Macaroni & Cheese PLEASE!!!!!!

As I mentioned a couple of blog posts back, I got out to a Price Chopper store last week to help with an upcoming news story on NuVal. It was great to walk the store and see over 10,000 NuVal scores on their shelves. While I work for NuVal and get to see scores all the time, it really hits home when you can see them on the supermarket shelf and see how the products you like score.

And that is when I saw it. The product I have been tossing into my cart for over a year now in a quick attempt to avoid a mid-aisle meltdown: Scooby Doo Macaroni & Cheese. OK, I will confess. It is not just Scooby Doo who makes it into my cart. It's SpongeBob Square Pants, Pokemon and Spider Man too. Back when the kids were smaller, before they had been sucked in by the power of Marketing to Children, we used to buy Annie's Macaroni & Cheese. Once I started working for NuVal (but before we at NuVal had started scoring products in the Macaroni & Cheese category), I was pretty sure that Annie's really wasn't going to score much better. So I succumbed to the whine of "Mooooooommmmmm! Can we get Scooby Doo Macaroni and Cheese? Please!!!!!!!!" and bought it. It also does the trick on especially busy weeknights when I need there to be few fights at the dinner table.

So, (drum roll please), here you go, the scores my Mommy friends have been waiting for:

Kraft SpongeBob SquarePants Macaroni and Cheese: 4
Kraft Spiderman Macaroni and Cheese: 5
Kraft ScoobyDoo Macaroni and Cheese: 5
Kraft Easy Mac: 8

Now, Kraft does have 2 products that get a slightly better score.

Kraft White Cheddar Shell Macaroni and Cheese: 10
Kraft Whole Grain Elbow Macaroni and Cheese: 18

That's great. But my kids want the ones with SpongeBob, Spiderman, and Scooby Doo!

And as for Annie's, my instincts were right. The regular Annie's Macaroni and Cheese does not score any better than Kraft. And the Annie's Whole Wheat version scores only slightly better than Kraft.

Annie's HomeGrown Cheddar Cheese Regular Macaroni and Cheese: 5
Annie's HomeGrown White Cheddar Shell Macaroni and Cheese: 5
Annie's HomeGrown Whole Wheat Shell Macaroni and Cheese: 21

Now, I know that some of my Super-Mommy friends will leave me comments with their recipes for homemade macaroni and cheese that has butternut squash in it and wheat germ too. That happened to me on CafeMom back when I wrote about Pepperidge Farm Goldfish vs. Annie's Cheddar Bunnies. A mom wrote in and gave me her recipe for making her own "Fishies" from scratch. Yes, she shaped them into little fish. I am not making this up. Of course you could make your own Macaroni and Cheese and with the right ingredients, it would be healthier. Use a Whole Wheat Pasta, use a reduced fat cheese or a veggie slice alternative. Check out some NuVal Cheese scores here and let your imagination run wild. But that is not the point! The point is that you are busy and your daughter has gymnastics and your son has cub scouts and you need to finish that thing for work and oh yeah, you need to get dinner on the table and get your kids to eat it quick so that everyone can back out the door for aforementioned activities.

You know what, you're better off making a grilled cheese with a good 100% whole wheat bread!

Happy Hour!

This weekend I heard that the Chobani website has some great recipes that use one of my favorite ingredients: Greek yogurt. Now, let me just say up front, that NuVal is not partnering in any way with Chobani nor am I being compensated by Chobani for blogging about them. I just really like the stuff. When I saw that there was a recipe that included two of my favorite ingredients (Greek yogurt and avocados), I had to try out this recipe: Holy Guacamole!

I bought my ingredients on Saturday during my regular shopping trip which was sans kids thanks to cancelled soccer. Woo hoo! I carefully chose my avocados. My sister Julie, a Mexican food aficionado, once explained to me that you should try to make a dent in the avocado with your thumb. If the dent stays, you're good. The avocados I chose passed the test, but I also put them in a paper bag over night so that they would ripen just a bit more.

Sunday proved to be busy with church, my DH working on remodeling our downstairs bathroom, and me getting ready for FNCE, the American Dietetic Association conference coming up in a couple of weeks. However, since this great recipe took only 15 minutes, I whipped it up around just as the New England Patriots were winning their game and called The Neighbors Most Likely to Drop Everything and Come Over for a Cocktail at a Moment's Notice. Since it suddenly felt like summer again, we paired it up with frozen margaritas for the Moms and cold Guinness for the Dads.

Other than the cocktails, our little Happy Hour got a great NuVal Score. The recipe consists mostly of Avocados (Score of 89) and non-fat plain Chobani yogurt (score of 94). While I could have gone for Garden of Eatin No Salt Blue Corn Tortilla Chips, the highest ranking Salty Snack with a score of 52, I like salt. Instead, we had Price Chopper Tortilla Chip Blue Corn Flax (score of 46), which I had picked up during my trip to Price Chopper last week.

The verdict? We all loved Holy Guacamole. It is a little creamier than your usual guacamole, but it went down quick with our blue chips. We also thought that it would make a great spread on a tortilla with grilled chicken or in a wrap for a sandwich. So, I'm off to buy 2 more avocados to make some more. You will find me in the produce aisle poking my thumbs in the veggies!

The San Francisco Treat

One of the things that I love about my job is that I get to have all these amazing "Ah ha!" moments as we score more and more products at NuVal. This happened again last week when the scores for Rice were unveiled. But before I go into that, let me just confess right now: I have been feeding my kids some nutritionally-delinquent food. Yesterday, while out at a Price Chopper store for a television shoot, I had a great chance to walk the aisles and see tons of NuVal scores on the shelf. It was then that I saw it: Knorr Rice Sides Rice Pilaf with a score of (brace yourself!) 3! Three!!! And that score is for the dry mix. It gets a 3 before you put butter or oil in it. I have put a couple bags of that rice in my shopping cart every week for the past few years. They're always on sale, 10 for $10. My kids call it "our favorite yellow rice." I am awash in Mommy Guilt.

Of course, I never expected the Knorr Rice Pilaf to be a nutritional juggernaut. But a 3?! Why did I do it? I blame it on my mother (who I hope will find that humorous when she reads this post). Please see disclaimer below. Growing up in the '70s and '80s, my mom made Rice A Roni (the San Francisco treat, sing it!) a lot. With so many mothers headed into the workforce at that time (mine went to nursing school and then worked as a nurse) convenience foods became all the rage. I loved Rice A Roni and so as a mom, I was resorting to Knorr Rice Pilaf which cooks in 7 minutes and does not require the pan-browning that Rice A Roni does.

Last week, I attended a webinar that Annette Maggi, MS, RD, NuVal's Director of Nutrition, facilitated. During the session, she unveiled rice scores which, she explained, are a commodity (just like produce or meat). An apple is an apple no matter what color sticker is on it and it scores a 96 (unless you put caramel on it). So the commodity rice scores are:

Wild Rice 91
Brown Rice 82
White Enriched Rice 57
White Un-enriched Rice 48
White Parboiled Rice (enriched and un-enriched) 82

That last one is a shocker, isn't it? And what is parboiled white rice? I had never noticed it in the grocery store. According to Wikipedia, parboiled rice is rice that has been boiled in the husk. Parboiling makes rice easier to process by hand, improves its nutritional profile, and changes its texture. Wikipedia also explains that parboiling rice drives nutrients, especially thiamine, from the bran into the grain, so that parboiled white rice is 80% nutritionally similar to brown rice. Who knew?

Well, I did know that it was time to stop serving my kids Knorr Rice Pilaf and start moving them to parboiled rice. I found it at my local Stop & Shop in a ginormous bag that cost about $8. But it is huge and well worth it. I made it this week, served it with chicken and fresh green beans, and voila, shiny, happy children at my dinner table. And yes, I did top it with a little butter, but it's still gotta be better than what we were eating. Brown rice is going to be a stretch for my kids, but it is great to know that I can give them the same nutrition in a version that looks, feels and tastes like white rice.

Oh, and for those who are wondering, Rice A Roni Chicken flavor (the one my mom used to make) scores an 11. Rice A Roni offers a lower sodium alternative, but it only gives it a couple point jump, to a 13.

Disclaimer: Other than the nutritionally-lacking rice side dish my mother cooked for me as a child, she was an incredibly healthy and progressive Mom. We had no chips or soda in the house - ever. We made our own yogurt. Kids in the first grade called me Carrot Head because I always had fresh cut up vegetables for a snack. The smell of vitamin and/or health stores reminds me of my childhood to this day. She did a great job!