"tgifridays" news and stories

Our new monthly installment features a portion of the popular guide, Eat This, Not That! in hopes that it will help you make better choices at casual and fast-food establishments.

Two pieces of bread. That's the bedrock of every hamburger on the planet. Here's the caveat: With the power to create comes the power to inflate. In fact, the average cheeseburger has ballooned from 333 to 600 calories in the last 20 years.

Some burgers even top out at 2,000 calories. For this there's no greater evidence than the greasy bread-boats being served at our most popular burger shops. Sure, there are decent options out there, but more often than not the junk that comes stuffed between the buns is enough to turn Jessica Simpson into Homer Simpson. Like these five burgers listed below. They're gut bombs in the worst way. Luckily, Eat This, Not That! discovered healthier alternatives for each of them.

After the jump, an overview of the best -- and worst -- burgers in America.

You've seen us dive into the best Applebee's appetizers and Outback Steakhouse favorites, now we're turning up the heat with our taste test of T.G.I. Friday's Sizzling Dishes.

Menu Overview: All of these "sizzling" dishes come on blazing hot cast-iron skillets. (And yes, they sizzle.) Three of them have melted cheese at the base of the dish, topped with chicken or a combo of chicken and shrimp and then there are two fajitas dishes. The Sizzling Chicken and Cheese plate was "not nearly gooey enough for someone looking for something really cheesy." While the chicken was cooked well, the "peppers and onions that came with the dish were too salty." The Steak Fajitas were bland and under-seasoned -- where's the heat? Plus, the steak was too tough.

Find out our T.G.I. Friday's Sizzling Winner, Runner-up, and Loser after the jump.

Forget brownie sundaes, molten chocolate cakes and designer cupcakes. The dessert world has a new trend: sweets that resemble appetizers. T.G.I. Friday's new dessert nachos are a prime example -- with a treat like this, no one needs to worry about dry cakes and deflating souffles. Here, the sweet ingredients are all piled together, and voilà. If nothing else, it's an easy way to get the entire table to join in on the fun (this dessert is definitely meant to be shared).

The Claim: The "sizzling" ice cream nachos consist of wonton crisps piled high with pineapple, mango and strawberries, then topped with two generous scoops of vanilla ice cream and a heavy drizzle of caramel sauce.

LU Crème Roulee Tin. Image: Amazon.

A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:

Slow Food advocates organize potluck "eat-ins" to boost school lunch funding.

T.G.I. Friday's to give first 500,000 Facebook fans free food.

Club Med launches food blogger camp program, mixing beach bathing with blogger seminars led by prominent writers.

French snacks come to Mercedes Benz Fashion Week with a LU Café, exhibiting designer Erin Fetherston's limited-edition Crème Roulee Rolled Wafer tin at the Bryant Park Tents.

Michael Pollan, author of "In Defense of Food," calls for food industry reform in the wake of Obama's health care reform speech.

Unsuspecting teachers got high off "church bake sale" brownies. Symptoms they chalked up to food poisoning were actually the result of pot brownies at a sidewalk sale that was, evidently, not benefiting a church.

Julia Child's illustrator isn't a foodie and doesn't have much interest in seeing the movie "Julie & Julia."