The Lunds & Byerlys (0r L&B) chain of stores is a staple in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. Their upscale take on the traditional grocery store creates a shopping experience that’s a bit more pleasant than the high-stress grocery excursions we’re used to. Plus, their produce tends to be a sizeable cut above their competition. If you’re in the Minneapolis area, you should definitely stop in to check one of these stores for yourself.
Lunds & Byerlys also has their own proprietary line of food. Obviously, that line includes a whole bunch of frozen food, and we’d like to try as much of it as possible. Today, we’re looking into the hearty Sausage & Potato Egg Bake. Our tummies are rumblin’ already!
But first, this thing must be cooked, and that’s no small task. There are microwave instructions, of course, but the recommended cooking method is in the oven. We went with the latter, because we wanted to experience this as the folks at Lunds & Byerlys intended. This means we had to preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit, then peel the plastic off the egg bake and wrap it in aluminum foil. We then stuck it on a cookie sheet and popped it into the oven for about 40 minutes. After that, we took it out, removed the aluminum foil, and popped it back in for another 20 minutes or so. Yes, that’s a full hour of cook time for a single-serve meal.
Now, at this point, you’re probably wondering about those potatoes. Are these big, hearty chunks, or are they in the form of something more breakfast-y, like hash browns? The answer is the latter. These are strings of shredded potato, though they don’t end up crisping on the outside like a traditional pan of hash browns. These are more like the moist, starchy bits of potato you’ll find at the center of an especially thick serving of hash browns.
The sausage is delicious. For some reason, we were expecting something akin to what you’d find on a sausage pizza. Instead, this has the flavor of a breakfast sausage link. That’s definitely the right choice for this dish. However, there just isn’t enough sausage here. In our entire dish, we only found two balls of the stuff (one of which you can see in our image above) and a few smaller chunks. If we could change just one thing about this dish, we’d add more sausage for sure.
There also isn’t as much egg as we expected, though we weren’t as disappointed by this as we were by the sausage portion. It’s not that we don’t like eggs — quite the contrary, we love them. It’s just that the potato shreds make such a good base for this particular meal that the eggs are really just there to fluff it up a bit.
The real star of this breakfast show, of course, is the cheese. Dear God, the cheese. This is a blend of heavy whipping cream, mild cheddar cheese, and swiss cheese. Yes, it’s creamy. Yes, it’s stretchy. Yes, it lends it’s gooey flavor to every single bite of this meal. It’s wonderful stuff, and this egg bake just wouldn’t have been the same without it.
This is no diet food. One tray of this stuff contains 430 calories (270 from fat) and 720 mg of sodium. Dieters might want to avoid this, but those looking for an early-morning burst of calories will definitely find it here.
The Lunds & Byerlys Sausage & Potato Egg Bake is a wonderful breakfast food. It takes a while to bake and it has more calories than we would have liked, but the flavor is incredible. The next time you’re in the Minneapolis area, we recommend picking up one of these delicious early-morning treats.
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this L&B egg bake, check out our package scan below.
