Best New Breakfast On the Go

By Dana McMahan FoodConnect Louisville foodconnect.com@gmail.com Best New Breakfast On the Go I travel for work regularly, and while I love looking for great places to eat dinner on the company dime, breakfast is a struggle. Hotel breakfasts for a non meat eater are horrid – high on sugar and fat, low on nutrients. I don’t eat at fast food restaurants, and don’t have time to go to a sit-down restaurant, and even if I did, it would doubtless cost more than my per diem. I spent a few days in Atlanta recently for work, and set out on the first morning to find breakfast. The bakery across the street from the hotel looked promising but didn’t have iced coffee. Sorry, but summer in Atlanta is bad enough without adding hot coffee to the mix. So I stepped into a Starbucks and found my favorite new on-the-go breakfast. It’s a cute little cheese and fruit plate just perfect for starting your day. I don’t know when they introduced it – I only knew about their oatmeal, an overpriced convenience. This little kit has four slices of tart but sweet apple, grapes green and purple, three Carr’s water crackers, three cubes of Asiago cheese, a wedge of medium cheddar and another of brie. Despite all the cheese it weighs in at less than 400 calories. It’s five bucks and some change – I’d never spend that on my own, but when someone else is footing the bill it’s a good value for a breakfast away from home. I paired the cheddar with the apple, the asiago with the grapes and the brie with the crackers and washed it all down with an iced vanilla coffee, all for less than $8.00. The cheese has enough protein and fat to help me stay full through the morning and the fruit makes me feel like I’m making at least a token effort to stay healthy on the road. I hope they keep this on the menu, because this will be my default breakfast while traveling.