kashi's mayan bake

i've been a fan of kashi products for some time now. when kashi announced they were offering coupons for a free frozen meal (the promotion appears to have ended.), i was all over it. before i even got my coupon in the mail, i perused the frozen meal offerings to see what new frozen meals they had to offer. when i saw the mayan harvest bake,

i was excited to try and pleased when i found it at my local walmart. it has plantains, black beans, sweet potato, kale, kashi 7 whole grain pilaf, amaranth, polenta, and a spicy ancho sauce. i cooked mine in the microwave.

my thoughts on the dish: it definitely needed more salt and for a meal that states on the front of the package it had a spicy ancho sauce, it wasn't spicy at all. so, i added salt and sriracha. i could have choosen an ancho hot sauce since we certainly have some in our fridge. you really wouldn't believe the number of hot sauces we have in our fridge(20+), but sriracha is my go to hot sauce since meeting my boyfriend. i really like the texture especially the added crunch of the pumpkin seeds and barley to balance the creamy other ingredients like the sweet potato and plantain. amazingly, it was really filing for what seemed to be a small portion most likely from the high fiber. overall, i really liked the meal. it tasted pretty darn good for a frozen meal, and its good for me.

cheese and pate dinner

yesterday after watching some dvr'd episodes of unwrapped off the food network on canned foods and cheese, we were inspired or should i say suckered into getting some cheese and crackers and canned meat. now obviously, the meat was not for me. i told my boyfriend to make things simpler by limiting us to 2 cheeses. he decided to go for a semi soft and semi hard cheese. his decision was to get manchego and herbed chevre. he went for the manchego because it his favorite all purpose cheese, and despite his adoration for it, i have somehow never managed to have it before. manchego is a sheep's milk cheese and can only be called manchego if it is made from manchega sheep which originate from la mancha region of spain(sound familiar like don quixote). our local bloom carries it for $18.89 a lb. needless to say we got quite less than a pound. i love goat cheese so i was glad that chevre was his second choice. for his canned meats, he got liver pate, lobster pate, and deviled ham. all the canned meats were approxiamately $2 a can. the deviled ham was the original inspiration. the show mentioned vienna sausages which he had never had. i remember as a child having vienna sausages and hating the slimy juice they came in. but, i did remember liking deviled ham. when i looked online, all explanations seemed to be that it was finely diced ham and seasonings. he thought well that sounds good, and he wanted to try some. he also got some gardenia, pickled spicy vegetables instead of the usual olives to accompany our spread. and, of course, we need a bread so he bought some seasame crackers and boxed crostinis(who knew they made these? what a time saver for parties.).

the results. the cheeses were absolutely divine as expected. the chevre fabulous as expected and the manchego has an almost nutty quality to it. it was a 3 month old wheel, but we really can't afford to get one that is more mature as those are even pricier. i was also pleased at how full i was after what might be seen as a course in many other meals. the meats did not go as well. the lobster smelled like lobster at least which is a bonus as the other two cans smelled like bad cat food. he made me smell them much to my dismay. i guess my memories of deviled ham were off cause he was less than a fan. the liver pate was so bad that even the cats would not eat it when we put it in their bowl. it was still sitting there the next morning. i suppose thats what you get when you buy cheap. all in all a nice change of pace and a lovely chance to feel like you are living th decadent life.

tgi friday's spinach dip

i love spinach artichoke dip especially at tgi friday's. so, i was surprised when my boyfriend brought home the frozen version from the grocery store as i treat since i was feeling under the weather. it was a sweet thought on his part especially, since he's worried that when i don't feel well that i don't get all the nutrients i need. sadly, i was quite disappointed. it tasted completely different from what you get in the actual restaurant. the food clealy tasted like it had been frozen. it was also really runny and not creamy the way i expected the dip to be. the dip was also extremely bland. we tried doctoring it by adding cheese, salt, pepper, and a bit of hot sauce to balance it out. even with that, it was still less than i had hoped.