Breckenridge Farms Breakfast Review (Dollar Tree)

Dollar Tree BreakfastI’m always searching out economical food buys, for three reasons: 1) I like to eat/maximize my own budget, 2) I have a special sympathy for groups like seniors and the economically disadvantaged in times of skyrocketing food prices, and 3) I’ve been through a few economic ups and down cycles in my life, tho largely of my own devising.  In that regard, my history has been, “make a lot of money, meet a woman, lose the money, lose the woman.” Rinse. Repeat. Think I’d learn?  Yeah, I did.  This time around I outsmarted the situation.  Ha.

As a result of the three reasons stated above, I’ve tested a lot of foods from dollar and discount grocery stores, and “most” aren’t all that bad. Some are astonishingly good, even, like the egg rolls, and empanadas.  I don’t really mind the heat and eat burgers, either.  The ‘fishwich’ is as good as any fast food offering at 1/3 the price or less.

At Dollar Tree, management has wisely created house brands, instead of selling manufacturer close outs. They can control consistency, quality, and inventory that way. Dollar Tree’s distribution company is called Greenbrier International, and  it serves the 5000 Dollar Tree stores and thousands of others, as well.

Breckenridge Farms is one such store brand, and their breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage links, and hash browns (for a dollar!) is manufactured by a division of Idaho’s JR Simplot, one of America’s largest privately owned food processors, and certainly number one in the potato processing business. (Irrelevant sidenote:  did you know ten percent of the entire potato crop in the US goes to McDonalds?). (Another irrelevant sidenote:  there are massive french fry processing plants along the Columbia River in Oregon, and you don’t wanna know what they dump in the river, fo sho).

My breakfast was made in N. Charleroi, a Pennsylvania burg of 1200 souls, just off I-70, on the Monongahela River, 30 minutes south of Pittsburgh. It’s one of nearly a dozen Simplot plants in the US. (They have some in China and other international locations as well). The Pennsylvania USDA plant (# 9969) is capable of making sandwiches, tray and bowl meals.  Not sure of the Google map accuracy on this one, but they show the plant as along the river (below).

My 300 calorie breakfast was heated for 3 minutes in the microwave, and the end product is relatively free of undesirable ingredients, and fairly decent in the RDA department. No corn syrup to be found on the ingredient list, the sausage is pure pork, no ‘mechanically separated poultry’ (whew) as ingredients. The eggs are……eggs.

Would I buy it again, recommend it?  Yes. There are other varieties as well, pancakes, waffles and such. Stock the freezer, feed the kiddies.

Dollar Tree Breakfast

Out of package, prior to heating

Dollar Tree Breakfast

Dollar Tree Breakfast, Plated (pepper added)

Dollar Tree Breakfast

Simplot Factory, Pennsylvania

 

 

 

 

 

Breckenridge Farms Breakfast Review

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