"boston market" news and stories

The evidence is everywhere: The restaurant landscape is changing as customers demand healthier options. (McDonald's is pushing fruit-filled oatmeal, for pete's sake.) Boston Market has been at the forefront of this push for health, with new lower-calorie options and reduced-sodium recipes. Now they've got some good news for diners trying to avoid gluten -- TriumphDining.com reports that the chain's chicken gravy will be gluten-free as of February 1st. Boston Market already has a number of gluten-free options (including some side dishes and their signature rotisserie chicken), but now gluten-averse diners will be able to smother them in gravy like the rest of us.

The concept behind Boston Market is simple: Pick up what you need for dinner and be on your way. And with 514 stores in the U.S., it's evident that it's a successful formula for the Golden, Colorado, based company. Problem is, the chain's big sellers -- hearty fare like rotisserie chicken, meatloaf, and pot pies -- are great for family meals, but the company wants customers to come in for a new reason: snacktime.

Enter the slider.

Boston Market is rolling out three of the small sandwiches, which company execs are calling "a lighter meal" or "an afternoon snack." And though though the word "sliders" typically means one thing -- tiny burgers -- apparently the term is now being employed to describe any miniature sandwich: Boston Market's offerings are meatloaf and cheddar, turkey and swiss, and BBQ chicken and cheddar.

More about the new sliders after the jump.

Boston Market is going after KFC with a $1 value meal promotion. The Boston Market $1 Value Meal is valid through Nov. 1. Customers can get their choice of a quarter white or three-piece dark chicken meal with mashed potatoes and cornbread with a coupon. Click here for the Boston Market $1 Value Meal coupon.

KFC has run three UNFry Day promotions where it's offered its new Kentucky Grilled Chicken for free.

America: the land of the free... and the fat. In the nation's more-is-more eating culture, three in five Americans are officially considered overweight -- and kids are no exception, one in three of whom reportedly eats fast food on a daily basis. But waistline-watchdog MSNBC has culled a list of "20 Worst Kids' Foods in America," to shed light upon some particularly fattening kids'-meal culprits.

Categories range from "worst homestyle meal" (Boston Market's Kids' Meat Loaf with Sweet Potato Casserole and Cornbread, which packs a whopping 890 calories into a tiny TV dinner), to "worst beverage" (the super-saccharine SunnyD Smooth Style, which boosts 60 grams of sugar into one measly cup -- triple that of a cup of Tropicana), to the "worst kids' meal in America": Uno Chicago Grill's Kid's Combo with French Fries, a monochromatic carb-fest cramming kids with cheese sticks, chicken nuggets and fries, a monster of a meal weighing in at 1,250 calories and 2,850 milligrams sodium.

It's no wonder that 16 percent of today's youth, aged 6 to 19, is overweight or obese with the gut bombs like those listed in the regular meal rotations, according to the report. Shockingly, "today's children may turn out to be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than that of their parents" because of obesity-related health problems, Michael Pollan writes in "The Omnivore's Dilemma."

What do you think is to blame for the rise of childhood obesity -- is it fair to blame fast-food providers or the parents?

[Via MSNBC]

Boston Market. Photo: me and the sysop, Flickr.

No kidding -- national restaurant chains are increasingly hungry for family business.

Boston Market will now let more than one child eat for free with an adult. In the "Two Kids Eat Free" promotion, customers get two free Kids' Meals with a $6 minimum adult purchase.

The Boston Market Kids' Meal, which usually costs around $4, comes with a choice of entree (mac n' cheese, chicken drumstick, rotisserie turkey or meatloaf), a small side, cornbread and a kid's size soft drink or milk.