Let me start off by saying I love Amy’s. Yes, Amy, you are expensive. Yes, you continually eat up my extra cash in my wallet. But, yes, you continually will remain in my freezer, my microwave/oven, and my happy stomach. Amy’s Southern Dinner IS THE BEST dinner i have had so far. I have tried MANY of her dinners, all satisfying, but this one really takes the cake. It is cornbread & beans with greens and sweet potatoes, of course made with all natural/organic ingredients.
I’ll admit, picking this dinner up i was a little iffy. Eh, spinach? I don’t like spinach i thought. And sweet potatoes? i normally pass on those at Thanksgiving. Was this dinner really worth the $4.99 i was about to pay?
The Beans- Pinto beans to be exact. I really am not a fan of beans. But these were yummy. Soft and tender, they reminded me of baked beans you would get in a can (but better!). I especially enjoyed the crusty edges that form from the sauce when you cook it in the microwave (i dont know if that’s just me, but i enjoy that “crusty overcooked” part in pretty much every frozen dinner…)
Greens- a medley of spinach, collard greens and swiss chard. There was also hidden mushrooms that popped up under all that green goodness. As i said before, i HATE spinach. I dont care if Pop-eye eats it. I dont care if it’s like the BEST vegetable to eat. I HATE IT. But not if Amy is cooking it! The greens were buttery and garlicky and just yummy. An enjoyable experience with veggies. 🙂
Cornbread=yummy & yellow. It actually had kernels of corn in it you could see, and little red pimientos throughout the cornbread. It was light, a little grainy, but sweet and delicious. It was my second favorite component of the meal (sweet potatoes won me over).
Lastly- Sweet Potatoes. Holy. Moley. THESE=HEAVEN. So creamy and buttery i was SO HAPPY eating this. I never wanted them to end! I never really had a sweet potatoe straight up, and whoever cooks them at my Thanksgiving dinner NEEDS to take some cooking advice from Amy, because SHE ROCKS AT MAKING SWEET POTATOES. Ahh these were so delicious.
Overall, i can’t wait to buy and eat this again. CAN”T WAIT. It was so satisfyingly delicious. Normally you get a part of a frozen dinner that is “eh”, but this WHOLE dinner is good.
Tagged as all natural, Amy's Southern Dinner, corn bread, frozen dinner, organic, pinto beans, sweet potatoes, swiss chard
On my never ending hunt to find the perfect pre-workout bar, i discovered Odwalla Bars at my local Stop & Shop. They had a variety of flavors, ranging from fruity to nutty, and even ones with extra protein. Odwalla claims that their products are “where nutritious and delicious finally meet”, and only use ingredients found from Mother Nature. They also never contain any preservatives, artificial flavors or colors, trans fats, or GMOs, and their bars are made with whole grains. They sounded pretty good for a pre-workout bar with some fruit to me.
Next time i go to the store, iw ould liek to try the Mocha-walla and the Chocolate Chip Peanut. They were, sadly, sold out when i went to the store though 😦
Choco-walla– uh, can you say, DELICIOUS? Who knew chocolate for breakfast could be healthy and delicious?! It wasn’t overpoweringly sweet, which is a good thing for me, but rather just the right amount of sweetness. It was certainly chocolately too. Semi-sweet chocolate chips were used, and i even tasted hints of almond and vanilla flavors as well. Odwalla claims that this bar will satisfy my sweeth tooth, and it sure did! I also really liked how this bar had 5 grams of filling fiber. Woo! This bar is also a good source of Vitamin E & C, and beta-Carotene.
SuperFood- Okay, don’t freak out, but this bar is GREEN. Green like spinach. I opened up the package, and i was like wait, is my bar green? or is it just too early in the morning for me? Nope. It indeed, is GREEN. But in this case, GREEN = GOOD. There are 500mg of Spirulina which gives it the color. Spirulina is a blue-green algae that is the most nutrient rich whole food in existence. Nice! It tasted fruity, however, with banana flavors, soft oats and plump raisins throughout the bar. I also tasted a little bit of coconut too. This one’s definitely a keeper for me!
Overall, the 2 bars i tried, i enjoyed. They are soft-baked bars with wholesome, natural ingredients. I can’t wait to try more. Which ones are your favorites?
If you would like to win a FREE sampler from Musselman’s company of the three types of applesauce i reviewed previously (Key Lime Cupuacu, Pomegrante Berry and Raspberry Acai) along with a cute tote bag, then you must…
Yum. I love applesauce. Growing up, i would have it pretty much with everything. Chicken nuggets, macaroni & cheese, as a side with my mashed potatoes. I just love applesauce! Which is why i was super excited to try Musselman’s Healthy Picks Applesauce in cool flavors like Key Lime Cupuacu, Raspberry Acai, and Blueberry Pomegranate. Their line is “designed specifically for people with busy, active lifestyles”, which is just PERFECT for me. Musselman makes this line with no artificial colors or flavors, no added sugar, enriched with calcium and vitamin C, and is a good source of fiber per cup.
I decided to have these with a granola bar pre workout. Apples supposedly wake you up better than a cup of coffee (I work out in the mornings), and according to Musselman’s pamphlet i was provided with, “Apples contain complex carbohydrates that give you energy faster than eating something high in sugar”. Energy & Antioxidants-nice!
Berry Pomegranate- This one had a nice blueberry flavor too it. It wasn’t too sweet, and complimented my granola bar nicely. It had a slightly bitter aftertaste to it, probably due to the pomegranate.
Raspberry Acai- this one was sweeter than the pomegranate flavor. It had a hint of a lemony taste to it, and was tartish so to speak. It wasn’t bitter, but had a tart flavor to it. In my opinion it had more of a cherry flavor than raspberry, but i liked this one.
Key Lime Cupuacu- uh.. YUM! This one was the BEST! It also was slightly tart, and sweeter than both of the other varieties. It had a nice blend of flavors that tasted like lime, lemon and granny smith apples all mixed together. This one was my favorite of the three.
All three of the applesauces had a “heftier” feel and texture than your typical applesauce. Not saying it was a chunky variety per se, but it had a bit more of a bite and wasn’t as smooth as other applesauce I have had before. They were also suprisingly filling (probably due to the 3 grams of fiber per cup).
Musselman’s also promotes a few healthy ideas and tips with their applesauces as well. You can pop one of these in the freezer until slushy for a frozen treat (which I tried- it was yummy and low- calorie!)
You can also use applesauce to replace the fat in some recipes to lower the overall fat and calorie content. I bet if i used the Key Lime Cupuacu to replace the oil in some recipes it would have people guessing what I used to give the recipe that “kick” , but i’ll never tell! 🙂
One cup is 70 calories, 0 grams of fat, 17 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, and 0 grams of protein. You also get 25% vitamin C and 10% calcium.
I never in my life tried a piece of eggplant. It looks nasty, it’s ugly looking (okay that’s 2 superficial reasons…) and it was just never my vegetable “of choice”. So i was skeptical to try this meal, eggplant? And Eggplant Moussaka? What does that mean? According to Cedarlane, “Moussaka” is just another word for Eggplant Mediterranean in the Old World. Either way, THIS MEAL IS SO GOOD.
I decided to try it because after overindulging myself with 2 HUGE garlic knots from my local pizza place (oops!), i wanted a healthier dinner that was lower in carbs to balance out all that greasy dough. So i figured what they heck.
So let’s begin. This dish is slices of roasted eggplant in a tomato sauce that has carrots, mushrooms, red bell peppers, feta cheese and other spices in it. Then on the top is a little smattering of a white sauce. The eggplant is amazing. It’s soft, it is bursting with flavor, and it melts in your mouth like butter. I am definetely an eggplant friend now 🙂
The veggies are awesome too. There are thick chunks of carrots, and the vegetables as a whole add a little spicy kick to the meal.
There is also “Ground Round”, or veggie crumbles. After all, this meal is vegetarian. They taste almost exactly like and have the same consistency of ground beef. They are also delicious.
Lastly the white sauce on top. I didn’t care for it too much, it was slightly bland compared to the flavor of the rest of the meal, and if it wasn’t there i honestly wouldn’t have missed it. But who cares. This meal is so good they can keep it or ditch it and i would be happy all the same.
Normally I pop something by Amy’s or Kashi in for my frozen dinners, but i was feeling something different. So shopping at Whole Foods (where else do i shop!?!), I picked up Seeds of Change Spicy Thai Peanut Noodles with Vegetables & Tofu. It looked pretty good, pretty much all of the ingredients were organic, and it looked healthy. Like there was a good amount of vegetables in there too, and since I LOOVEE peanut butter, I thought I couldn’t lose!
Well, after cooking it for 5 minutes in the microwave, my kitchen had the aroma of a Chinese food restaurant.
In a word, SPICY. WOO. Have some water/milk near by. It’s not SOOO spicy that it’s overpowering, but you will feel a burn on your lips, in your mouth, and as the food goes down your belly. Or at least i did. I was happy I had some water near by, needless to say 🙂
The noodles are cooked perfectly. Not too chewy, and not too hard either. There was a lot of them too. I almost wish there was more vegetables than noodles, but that’s personal preference, I’m just not a pasta person. I also wish they were whole grain noodles 😦 .
The peanut sauce is so yummy. It has the consistency of an alfredo sauce, it’s creamy and has a hint of sweetness, and then a KICK of spice. I’m going to hold the cayenne pepper responsible for that! It has a nice peanutty taste to it too, and I even found a few peanut chunks in the dish as well.
The tofu was my favorite part. It soaked up the peanutty taste, and was perfectly cooked. Yum. How come when i cook tofu it never comes out as good as this (or Amy’s tofu!?) ?!
Lastly, the veggies. There are carrots, broccoli, onions and red peppers. The carrots were sweet and crunchy, which was good because it toned down the heat of the dish. The broccoli was delicious. Perfectly cooked, not mushy at all, and bright green. Ah, so good. The onions added a nice flavor to the dish, and the red peppers were good as well. They still had a crunch to them, I’m not really a red pepper fan, but these weren’t bad. They were a bit sweet too.
Overall, it was a good dinner. I probably wouldn’t buy it again because I’m not one for spicy, but if YOU like spicy, i would definetely invest in this dish. It’s healthy, unique and nutritious. If i’m ever craving some heat, i know where to look! I also like the quality of this dish- I’m excited to try their other meals!
Tagged as all natural, dinner, frozen, organic, Seeds of Change, spicy thai peanut noodles, tofu, vegetables
After trying Cedarlane’s Enchiladas [ see my post here ] i had a good feeling about their other products, such as the Beans, Rice & Cheese Style Burrito. It is made with organic ingredients, such as the tortilla, beans and the rice, are all organic. But what’s this? This Burrito only has 1 GRAM OF FAT? How can it be cheesy? How can it be TASTY?! Well, readers, fear not, Cedarlane knows what they are doing!
So, I wrapped this burrito in a paper towel like I was supposed to and put it in the microwave. After two minutes, a spicy, flavorfull aroma filled my kitchen and made my tummy grumble. My mom even commented on “what smells so good?” and was totally jealous when i popped this baby out of the microwave. A little bit of cheese oozed out of the burrito, but that didn’t bother me a bit. It just means there’s plenty of filling on the inside to enjoy!
I cut the burrito in half, and there was a substantial amount of filling. They didn’t scrimp on it- it looked like it would actually keep me full! There is also a thick amount of bread as well as the filling. The bread has an almost “bisquity” taste to it, and is also slightly sweet. It cooked pretty evenly, chewy in some areas due to the filling and crisper in others, but it was good. I actually enjoyed the mixed consistency of crisper tortilla on the ends and a softer, doughy tortilla in the middle. It tastes like the inside of a pizza crust as well. Yum. When is that ever a bad thing?
Onto the insides, which were also delicious! There were a lot of beans and brown rice all smothered in a tasty tomato sauce with cheese dispersed. The cheese was so good- a great compliment to the burrito. It was soy cheese, which is how the burrito is so low in fat and still tasty, but if i didn’t tell you it was soy, you wouldn’t be able to tell (so don’t turn up your nose until you try it! 😉 )
Overall, I will be buying this burrito again. It was filling, delicious, and the right size for a quick dinner to be paired with a glass of milk and some veggies, or even by itself if your really pressed for time. One burrito is 260 calories, 1 gram of fat, 48 carbohydrates, 7 grams of fiber (woo!), and 13 grams of protein. You also get 25% Vitamin C and 10% of your daily calcium needs. My only complaint (sorry!!) is that they didn’t use a whole wheat wrap 😦 There is plenty of fiber in this burrito already, and they did use brown rice instead of white, but this would be absolutely perfect if the tortilla was whole wheat. For now, it’s fine by me!
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