Nosh: Smart Ones Morning Express Review and Giveaway!
When it comes to meals, I’m definitely a breakfast eater. I love me some egg-white omelets, pancakes, turkey bacon (okay, who am I kidding, real bacon beats the heck out of turkey bacon any morning)—you name, I like it. However, these days with a busy schedule and a tendency to hit the snooze button about two times too many, breakfast has to be just like its last four letters: fast.
Typically, I’m an oatmeal or cereal kinda gal, but sometimesI want something more delicious than whole grains. Ocassionaly, I want eggs, cheese and, yes, real bacon. But, I don’t always want to cook, especially when I barely have 10 minutes to figure out how to turn my hair from just-slept-on to somewhat-professional. If you’re often in the same a.m. predicament, the FBGs may have one option for you: The Smart Ones Morning Express line. Between the two of us, Erin and I managed to test all of the line’s offerings. Below are our very scientific (aka totally subjective) results.
Stuffed Breakfast Sandwich
With 240 calories, 7 grams of fat (2.5 saturated) and 20 mg cholesterol, this one didn’t wow me nutritionally, but it did have a pleasantly flaky crust and was uber cheesy. The veggies were a little lacking, but you got a lot of turkey bacon flavor—and this turkey bacon flavor, despite my earlier comment, is pretty darn like bacon. Go for this one if you want something really decadent and savory but don’t want the high calorie count of a trip to IHOP. Oh, and the sodium on this one is 580 mg (25 percent of your daily recommended allowance), so go easy on the salt shaker for the rest of your day.
Breakfast Quesadilla
My favorite part of this one is that after just a quick two minutes and 15 seconds in the microwave, your entire house smells like you just whipped up a breakfast buffet. Like the sandwich, this one is super cheesy. The quesadillas have 220 calories each with 6 grams of fat (3 saturated) and 20 mg of cholesterol and are slightly tastier than the abovesandwich in our opinion. The only down side is that unlike the other products in the line that are individually wrapped, the quesadillas both come wrapped in one package. This is okay if you’re cooking for two, but when it’s just you, it makes it awfully tempting to microwave both, turning your 220 calories and 710 mg of sodium into 440 calories and 1420 mg (58 percent of your daily allowance). Like we always preach, all good things in moderation.
Canadian Style Bacon English Muffin Sandwich
One of the “healthiest” breakfast items you can get at McDonald’s is the Egg McMuffin. And the Canadian Style Bacon breakfast sandwich will hit the spot if you’ve got a hankering for the Golden Arches. Like Jenn, I’m also a cereal-in-the-morning gal, so popping this into the microwave was almost a step too much for me, but I was glad I went to the “trouble” because it’s definitely tasty. While the muffin itself was a little tough, the warm, melty cheese, egg whites and Canadian bacon were a perfect blend for my morning meal. While low on calories at 210 and 6 grams of fat, this one is again high on the sodium at 700 mg (29 percent of your daily allowance). But it’s lighter than an Egg McMuffin by 90 calories and 120 mg of sodium, and it has half the fat. Not to mention, no drive-thru line.
English Muffin Sandwich
This one is just like the previous breakfast sandwich, without the slice of Canada. The lack of the bacon didn’t break the sandwich, and even my picky hubby was pleased with the taste of this one. As with the sandwich above, it was a good blend of protein, carbs and fat, as it managed to stave off hunger until lunchtime actually hit. They must add more cheese or egg whites to make up for the lack of Canadian bacon because this version also has 210 calories. With 610 mg of sodium (25 percent of your daily allowance) and 5 grams of fat, this one is slightly better nutritionally than the previous muffin sandwich.