Wegmans near you, I do like the Target brand Center Cut Bacon. If you have neither Target nor Wegmans, my heart goes out to you.

Wegmans Center Cut Bacon is still one of my favorite product finds since joining WW. You will not see me pretending turkey bacon tastes like bacon any time soon. If you have a giant sheet tray like the one I have listed in my Amazon Store, you can fit every slice on one baking sheet which makes meal prep that much easier. I cook mine at 375 for about 13-15 minutes.

If you prefer sausage, have no fear. I've got a killer breakfast turkey sausage recipe I adore that's only 1 smart point per patty.

Pancakes are so much easier

I love my biscuit recipe so much. I do. I, however, forget how much I love pretty much all of my breakfast recipes like my French Toast and my Banana Pancakes which are objectively easier to make.

My daughters absolutely devour the banana pancakes. You'd think for how much they love them that they'd not waste so many bananas. Alas, it is rare we make it to Sunday with extra bananas.

These pancakes are a breeze to make. You mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl and mix all the wet in another. For this version, I add a little bit of sugar-free maple syrup to the wet and I fully mashed both bananas.

It is very important to just barely mix the ingredients together and then let it sit. I let my batter sit for about 10 minutes before frying up and they are perfect every time. I think Alton Brown taught me that.

To keep these pancakes sandwich size (about 5 inches wide) I used a quarter cup measure to spoon out the batter. Just like regular pancakes, you're going to give them a flip once you start seeing bubbles. You can give them a peek before flipping to make sure they are golden brown before flipping.

How to make a folded egg for breakfast sandwiches

Y'all love the folded eggs for breakfast sandwiches. I get tagged in posts all the time saying how much people love the egg fold technique. While I did not invent it, I'm happy to teach you guys that technique. I like this over regular scrambled eggs because it sits way better on the sandwich and doesn't spill out.For this visual, I am using two eggs scrambled with a pinch of salt, and I am cooking in a non stick pan sprayed with cooking spray

Cooking and Assembling

While the bacon cooks, I make my eggs. I think I made these weekly in 2019 because it's such a reliably easy way to make breakfast sandwiches. It took me a whole year of making them before it dawned on me to make McGriddles; please excuse my lateness to the revelation.

Once those are all cooked, I make my pancakes while I store my bacon and eggs in the microwave to hide them from the little bacon thieves. The pancake recipe makes 18 pancakes so don't worry if you burn one or happen to eat one.

You'll have two extra if you successfully make all of them. The pancakes freeze perfectly if you want to freeze them and microwave them later. I assemble them in the following order: ugly pancake, breakfast meat, folded egg, Velveeta cheese, pretty pancake. Yes, I use Velveeta. You could use fancier cheese, but honestly, Velveeta is amazing on breakfast sandwiches and I stand by that.

How to store and reheat meal prepped McGriddles

If I am prepping these healthy, homemade McGriddles for the week, I make them on Sunday and reheat Monday-Thursday. This recipe makes 8, so my wife and I each get breakfast sandwiches. Wrap sandwich in a paper towel (or eco friendly, microwave safe wrap) and tore in an airtight container. I reheat microwave for about 60 seconds to heat up.

You can wrap these and freeze them. I wrap them in freezer paper and store in a large, freezer bag. To reheat, I microwave for 1.5 minutes on 50% and then microwave for 45 seconds - 1.5 minutes depending on the microwave (my work microwave is the worst). You can also take a sandwich out of the freezer the night before, store in the refrigerator, and microwave as directed in the last paragraph.

Alternatively, you can make a batch of the pancakes and freeze them; you can find tips on my healthy banana pancakes post. It will save you time and energy prepping a full breakfast. On Sunday, take out your frozen banana pancakes, make the bacon and eggs, and assemble the sandwiches as you would. The pancakes will thaw overnight and you will be ready to go the next morning.