It pretty much goes without saying that meat, egg, and cheese form the triumvirate of breakfast deliciousness in the grab-and-go world. It also goes without saying that this trinity of cholesterol, fat, and sodium will pretty much kill you if you eat too much of it and sit on your butt all day.
That is, unless you serve it up within the familiar packaging of Special K, which wants to rewards that hard butt-sitting at the office with a breakfast sandwich to keep you going without sending you into cardiac arrest.
There are a few things I give Special K the benefit of the doubt with. Cereal, obviously, is one of them. Making my girlfriend attempt contortionist yoga moves while pouring milk onto said cereal while wiggling into those skinny jeans would also be up there. Crafting a healthy breakfast sandwich that doesn’t taste rubbery or flavorless (here’s looking at you, Dunkin Donuts) isn’t.
That being said, I have an unhealthy and unrealistic expectation of box art on new grocery products and not a lot of time to spare for making breakfast in the morning, so I willingly stepped to the plate when it came to buying Special K’s new Flatbread Breakfast Sandwiches.
They must have been selling like hotcakes because there were only a few boxes of the Ham, Egg and Pepper Jack Flatbreads left on the morning I stopped by the store. If they tasted half as good as hotcakes, I might be inclined to make a joke about how I’d be on a fast track to becoming a fat dude. Except, since each flatbread is only 200 calories and packs 12 grams of protein, I guess I’d be on a fast track to being one skinny dude, which I already am.
Regular readers now know I’ve lived up to the stereotype about men and our inability to follow directions. However, in this case I followed the directions to a tee, right on down to microwaving my sandwich on a paper towel for 1 minute and 15 seconds and then letting it rest for one minute to ensure “even heating.” I followed the directions so closely that had I considered myself a child, I would have made sure to Skype my parents and have them supervise me.
After 2 minutes and 15 seconds my previously hard as a hockey puck flatbread had become warm and, to my utter bewilderment, slightly toasty. Worried the microwave process would render the bread component flimsy and soggy was a fear of mine going in, but aside from one spot where the cheese had overflowed to the side, the sandwich emerged almost as if it had a round at the number two setting in the toaster. Speaking of that cheese to the side deal, would it kill Special K to position the cheese to the middle? There’s not a lot of pepper jack to begin with, and having a sixth of my puny slice fed to the paper towel wasn’t, as the kids say, cool.
The sandwich itself isn’t half bad. Wow, I can’t believe I actually wrote that. Obviously it’s small, but the the eggs have a slightly buttery and salty flavor, with the cheese adding a really good, milky, and fatty richness that has all the melty goo and backheat you’d expect from pepper jack. Even the flatbread had a nice honey-oat flavor, which added a little sweetness and wholesomeness to the otherwise salty-heat of the eggs and cheese.
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. The cheese lacks the coverage needed to goo-ify the entire sandwich, while the ham is dry and a bit chewy. Oh yea, did I mention that it was salty? Low calorie it might be, but with 30 percent of the RDA for salt (based on a 2,000 calorie diet) it’s not going to do your blood pressure any flavors. As much as I liked the pepper jack, the sandwich screams for a little sweetness, while a salsa component that adds tomatoes would go a long way to pushing a southwestern flavor profile.
I’m not willing start giving Special K the benefit of the doubt on other crap like chicken nuggets and french fries, but for the crowd who’ve been staring at those skinny jeans or just looking to mix-up the breakfast routine with a heated component, I admit these breakfast flatbreads could be a big hit. The texture isn’t bad at all for something that starts out in your freezer, and it definitely doesn’t taste like it’s low calorie. Still, a few minor tweaks would have gone a long way to making these way tastier, and maybe even a semi-regular buy for those of us not looking to add a few new yoga moves.
(Nutrition Facts – 1 flatbread – 200 calories, 70 calories from fat, 8 grams of fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 100 milligrams of cholesterol, 730 milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 3 grams of sugar, 12 grams of protein, and 20% calcium)
Item: Special K Ham, Egg & Pepper Jack Cheese Flatbread Breakfast Sandwich
Purchased Price: $4.99
Size: 4 flatbreads
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Cheese melts up nicely and has great milky flavor with spicy backheat. Flatbread maintains toasty texture with honey-oat taste. Eggs have buttery flavor. Ham is smoky. Tastier than Dunkin Donuts’ egg white flatbreads. Only 200 calories per sandwich. Reading directions. New yoga props.
Cons: Small. Tiny. Puny. Minuscule. Not recommended if you’re a grown man. Cheese doesn’t get full coverage over the egg. Ham is dry and chewy. Could use some kind of sweetness or relief. Saltier than the Dead Sea.
I’m surprised these were decent. I’m also surprised Special K doesn’t offer frozen meals that compete with Lean Cuisine and Weight Watcher’s Smart Ones. I bet by the end of 2013, Special K will have a line of frozen entrees. Mark my words. Actually, don’t. If I’m wrong, I plan to delete this comment on Dec. 31, 2013.
We’ve tried the “egg with vegetables and pepper jack cheese” flavor, and it was VERY good!!
I am going to try these! I have tried the Jimmy Dean turkey sausage and egg white breakfast sandwiches and they were dry as well. I added a scoop of hummus on top and it was delicious!
They should put a squirt of pepper jack sauce on the sandwich to make little bit more flavor. They look good!
I’m surprised they were good too! I tried the Vitamuffin brand of egg n cheese sandwich… EW! I assume any “diet” food to not be good, yet I try it anyway. Glad to hear it’s worth a try at least! 🙂
The box-art does an incredible job of masking the reality of it inside the package. I say this because the fourth picture is nothing short of disturbing and looks like it could double as a hockey puck. It’s almost, if not exactly, as unappealing as the prepackaged sandwiches at my workplace that everybody avoids, which is also WAY overpriced.
But I’m glad you enjoyed it. My brother also goes “the breakfast-in-a-box” route most of the time. Even though he’s fully capable of making a delectable breakfast of his own. :/
Tried it and the one that is just plain egg and cheese. Although very yummy…they are not filling…this is coming from a woman that cannot eat a whole Egg Mcmuffin from Mickey D’s. I can eat one and still feel as hungry as I did before I ate it. If you’re going to eat it…you should probably have extra stuff with it…fruit…yogurt…something else to act as a filler…because THIS IS NOT IT.
This is yet another shining example of what’s SO wrong with the “American Diet”.
Flavor-wise, not bad. However, I would be much more eager to invest in more of these if only they would make the cheese and ham the SAME SIZE as the flatbread. The quality of the ham was a tad bit off-putting as well. I would actually pay a tiny bit more if these two issues were improved somewhat.
most disgusting thing I ever tasted, can’t believe others think this is good..plain crap.
The main review about covers it, but I would like to add a bit more: Go for the egg & sausage kind–it has cheese whether the label says so or not. Try rearranging the parts before putting it in the microwave to centre them. This is easy to do because the egg, sausage, and cheese come loose. I found that heating them 1:30 is not enough, so I use 1:50 and it works just fine. Get sausage sandwiches, not ham. The ham is dry, tiny, and hard to tear with your teeth. The reviewer says the sandwiches are small–what do you want for 240 calories (even fewer calories for some varieties)?
Why does everything come with cheese. Not everyone likes cheese.
I would like to point out also that for diabetics, the entire thing is 17 carbs after fiber; that is only 2g of carb over ONE serving of bread. For people who like to eat breakfast sandwiches but who cant afford the carbs of an entire bagel or large fiber- less white flour biscuit, this is a good deal. And i like the fact that ONE is a portion– no having to cut anything in half.