Breakfast choices

I noticed that a co-worker brought in Pop-Tarts for breakfast the other morning.  Probably because they are fast and convenient.  She is the mother of 2 preschoolers and has a hectic life.  I don't have a hectic life, but I'm all about convenient.  Still our breakfasts were very different, but just as convenient to pack in the morning.

I was curious so compared two Pop-tarts to my breakfast.  First I want to say that the serving size is one pastry not two, but come on, who eats one Pop-tart?

Anyway, here is the nutritional breakdown for two Pop-tarts:

Calories - 420                                            Sodium - 340mg
Total Fat - 14G                                          Total Carbs - 68G
 Protein - 4G                                              Fiber - 1G
Cholesterol - 0                                            Sugars - 30G


20% Vitamin A, Calcium and Iron


My breakfast this morning consisted of 2 whole wheat pancakes with butter and sugar free blackberry preserves and 3 links of brown and serve turkey sausage.  Here's the nutritional breakdown for this breakfast:


Calories - 392                                            Sodium - 682mg
Total Fat - 17G                                          Total Carbs - 43G
 Protein - 16G                                            Fiber - 2G
Cholesterol - 89                                          Sugars - 11G

4% Vitamin A, 14% Calcium, 10% Iron.

My breakfast has fewer calories, a little more fat (from the butter I used) 4x as much protein, fewer carbs, more fiber, less sugar and more cholesterol.  However they are still reasonably close and if you had Pop-tarts for breakfast and ate wisely the rest of the day, you'd be o.k.  Still, which breakfast do you think is more satisfying and was enjoyed more?


As for convenience, I stated earlier that I made a batch of pancakes on the weekend when I had plenty of time, let them cool, put them in baggies and tossed them in the freezer.  I prefer to fry up a batch of regular turkey sausage and do the same thing, but I thought I'd try the brown and serve stuff.  I'm definitely going back to regular sausage.  The only work I had to do last night was to spoon some jelly into a baggie.  I pulled the pancakes and sausage from the freezer last night and put them in the fridge.  This morning, I opened the fridge and put all three in my lunch box.  At work, I popped the pancakes in the toaster and nuked the sausage for 45 seconds.

So on a weekday morning, in the same amount of time it would take to pack and toast two Pop-tarts, I packed and prepared pancakes and sausage.  A little prep work goes a long way in making a diet successful.