Roadside Diner

Recent fast food breakfast finds that are astonishingly tasty and pocketbook friendly, too?

Caribou Coffee's Chicken Apple Sausage Daybreaker:

The "brioche" bun has more a challah chewy density and sweetness, but it pairs really well with the savory/sweet elements of the chicken apple sausage. This thing is so darned good that I haven't gotten around to trying the rest of Caribou's hot breakfast sandwich offerings... but I'll get there eventually. The Daybreakers are less than $3.75 with tax -- a great value, especially for the quality of the ingredients.

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It's also no secret that I'm a huge fan of Potbelly's breakfast sandwiches, which for $3.32 with tax, are an incredible bargain. But NOW, my local Potbelly's is offering breakfast "squares," where the bread is a square-shaped, skinnier and slightly smaller roll, the egg portion remains the same as the original sandwiches, but the meat portions are a little smaller (1 sausage patty instead of two, for example) and they now have cheddar cheese available. The new bread toasts up crispy and wonderful, and the portion size is more lady-like. For about $2.75, this is a steal of a deal!

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On the flip side, Dunkin Doughnuts has a new calorie and cholesterol bomb called the "Big N' Toasty" that contains not one, but two fried eggs, four slices of bacon and American cheese piled onto liberally buttered and grilled Texas Toast.

At 580 calories and 55% of your recommended daily allowance of saturated fat, and costing just under $5.00 with tax, this might give you pause. I will say, however, that they're not kidding about the tasty part. Rats.

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So why am I so fixated on breakfast all of a sudden?

I normally spend the last five to ten minutes of my train ride into the city assessing the level of my hunger pangs and the demands of my taste buds, then plotting my pathway to Burrito Beach for a Lo-Carb Scramble or to Potbelly's or Caribou or Dunkin Doughnuts or to Lloyd's Express for a more customized breakfast, working up a healthy appetite by the time I've picked up the daily selection and hit my desk. I am a creature of habit, dammit.

I don't usually give things up for Lent, but this year I decided that it would be good for my self discipline, if not my soul, to give it the ol' college try this year. And I figured that for it to be a true exercise in self denial, then it might as well be something I really, truly love... and I love breakfast.

How do I define breakfast? It is the meal that you eat after waking up in the morning any time before 11:30 a.m. It also involves fried or scrambled eggs, bacon (not even on burgers) and/or sausage, pancakes, french toast or hash browns at any time of the day.

Urk.

(I can do this...)