What's for Breakfast: Whole Wheat Bagel

Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

A "whole wheat bagel" with "all natural sunflower butter" was the alternate choice for breakfast yesterday, along with juice and milk. Occasionally my daughter eats breakfast at school, so I got a chance to try the bagel and the sunflower butter.

The bagel is more like bread--very soft, but not bad. I'm curious to know who makes it and what's in it, but I haven't found a package label for it yet. Under the "Healthy Schools Act" passed by the D.C. Council earlier this year, the schools are required to post the ingredients for all the foods they serve in a place where the public can easily find them. They say they'll be launching an interactive website in November.



Here's a close-up of the Sunbutter (my daughter took these photos). Sunbutter is made by Red River Commodities in Fargo, N.D. According to the company's website, the "creamy" version of its sunflower butter contains sunflower seed, sugar, mono-diglycerides "to prevent separation," salt and "mixed tocopherols to preserve freshness."

A two-tablespoon serving of Sunbutter contains 200 calories, 16 grams of fat (mostly polyunsaturated and monounsaturated), three grams of sugar (less than a teaspoon) and seven grams of protein. It also delivers heft portions of Vitamin E, magnesium and copper.

Vegetarian Alternate: Bagel with Sunflower Butter

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

The standing alternate cold meal on Mondays that Chartwells lists for elementary schools is "whole wheat bagel combo with sunflower butter, part skim string cheese, and marinated locally grown tomato and cucumber salad."

The only thing missing here in is the string cheese. Otherwise, the vegetables look incredibly fresh. And sunflower butter?

That's a new one on me. I had to do a little research.

Sunbutter bills itself as a peanut-free alternative to peanut butter, but it tastes very much the same. Made by Red River Commodities in Fargo, N.D., a two-tablespoon serving of the "creamy" variety contains 16 grams of fat, half of which is mono-unsaturated, 4 grams of dietary fiber and 3 grams of sugar, or less than a teaspoon.

A single serving, according to the company, delivers 27 percent of the recommended daily requirement for Vitamin E.