Hey, I tried one of these. Just Crack An Egg is a new idea from the folks at Ore-Ida who specialize in frozen potatoes and it comes in four variations: Denver Scramble, All American Scramble, Rustic Scramble and Ultimate Scramble. With each, you can whip up a quick omelet in your microwave just by adding one fresh egg.
I'm one of those rare freaks who isn't wild about cheese in my omelets — a preference that seems to always horrify restaurant waiters or the person at a breakfast buffet who mans the omelet station. They always look at me like I asked them to leave out the egg. Also, for allergic reasons, I don't want peppers of any sort in anything I eat. All four variations of Just Crack an Egg, like 95% of all breakfast sandwiches available in the U.S.A. contain cheese and all but the All American Scramble contain peppers. So I went with that one and decided to make it "as is," including the cheese.
You open the cup and in it, you find three little packets — one each of cheese, bacon and potatoes. You take them out. You crack your egg into the cup. You open the three packets and empty them in. You stir the uncooked omelet. You put it in your microwave for forty seconds. You stir what's in the cup then put it back in for another thirty seconds and it's done…or at least it's supposed to be. My microwave runs hot but my omelet-in-a-cup still seemed to need another fifteen seconds…but fine.
Any good? Yeah, I guess. The end product was what you'd expect: A microwaved scrambled egg with that stuff in it. But I decided I still don't want cheese in my omelet and the potatoes really didn't bring anything to the taste or texture. So what I may do in the future is crumble some cooked bacon into my own cup, crack my egg and save two and a half bucks.
This reminds me of the problem I have with all these new prepared meal services that are advertised on half the web pages I visit — services like Home Chef and Hello Fresh and Prepped and all the others who offer to deliver ready-to-heat (or sometimes, ready-to-cook) entrees to your door. Due to their relentless promotions (and my food allergies, which are many), I often feel like there's an industry out with the sole purpose of feeding me food that will kill me. Almost every carefully-selected-by-their-gourmet-chefs dinner contains something I'm allergic to and often, some component which I could eat but just plain don't like. At least with Just Crack An Egg, I could leave out the little packet of red and green peppers.
Wikipedia, which is never wrong about anything except most things, tells me that "up to 15 million Americans have food allergies, including 5.9 million children under age 18." That sounds right to me and gives me comfort that I am not alone in this world. When I get some time, I think I'll write a few more posts here on this topic. I need to explain better to certain friends of mine why I'm not being anti-social when I don't want to go with you to an Indian restaurant and why you should never-ever-ever buy me something to eat without my advance consent.
And as for Just Crack An Egg, I guess this is a good review of a product I will probably never buy again. The best part of it for me was the separate packets.