Helen's Kitchen, Part One

A few months back I noticed Helen's Kitchen products in the freezer of a grocery store I was at and I was intrigued. So I was happy when I heard that they (or a PR person) wanted to send me coupons to try out a couple products. I picked up GardenSteak TofuSteaks and the entree Thai Red Curry. Not all of their products are vegan, so keep that in my mind when purchasing.

The first item I tried was the Thai Red Curry. It's a small entree so, thankfully, I was not completely famished and this filled me up just right. It's all organic, gluten free, gmo free and has 13 grams of protein in it. The red curry sauce was the perfect amount of spice for me (I'm just a bit on the wussy side of spicy). The TofuSteak chunks are extra extra firm and have a nice slight chicken-y flavor (the TofuSteaks come in both regular and "chicken"). The peas and butternut squash in this are tasty as well. I actually really enjoyed this meal, but, honestly, I'm unsure if I'd buy this if choosing a frozen meal. It's mainly because if I'm going to get Thai food, I'm going to head over and pick some awesome to-go at Pad Thai Kitchen. When eating frozen, I tend to go for nonAsian dishes. Just my preference, I guess.

Have any of you tried their stuff? I look forward to trying the TofuSteaks! I love love love firm tofu!

New Blog & A Review

I've been ignoring this blog a bit, somewhat due to that I now have another blog. I had been discussing with a friend that I frequent coffee shops with about how I was thinking of starting a fashion blog. So many times I'm looking online at online shopping, fashion blogs, etc and I think "what the eff??" and I feel the need to show someone else what crazy thing I have seen. So I've been posting links on my Twitter, but I don't get much feedback from that and you can only fit so much in 140 characters and I feel annoying if I post several posts in a row. While I was discussing this with my friend I got the fun idea that we could co-host a blog together. I have a friend that does a blog with a penpal of his. It's like they're talking back and forth to each other, a conversation in photographs and art that they've done. But this way I could also interact with whoever else was interested. So 'anchor and crow' was born...So far I'm the only that has posted, but I hope soon (nudge, nudge) Miss Crow will post something.

This, my dear readers, is a delicious vegan frozen dinner. I've been really diggin' fried plantains as of late (Mostly from a great dining experience at the food cart Fuego de Lotus). Description of product:

Plantains with roasted sweet potato, black beans and kale. Spicy ancho sauce with pumpkin seed garnish over Kashi seven whole grain polenta, plus amaranth.

I tried amaranth for the first time a few months ago. It kinda looks like a smaller version of quinoa. Mine ended up pretty gloppy, but I think it's supposed to actually stay separate. I don't love love love it, but it's not gross. It's eatable and knowing that it's very good for me persuades me to continue eating it.

I was surprised by how much I liked this. If stars were given, I would probably give 4 out of 5.

If it's on sale, I'll definitely buy it again for those desperate times when I don't have any food prepared and don't feel like making any.

WaffleWaffleWaffle....GranolaGranolaGranola!

Ok, so a loooooong ass time ago, I was given some frozen waffle products by Nature's Path foods. One was the Homestyle gluten free and the other was one of the fruity varieties. I accidentally left the fruit ones at work and my bosses and their kids ate them....so I didn't get to try them.  :o)    But from what they tell me, they were tasty!

So, I did get to eat the gluten free ones. I'm always skeptical about gluten free bready things. They usually end up with a weird taste and quite dry and crumby. So I was pleasantly surprised by these waffles. I toasted them up in my toaster oven, smeared a little peanut butter, drizzled it with maple syrup and ate them right up! There's no strange flavor, just a nice yummy waffle. I was wondering what to have for breakfast yesterday and I was wanting something warm, that's when I remembered I still had 2 of these in my freezer. After several months opened in the freezer, they were a little dry and crumbly, but the taste was still good!

A couple months I was sent 3 boxes of Nature's Path Granola. I had previously tried, and loved, the Pomegran Plus. It was some dried sour cherries in there, as well as coconut. So good!!

I'll review them in order from least liked to most liked.

The one I liked least was the Agave Plus. It had sunflower seeds in it and just had this weird taste to it. I like sunflower seeds a lot, but they tasted strange here. I would never buy this one. Even if it was 99 cents a box....

Second best/worst was the Vanilla Almond Flax Plus. I'm usually not a huge fan of vanilla flavored granolas, I think they end up tasting too cloying. It's like the vanilla flavoring is kicking you in the face, daring for you to ignore it. This granola was no exception to my rule. It had a strange flavor to it. I wouldn't say I hated it, I would eat it if given a bowl of it, but if I had other options (such as the Pomegran Plus!) I wouldn't choose it.

The best in the bunch was the Pumpkin Flax Plus. Of course, the name insinuates there's going to be a pumpkin flavor to it...it doesn't. It just has pumpkin seeds in the mix. Good ole pepitas! There is some cinnamon in the granola, which is maybe why I like it. I like this granola and would definitely buy it when the granola mood hits. Well...if they were out of the Pomegran Plus   :o)

Oh, I just remembered that I've also had their Hemp Plus granola! I was on a kick for awhile, getting that stuff a lot. I think I stopped getting it after the Pomegran Plus hit the market. I'm a sucker for cherries, what can I say? The Hemp Plus has a sorta strange taste, which I think is due to the hemp seeds. Those little guys just have an odd taste, but I love them and have acquired a taste for them.

Thanks so much to Nature's Path for the samples to review!

Amy's Wraps

Picture taken from Ally

So I made a spontaneous buy when I was at New Seasons the other day. I was doing what you're not supposed to do, hungry whilst grocery shopping. Selected Amy's frozen wraps and burritos were on sale for 2/$5. I remember back in the day when Amy's pockets were priced under $2 and now you can't even find them on sale for that. At the time I worked at a small natural food store and the tofu pot pie pocket or tofu scramble was my back up lunch. The pot pie pocket is the tastiest pot pit I've ever had. (Whiffies is a close second.) 

Anyways, back to my review....The sale signs caught my eye and I saw the Indian Spinach Tofu Wrap. It didn't say "nondairy" on the front, which made me curious because what would be nondairy about that kind? So I looked on the ingredient list and it says in parenthesis "vegan" first thing. I brought it home and ate it right away. The filling is almost 100% spinach, which is fine by me. Some tofu chunks are thrown in for a protein kick. I microwaved it and next time would probably do the microwave/toaster oven mix. I did have that unfortunate lukewarm center, though both ends were nicely hot. The flavor is really excellent in these! I think it I like it better than the pot pie. The spices are just so right on.

Nutrition facts: 310 calories, 14 g fat, 11g protein, 70% Vit A, 25% Vit C, 15% Calcium, 15% Iron. 

Taste Above...Olive Garden

I was at Grocery Outlet the other day and came across Taste Above's Tuscan Marinara Sauce with Veggie Chicken and Penne Pasta. It's a frozen dinner product and I had never seen the brand before. As I always seem to do, I didn't think to check the nutrition facts, which are high in fat (19grams) and calories (320). But there is 26 grams of protein (holy assload of protein, Batman!) and 20% of your suggested daily iron. I did do my usual ingredient check to verify that it was vegan and it passed inspection. They use Gardein for the veggie chicken, a product I had only read about. 

So the taste: It grew on me, but it's not knock-out delicious and it take me eating half of it before the growing on me started. As always in a frozen dinner, the pasta is a bit on the mushy side. The "meat" had an odd mouthfeel and has a bit of a strange flavor. The sauce was watery. But with all that negative-sounding stuff, I will say that I liked it. 

The brand suggested retail price is $5.99, which wtf? I would never pay for such a small portion. Granted the calories and fat are so high you wouldn't want a bigger size. I paid only $2.49, because Grocery Outlet is the shiz. 

So, really, if you're needing protein, try it out, if you're on a diet, skip. If you're me, if I'm desperate...