What's in Friday's Lunch - 6/18

The year is winding down, and we're clearing the chicken nuggets out of the freezer --

Chicken Nuggets
Bagel w/ Butter, American or Cream Cheese
Tuna Salad Plate / Sandwich (see 6/10 post for 6/11 lunch)
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich (see 6/13 post for 6/14 lunch)

Sides:
Celery, Pepper and Carrot Sticks
Whole Wheat Bread
Chilled Applesauce

The chicken nuggets do have some whole grain in the breading -- but they are fried Tyson nuggets with a lot of additives. The chicken is USDA commodity chicken.

Here are the ingredients: chicken, water, textured soy protein concentrate, isolated soy protein with less than 2% soy lecithin, seasoning (corn syrup solids, brown sugar, dextrose, salt, vinegar powder (maltodextrin, modified corn starch, dried vinegar), garlic powder, onion powder, chicken type flavor (hydrolyzed corn gluten, autolyzed yeast extract, sunflower oil, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate)), sodium acid pryophospate. Breaded with: whole wheat flour, enriched bleached wheat flour (enriched with niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, modified wheat starch, salt, soybean oil, spice, yellow corn flour, paprika, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate), garlic powder, natural flavor, extractives of turmeric, fumaric acid. Breading set in vegetable oil.

The celery, pepper and carrot sticks are a great, fresh, raw choice. The USDA believes you need bread with breaded nuggets - it is whole wheat but contains high fructose corn syrup. The chilled applesauce probably contains corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and erythorbic acid - 18g of sugar. The district would like to get unsweetened but this is the last label we have.

This is one of those crazy meals where apart from the fresh vegetable sticks, everything has some kind of corn product in it. Go watch the movie King Corn this weekend for the whole story there.

Sara