"breakfast" news and stories

Back in September, we reported on a new item joining the menu at McDonald's -- oatmeal! -- but the company wasn't quite ready to reveal all the details. Well, Nation's Restaurant News reports that the new "Fruit & Maple Oatmeal" will be available "all day long, with or without brown sugar, for $1.99" starting on January 3rd at more than 14,000 locations.

Other chains have recently adopted the comforting breakfast dish, including Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, Ja mba Juice and Prêt à Manger, notes Nation's Restaurant News, so a McD version of oatmeal isn't a shocker.

Their version contains "five grams of dietary fiber and two-thirds of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommended daily allowance of whole grain." Not bad, golden arches. The dish will also come with half a cup's worth of "red and green apples, dried cranberries and golden and regular raisins." This amounts to 290 calories of sugar (260 without the added brown sugar) largely from the fruit, of course.

Every year it seems like Black Friday sales are starting earlier and earlier (some now even start on Thanksgiving Thursday!), so how do you stay nourished and fight the crowds? Well, the only restaurants that are open that early, besides your good 'ol home, and maybe your good ol' 24-hour diner, are the fast-food joints.

We've rounded up our favorite fast-food breakfasts in one photo gallery for you. We don't like to promote fast-food per se, but we wouldn't want you to go without eating while you wait on those long lines.

If all else fails, cook up some hot chocolate and bring a Thermos with you.

Good morning! Or is it?

Not if you snagged a 640-calorie sausage, egg and cheese croissant from Dunkin' Donuts on the way to work. As Lisa Lee Freeman, editor-in-chef of ShopSmart magazine puts it, "making a bad choice for breakfast is, well, really bad. Eating breakfast has a host of advantages, whether it's controlling your cholesterol and blood-sugar levels, maintaining a healthy weight, and boosting your energy and memory."

Does that come with a side of tsk-tsk?

Yes, folks, it does. SmartShop has trolled the nutritional data from national chains (which is actually available to anyone who gives a good-morning hoot) in order to bring us their list of do's and don'ts for breakfast. Or, as the magazine categorizes the a.m. fare of a variety of chains in its November issue -- "pick it" or "skip it."

With all the buzz around the new Burger King breakfast menu, we couldn't resist an invitation to attend a press taste test of the new menu items. Walking into Burger King Thursday morning, we saw blue tablecloths, actual silverware and waiters -- were we in the right place? It was clear that Burger King meant business about their new menu and that we were in for a treat.

Burger King has added nine new items to the breakfast menu. Some of those include blueberry biscuits, the Sausage, Egg and Cheese Croissan'wich, the BK Breakfast Bowl, a pancake platter and the BK Breakfast Ciabatta Club Sandwich. They're also brewing Seattle's Best coffee and have launched an advertising campaign that's very product focused and, according to North America Chief Marketing Officer Michael Kappitt, "The largest campaign in my time, which is eight years."

Burger King's new breakfast menu made its debut in restaurants across the country on Tuesday in the company's "largest menu expansion ever."

New breakfast items include pancake platters, blueberry mini-muffins, a cibatta breakfast sandwich and iced coffee drinks, Nation's Restaurant News reported. The new menu items will be available until 10:30 a.m. daily.

"We're ready to compete to be America's wake-up call with our new BK Breakfast Menu," Mike Kappitt, Burger King's chief marketing officer for North America, said in a statement. "We're recognized far and wide for our superior burgers, and we're confident guests will know and love us for breakfast as well. Given the quality, variety and value on our new menu, Burger King is sure to become the destination for breakfast."