What's for Breakfast: Sausage and Egg Sandwich

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

Kids seem to like these egg and sausage sandwiches. Finally, I broke down and tried one myself.

I've noticed before, the breakfast sausage is bland and spicy at the same time. Meaning, there's not much seasoning except what seems to be red pepper flakes. I'm surprised the kids aren't put off by it.

These days the eggs are not scrambled in a factory hundreds of miles away and shipped frozen. They're scrambled in the school kitchen from liquid eggs. They could use a little more salt. But the future of school food is no salt. In fact, even the USDA is at a loss to figure how schools will cut the salt in cafeteria food by half over the next 10 years. Does that mean school food will be healthier but flavorless?

Fitting perfectly in that category is this English muffin. It has no flavor at all. None.

What's for Lunch: Chicken Sandwich

By Ed Bruske
aka The slow Cook

I tried to interest daughter in this chicken sandwich when I noticed it on the Chartwells menu website. But she was having none of it.

"Those chicken patties aren't any good," she said. "They're dry."

But this was no chicken patty, but a piece of seasoned chicken breast. It thought it was great.


Here's a view of the chicken under the hood.

On the side was what Chartwells called an "ancho chili sauce." Typically, the kids don't know what to do with the sandwich dressings. But I do. I'm building my sandwich the way it was intended with the lettuce and tomato over the chicken and the chili sauce on the bun.

Here's a side view. You can see how thick the breast was--and moist.

Those carrots and green beans did get more than usual interest from the kids. They usually barely touch the vegetables on their trays. But I think the carrots added some interest. The Chartwells menu called for a "garlic and herb vegetable medley with squash, carrots and green beans." I didn't see any squash, but the carrots and green beans were good enough for me.

What the kids really wanted was that plastic cup of canned peaches.

Altogether, I thought this was a terrific lunch--even if my daughter didn't.