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I hate being trendy part 3 - "Chicken" for the kids

     It's a classic family scene, perhaps going back to the first family - Greg and his wife Oola as they tried to get their kids to eat veggies.  I can hear it now: "Your mother Oola spent all day slaving in the hot sun gathering those berries and green twig things for you!   She almost got trampled by a giant ground sloth!  So no one leaves the rock till they finish their green twig things!"

     So it was that in mind that I decided to try Yummy Dino Buddies.  Originally made by a Canadian company but now owned by Purdue, these are being marketed as Vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian friendly, however not all of their products under the Yummy Dino Buddies name are meatless, so let the buyer beware.  


    It's up to the indivdual consumer to buy items that they feel comfortable with, however I believe that the only way to move these companies towards an environmentally friendlier product is by supporting their efforts to make plant based products.   With this in mind, the item that I tried was the meatless veggie nuggets.  The company also makes a meatless plant based (soy) product.

    They are supposedly healthy as the nuggets are made with all-natural ingredients and no preservatives and dish up 3 grams of protein and 600 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids per serving.   Keep in mind that a serving in this case is only 4 nuggets!

    Lets be honest, what kid (or adult) is going to be satisfied with a serving of only 4 nuggets?

    So if you are an average kid (or adult) then your going to eat probably closer to 8 - 12 nuggets, which in turn in going to increase the amount of sodium and saturated fats.  I guess that is the drawback for eating a processed food.  

       
Their are several ways you can prepare them and for my "taste test" I made them two ways.  The first was in a conventional oven.  The second method was an air fryer. 

     I actually wish I had something...anything good to say about using a conventional oven.  Well one good thing is that the packing clearly states that the plant the food is processed in does not process any eggs.   Nothing about dairy or meat but its a step in the right direction.

    While the nuggets themselves are not bad - they are a combination of mostly carrots and cauliflower - they don't hold up very well either.  While some nuggets tended to be soft and mushy, a few were more firm.   If you are looking for something that is more like "chicken" then the soft, mushy ones are simply not going to do the trick.

    That being said, if you were to put the crispier firmer ones in front of someone that didn't know they were plant based, they would not know the difference.   The soggier ones however taste of cauliflower, and that is something that I don't find appealing (although for the record, I'm not a fan of cauliflower to begin with).

    The air fried version actually were "firmer and crispier." but honestly don't have much taste to them.  Frankly they kind of remind me of a cheaply produced fast food item which is mostly breading.   Don't get me wrong, their is some nutritional value to them...but overall I would pass on these.  

    Keep in mind that I'm a 55 year old man that never had kids of his own and the closest thing I have to grand kids live some 610 miles from me; but if you do have kids and want to move in the direction of a more plant based lifestyle, this could be an option.    I just don't think it's a great one.

    **As noted before, I receive no compensation from any company for any links or products mentioned.  The opinions expressed are mine alone.  You are also invited to join my Facebook page and leave comments directly to the blog.   Thank you.**


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Location: Stoneboro, PA 16153, USA

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