My favorite (and frugal) breakfast spot

As I’m sure you know, zee family FG eats a lot of meals at home.

But when we want to go out for breakfast, Panera Bread is our first choice.

When Mr. FG takes one of the kids out for a special trip, they can often be found at Panera.

And when I want to meet up with a friend, you can often find us at Panera.

Why?

Well, I love that Panera is so affordable.

If the six of us go to a sit-down breakfast place or even to a fast-food breakfast place, our bill can easily be $30 or more.

But at Panera, we can happily eat buttered, toasted bagels and spend only a couple of dollars per person.

And it’s not like we’re eating bland pancakes and limp bacon either…the food at Panera is delicious and is baked fresh that same day.

Plus, I adore the peaceful atmosphere at Panera. It’s perfect for conversation, and I also appreciate the quietness when I occasionally head out by myself.

My kids love Panera’s cinnamon crunch and chocolate chip bagels, Mr. FG loves the Asiago cheese bagels, and me?

I almost always order the Mediterranean Egg White Power Sandwich (except I think it’s totally fine to eat egg yolks, so I always request that mine be made with a whole egg.)

The combo of egg and sun-dried tomato and cheese and toasted bread is ridiculously good.

I dislike disposable plates and I downright loathe plastic knives, so I like that you can get real plates and knives at Panera.

Oh, and if you bring your own reusable mug, they’ll put your hot drink in that instead of in a disposable cup.

You know that makes me happy.

Panera has a free loyalty rewards program (I signed up for it as soon as they introduced it. Naturally.) which gives you free goodies here and there throughout the year, including a free treat on your birthday.

Speaking of rewards…Panera is rolling out something new this month: a the Panera Breakfast Backstory Challenge.

What’s that?

Well, Panera wants to share the story behind the goodies they bake fresh every day and to do that, they’ve created articles, videos, and even some recipes for you (the Tropical Overnight Oatmeal is on my to-try list!)

(email subscribers, you can click here to watch the power sandwich backstory video)

By viewing/reading these, you can learn about what goes into the bread at Panera and also earn Breakfast Backstory Badges, which enter you into drawings for some super-awesome prizes (like a Breville juicer!)

Aaaaand, once you earn all three badges, a surprise will be loaded onto your My Panera card, plus a chance to win a culinary experience for two in NYC!

(Me? I got a free bagel. Nom, nom.)

One of you will get a whole lot more than a free bagel, though…I‘m giving away a $100 gift card to a lucky reader! We’ll get to that in just a sec, but for now, think about your favorite way to start the day.

Morning is one of my favorite times of day because I love that the day is fresh and new. To me, it’s the most hopeful time of day…it’s like I’ve been given a blank slate to write on and the possibilities are endless!

My favorite way to start the day is to get up before my kids, spend some time by myself (reading my Bible, praying, reading my email, and blogging), and then go eat breakfast with my family. I love them to the moon and back, but for me, having some quiet time on my own makes all the difference in the world.

So, what about you?

What’s your favorite way to start the day? Share by leaving a comment, and you’ll be entered to win the $100 Panera gift card!

Sweepstakes Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

• Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

• Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

• Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 11/13/13 – 12/8/13.

Be sure to visit the Panera Bread’s page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!