I've recently discovered the tastiness of chicken thighs. Growing up we always had boneless skinless chicken breasts in the house, or of course a supermarket rotisserie chicken. And yes, we ate a TON of chicken growing up... My mom doesn't cook pork so it was typically either Chicken or Steak. So for my entire cooking life until a few weeks ago I've always cooked chicken breasts, they are a lean protein, easy to cook and versatile. Recently an extended family member taught me how to cook chicken thighs on the BBQ and they were amazing! Therefore, I figured I need to really take a closer look into this new (well, to me) tasty cut.
Taste: Thumbs Up - Just like other parts of the chicken, thigh meat has a plain flavor that is ready for whatever spices or marinades you put on it. My personal favorite marinade is soy sauce, siracha, minced garlic and a little brown sugar.
Nutrition: Thumbs Down - According to the USDA Nutrient Database one raw Chicken Thigh with skin provides 414 calories, and without skin is 326 calories. With the skin removed this provides a good amount of calories for a meal (picking healthy sides to go along with a chicken thigh is crucial)
The rest of the nutrition details (without skin)
24 g Fat
24g Protein
0g Carbohydrate
Obviously the fat content is not ideal... While a thigh has 24g of fat, the breast only has about 2g of fat. No wonder why they are so tasty!
Cost: Thumbs Up - Chicken Thighs are ridiculously cheap. I apologize for not having a recent price for you, however I can say with 100% certainty you can get thigh meat for way less than breast meat.
Time: Thumbs Up - Cooking chicken thighs takes a few more minutes than a chicken breast, however with my recent experimentation with this cut I found that it takes about 15-25 minutes to BBQ a chicken thigh on the grill. Definitely a reasonable amount of time to have part of a meal ready to go.
Overall Rating: Thumbs Down - While thigh meat is definitely tasty, cheap and reasonably easy to cook nutritionally it is far less healthy than the breast meat. While I am drawn to continue to experiment with this cut of chicken, I don't feel that I can recommend it to others, especially on a daily basis! I would consider chicken thighs to be a once every few weeks kind of treat, not a replacement of a staple healthy item such as a chicken breast. While I gave chicken thighs mostly thumbs up, that high fat content makes me have to go with a thumbs down... Although keep in mind my continual reminder that everything fits (with 2 exceptions - Ramen Noodles and Kool-Aid) in appropriate moderation and portion size!
Showing posts with label Thumbs Down. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thumbs Down. Show all posts
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Ramen Noodles
For my first food review what better than:
Ramen Noodles!
Taste: Thumbs Up -The main flavor (regardless of what flavor claim the package might say - shrimp, chicken, vegetable) in Ramen Noodles is salt - or sodium. There is no denying, sodium is savory and tasty. Adding salt to foods brings out the natural flavors which is always good for taste. But there isn't much else to the taste than salty!
Nutrition: Many Thumbs Down - Here are the details according to the USDA nutrient database in one package of Ramen Noodles:
371 Calories - appropriate for a meal
8.9 grams Protein - on the lower side for the amount of calories
13.29 grams Fat (6 g Saturated Fat) - ridiculous - almost half of the fat is saturated? That makes almost 120 of the total calories from fat.
53.9 grams Carbohydrate - Here is the bulk of where the calories come from. Definitely not from fiber or whole grains in this case.
1731 mg Sodium - That's almost the recommended daily intake of 2000mg of sodium in one package! That means you would only have 269 mg of sodium left for the rest of the day. Trust me, that doesn't go far!
Ingredient List: Enriched Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil (Contains One Or More Of The Following: Canola, Cottonseed, Palm), Preserved By Tbhq, Salt, Potassium Carbonate, Soy Sauce (Water, Wheat, Soybeans, Salt), Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Carbonate, Turmeric. Soup Base Ingredients: Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Food Starch Modified, Sugar, Monosodium Glutamate, Dehydrated Vegetables (Onion, Garlic, Parsley), Chicken Broth, Hydrolyzed Corn, Wheat And Soy Protein, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Spices, Xanthan Gum, Turmeric, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Caseinate, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate.
Too long and too many things that I can't pronounce = not healthy!
Cost: Thumbs Up: Ramen noodles is notorious for being ridiculously cheap. However, while I give that a thumbs up, in all reality no packaged food that can be considered an entire meal should be as cheap as Ramen Noodles.
Time: Thumbs Up - To make the noodles as directed in the package all that is required is getting water to a boil and waiting 3 minutes. Not many meals cook faster than Ramen Noodles.
Overall Rating: Thumbs Down (obviously!) - While yes, I gave more thumbs up than thumbs down for this one, the terrible ingredients and amount of fat and sodium in Ramen Noodles is overwhelming and eliminates how cheap, tasty and easy they are.
Ramen Noodles!
Taste: Thumbs Up -The main flavor (regardless of what flavor claim the package might say - shrimp, chicken, vegetable) in Ramen Noodles is salt - or sodium. There is no denying, sodium is savory and tasty. Adding salt to foods brings out the natural flavors which is always good for taste. But there isn't much else to the taste than salty!
Nutrition: Many Thumbs Down - Here are the details according to the USDA nutrient database in one package of Ramen Noodles:
371 Calories - appropriate for a meal
8.9 grams Protein - on the lower side for the amount of calories
13.29 grams Fat (6 g Saturated Fat) - ridiculous - almost half of the fat is saturated? That makes almost 120 of the total calories from fat.
53.9 grams Carbohydrate - Here is the bulk of where the calories come from. Definitely not from fiber or whole grains in this case.
1731 mg Sodium - That's almost the recommended daily intake of 2000mg of sodium in one package! That means you would only have 269 mg of sodium left for the rest of the day. Trust me, that doesn't go far!
Ingredient List: Enriched Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil (Contains One Or More Of The Following: Canola, Cottonseed, Palm), Preserved By Tbhq, Salt, Potassium Carbonate, Soy Sauce (Water, Wheat, Soybeans, Salt), Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Carbonate, Turmeric. Soup Base Ingredients: Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Food Starch Modified, Sugar, Monosodium Glutamate, Dehydrated Vegetables (Onion, Garlic, Parsley), Chicken Broth, Hydrolyzed Corn, Wheat And Soy Protein, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Spices, Xanthan Gum, Turmeric, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Caseinate, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate.
Too long and too many things that I can't pronounce = not healthy!
Cost: Thumbs Up: Ramen noodles is notorious for being ridiculously cheap. However, while I give that a thumbs up, in all reality no packaged food that can be considered an entire meal should be as cheap as Ramen Noodles.
Time: Thumbs Up - To make the noodles as directed in the package all that is required is getting water to a boil and waiting 3 minutes. Not many meals cook faster than Ramen Noodles.
Overall Rating: Thumbs Down (obviously!) - While yes, I gave more thumbs up than thumbs down for this one, the terrible ingredients and amount of fat and sodium in Ramen Noodles is overwhelming and eliminates how cheap, tasty and easy they are.
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