Convenience & Fast Food

Excerpted from
The Moms' Guide to Meal Makeovers: Improving the Way Your Family Eats, One Meal at a Time!
By Janice Bissex, Liz Weiss

Chicken Nuggets

When a chicken nugget leaves a puddle of grease on your baking sheet or when you bite into one and wonder what that spongelike substance between the layers of breading really is, it may be time to start shopping for a new nugget. But don't despair, because we've done the legwork for you and are happy to report that there are several delicious and nutritious options out there that don't make you ponder "where's the chicken?"

Many of the popular chicken nugget products on the market contain a surprisingly modest amount of protein. That's too bad, since chicken meat is an excellent source of high-quality protein, a nutrient especially important for growing kids. To put protein in perspective, consider that our No-Nonsense Nuggets contain 21 grams of protein in a 3-ounce serving while some of the frozen nuggets we found have 10 grams or less.

Besides nutrition (or lack thereof), there is also the issue of taste and texture. Here are just a few of the words used by our kid taste testers when sampling a dozen different brands of chicken nuggets: greasy, hollow, spongy, soggy, peppery, bland, cardboard, boring, salty, bready, and gross. As for their positive remarks on some of our Best of the Bunch brands: crunchy, real chicken, good flavor, and meaty.

Mom's best of the Bunch

With plenty of brands to choose from, it's clear people love chicken nuggets. The trick is in knowing which nuggets offer more than a mouthful of greasy breading (often made with hydrogenated oils). For the Best of the Bunch, we choose Health is Wealth Chicken Nuggets, Ian's Chicken Nuggets, Bell & Evans Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets (the closest we found to homemade though a bit pricey), Trader Joe's Chicken Drumettes, and Perdue Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets. Each can be found in the frozen food aisle with the exception of Perdue, located in the fresh meat aisle. All provide about 14 grams of protein and are made without hydrogenated oils (Perdue uses a small amount but the trans fats are negligible). As for their taste ... our tasters give them "two thumbs up."

Moms' Quick Fix Tips

• Dip in ketchup for a healthy dose of the antioxidant lycopene.

• Serve with any fruit or vegetable the kids are allowed to eat with their fingers: cherry or grape tomatoes, baby carrots, raw veggies and dip, grapes, blueberries, or sliced apples.

• Make chicken nuggets from scratch.

Hot Dogs

We call them hot dogs-you may know them as wieners or franks-but either way, there's no doubt that most people love them. In fact, Americans consume somewhere in the ballpark of 20 billion hot dogs each year! These days you can find all-beef, kosher, fat-free, veggie, chicken, turkey, even some dogs made with all-natural ingredients and no nitrites. What's a mom to do? With so many options, which are the best ones out there? Clearly, eating a hot dog with 350 calories, 990 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of fat, and 15 grams of saturated fat is not the best nutritional choice. But neither is a fat-free frank with just 45 calories because hungry kids (and adults) need something a bit more substantial than that.

Personally, we don't mind a little bit of fat, but we do mind the sodium nitrite that most companies use in their hot dog products. Nitrites have come under fire over the years because some studies have linked the frequent consumption of nitrite-containing foods to a greater risk for certain cancers (one study looked at kids who ate twelve or more hot dogs a month and found a greater risk of childhood leukemia). Granted, if you eat an occasional hot dog, it's probably no big deal. But a regular diet of hot dogs along with things like bacon and luncheon meats (which can also contain nitrites) may not be prudent. Despite the possible health concerns, the FDA considers nitrites safe. Nitrites are used because they hinder the growth of bacteria and impart a cured flavor and pink color to the meat. While today, modern refrigeration keeps bacteria in check, companies continue to use nitrites, in part because consumers are accustomed to pink-colored franks.

Moms' Best of the Bunch

It's not our intent to scare you or sensationalize a few diet studies. However, we figure it's a good idea to err on the side of caution when it comes to our kids' health. The good news is there are several delicious nitrite-free hot dogs on the market. Some are reddish in color (thanks to all-natural colorings) while others have more of a brownish-gray color. Get over it! Our Best of the Bunch are Coleman All Natural Uncured Beef Hot Dogs, Hans' All Natural Uncured Beef Hot Dogs, and Applegate Farms Beef Hot Dogs. All three remind us of the ballpark franks we ate as kids. The amount of saturated fat in each dog ranges from 2 to 4.5 grams, while the calories are anywhere from 100 to 140. Applegate Farms and a company called Wellshire Farms also make nitrite-free chicken dogs, so look for those as well. It's important to note that nitrite-free hot dogs are more perishable than traditional dogs. Once opened, place the uncooked leftovers in an airtight plastic bag and store in your refrigerator for three to four days, or you can just store them right away in your freezer.

Frozen Vegetable Pizza

When we set out to evaluate all the frozen pizzas on the market, we soon realized that in order to taste each and every one of them, it would take weeks in the kitchen, not to mention indigestion that even our trusty bottles of Turns might never relieve. So instead of giving you the best of cheese, pepperoni, and sausage pizzas we decided to home in on vegetable pizzas instead, since they have the most potential for giving some balance to a meal. Our challenge was to straddle the fine line between a pizza with no vegetables at all and one with so many vegetables that most kids would get grossed out and refuse to eat it entirely.

Our pizza search revealed a wide range of choices. Some pies had little more than a sprinkling of green peppers, while others were loaded with an array of interesting veggies. We sampled pies with predictable toppings like bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and olives but also found broccoli, spinach, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, sun-dried tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. As for the taste, well, that too was all across the board. One pizza, made with a whole wheat crust (unusual for a frozen pizza) turned out to be a bit too "healthy" for our young tasters. We had high hopes for this one but unfortunately, the crust didn't cut it.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all was that we actually found ourselves rejecting a few of the most vegetable-laden pies. Don't get us wrong, folks, we love vegetables. But when big chunks of broccoli stalks are piled on high, trying to please young kids (who may freak when a vegetable touches their pizza) can become an even greater challenge.