Back to school time is rolling ever closer, and if you have kids, you might be starting to think about what to put in their lunchboxes. Individually packaged servings of desserts and other foods are very convenient and are more popular than ever. Some kids, as one writer found out, even prefer the packaged stuff to homemade - at least in the case of chocolate pudding. So individual puddings were put to the test by a group of seventh graders to see which products would be good lunch box choices.
The winners were Hershey's, Swiss Miss and Handi-Snack, in that order. All three were judged to be smooth, sweet and chocolaty, with Swiss Miss and Handi-Snack garnering compliments for using the perfect amount of sugar and having a fudgy taste. Hershey's, the winner, was praised for tasting "like melted chocolate" and seemed to get bonus points for being packaged in a tube, like the popular Go-Gurts.
The main difference in store bought pudding versus homemade, aside from the packaging, is that store bought doesn't develop a "skin". Avoid a skin on homemade by placing plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding until it is cool. And you can even make your own tubes of pudding by following the instructions here. And if you want your kids to eat the homemade pudding instead of having to buy packaged, have them help you make it. They'll be so excited that they won't care about "skin" or packaging.
