New Dino Nuggets Come Packed With Veggies so You Can Pretend They're Healthy

If you didn't get to munch on dino nuggets as a kid, you haven't lived. These Costco staples were easy-to-prepare after school and delicious... for being processed, frozen nuggets shaped like a stegosauruses. And now, the panko-crusted chicken nuggets are a little healthier, thanks to the inclusion of 1/4 cups of veggies in every serving of the new product launched by parent company, Perdue Foods.

Instead of just eating mystery white chicken nugget meat, you'll be happy to know that each T-rex also has some cauliflower, chickpeas, and "plant protein" (aka some of the same stuff you can find in Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat products). The veggine-infused dino nuggets clock in at 220 calories per serving, and servings sizes are five nuggets. 

“Perdue Chicken Nuggets have been a staple for families for years, but we wanted to provide an easy way to round out the meal and help parents put an end to the ‘eat your vegetables’ battle,” Eric Christianson, chief marketing officer for Perdue, said in a press release. “By blending plants and vegetables with the Perdue chicken families love, not only are we helping to meet demands for millions of parents but we are appealing to the growing number of flexitarian families who have an increased commitment to getting more plants and vegetables in their families’ diets.”

It's not the most ideal nutritional make up, especially seeing that 100 of those calories are from 11 grams of fat. For comparison, the regular, non-veggie nugs ring in at approximately 238 calories, with 138 calories from fat -- so not a stark difference. But hey, we've been trying to trick kids into eating veggies for forever and this seems like a decent stepping stone. I mean, it's better than when Kraft tried to market ranch as salad "frosting."

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