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Indian Feast & Product Reivews!

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Indian food is one of my favorite cuisines. The only time I ever get to have it is if I go out to an Indian restaurant or get take out. Lately, I have had an enourmous craving for it, but not a craving to go anywhere and order food! I decided I would try out some boxed Indian meals… my hope is to find some time to actually prepare an Indian dish from scratch. But for now, boxed it is.

I started with these:
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Tasty Bite Bombay Potatoes:

Ingredients: Water, Potatoes, Chickpeas, Tomatoes, Onions, Sunflower Oil, Salt, Ginger, Garlic, Corn Starch, Coriander, Chilies, Cumin, Spices.
(VEGAN, KOSHER, GLUTEN-FREE, MSG-FREE & NO PRESERVATIVES!!!)
Nutrition per half box: 100 calories, fat 4g, carbohydrates 13g, fiber 3g, protein 5g

I was actually quite impressed with the nutrition! An entire box provides 10 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber! Pretty awesome! I was lazy and just microwaved the the contents of the package for 3 minutes. It was kind of a watery dish, so I used it as a sauce for some veggies, as you will see below!

Step 1: Saute lots of beautiful delicious veggies with spices! (ginger powder, garlic powder, coriander, chili powder, cumin, onion powder)
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veggies include carrot, celery, mushroom, onion, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes

Step 2: Spiralize zucchini
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Step 3: Pan-fry spiralized zucchini
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Let me tell you, this was the best idea I ever had! TRY IT!!

Step 4: Microwave Tasty Bite contents and combine veggies and zuke spiralz in a bowl and top with heated the, in this case, bombay potatoes!DSC01764
(this was only my FIRST bowl of goodness!)

Indian Life Samosas: Mixed Vegetable

I LOVE samosas! And these truly did not dissapoint for being frozen. They are a great snack for whenever, but I figured if I was going to have an Indian boxed/frozen feast I might as well go all out!

Ingredients: Peas, potatoes, carrots, corn, enriched flour, filtered water, onions, salt, ginger, green chilies, lemon juice, cilantro, canola oil, herbs and spices and citric acid.
VEGAN
Nutrition per Samosa w/ Tamarind sauce: calories 130, fat 6g, carbs 17g, fiber 1g, protein 2g

I was not exactly impressed with this nutrition info… but it is a yummy snack wrapped in a pastry shell! A good way to get in some fat at least! But at least I can feel good because of this from their website…”Majority of our products are 100% NATURAL with newer ORGANIC ingredients with NO PRESERVATIVES to minimum. Most of our extensive line of products have NO Added Flavor, NO Color, NO Eggs, NO MSG, NO Lard or NO Hydrogenated oils (Trans).” Not bad!

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Directions: dipped warm and soft naan in bombay potato contents while consuming! Dip samosa in TAMARIND sauce :)

Indian Life Garlic Naan:

Ingredients: Organic Unbleached Enriched Flour, water, garlic, canola oil, salt, sugar, yeast, baking powder, vinegar and calcium propionate

Nutrition per half Naan: 150 calories, fat 4g, carbs 24g, fiber 2g, protein 4g

This Naan is unbelievably good for buying it prepackaged. All you do is wrap it in foil and put in the oven for a few minutes!

Of course, enjoy any type of cuisine with a side of Kabocha with ketchup and tobasco
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Overall, I was extremly happy with my Indian feast! The veggies with pan fried zukes + the bombay potatoes was absolutly delicious! With the addition of the soft doughy warm naan and crispy samaosa, I was in boxed meal Indian heaven. I could not have been happier…

note: if you try the Tasty Bite bombay potatoes, I highly suggest serving them with veggies as the base. It makes for a delicious, yet hearty (from the taters and chickpeas) sauce for the veggies.

Product Review: Go Raw’s Banana “Bread” Flax Bar

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Ah, living raw foods. Raw food was actually how I first developed a love for preparing foods and reading recipes. Prior, I had no interest in cooking, preparing meals, grocery shopping, ect. I think it may have been the challenge presented by the raw food lifestyle and way of preparing foods that intrigued and motivated me. My first raw cookbook was actually Ani’s Raw Kitchen (Ani Phyo).

I started by making dips and spreads, and then saved up for a dehydrator!! I was ESTATIC! Looking back on that time of my life is intriguing. I spent hours looking for different recipes to experiment with (which I do do now, but it was so NEW to me!) I think I made just about everything in Ani’s book, minus a few desserts! Although other desserts were definitly in the works. Cheezecakes, pies, tarts, puddings ect! Well lets just say I “over did it” on the nuts/seeds!!

Rather than thinking simplictically about raw foods (as I do now and so does the wonderful Gena, whom I have learned alot from!) I was making EVERYTHING with tons of nuts/seeds! So just a heads up, if embarking on raw foodism, try to limit your nut/seed consumption to one meal per day!! TRUST ME! ;)

Annywaysss…I still do LOVE raw foods, hence my raw snacks all day long! But I also love warm comforting foods too:) While checking out the blogworld today, I noticed that Gena of Choosing Raw and Jenna of EatLiveRUn are restarting their Raw Food Wednesday Challenge! I have decided to join this fun challenge:) So from my snack photo today, you can omit the Kombucha and string cheese! It was random that I chose my raw banana bread flax bar today for a snack, but was surely meant to be, as I was planning a PRODCUT REVIEW for you all!

So without further ado…

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The ingredient list is spectacular:
Sprouted Organic Flax Seeds
Organic Banana
Organic Coconut (unsulphured)
Organic Date

These are SO awesome for people trying to increase their raw food consumption but don’t have enough time for food prep! They are also perfect for your children’s lunchbox :) And let me just tell you, they are absolutley delicious! If you like bananas or banana bread, you will fall in love with these!

Texture: they are soft, chewy and quite pliable. The texture might be my favorite part, as I have tried the other flavors of this bar, which include pumpkin seed, spirulina and flax granola which are much more crunchy/cracker-like.

Nutrition: In one bar there are 120 calories, 5g fat, 15g carbohydrates, 6g fiber, 4g protein as well as Vitamin C, Calcium and Iron!!

I highly suggest you try these (obviously!) and if you like them, I find that it is best to buy them in bulk as they are more pricy than your average food bar. But hey, they aren’t full of FAKE and GROSS ingredients. They are made with integrity, all the nuts/seeds in their products are sprouted (which makes for easier digestion and nutrient absorption) and they are made with REAL FOOD!

Okay, so there is my rant for you today!! Here were the snacks I packed for the day from which you can omit the string cheese and kombucha and you can ADD a handful of almonds and guacamole! Good thing for NO cheese, as it is VEGAN MOFO month! So in celebration of such, let me just mention that I will be making some vegan treats this week/weekend!! I have been vegan for long periods in my life, so I am excited to be a part of the third year of Vegan MoFo month! Click the link to see all participating blogs!

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So there you have it, my raw foods for the day! For dinner I have dreaming of creating some sort of pumpkin souflee but healthier type thing!? It will most likely NOT be raw because I have been craving tofu latley too! But ya never know, I might save that creation for tomorrow and do a bit more brainstorming! Well, you will find out soon enough!

Here is a quick preview of the raw dessert I will be indulging in tonight!! My famous (in my family at least!) Raw Nanaimo Bar!! Click the link if you aren’t even sure what a ‘normal’ nanaimo bar is!! Needless to say, they are amazing, if I do say so myself!!

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xo,
D

Product Review: Lucy’s Gluten Free Cinnamon Thins

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

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Lucy’s Gluten Free Cinnamon Thins deserve a Product Review, they are that amazing. Lucy’s goal is to make modified diet food TASTE GOOD!

Nutrient breakdown for every 4 cookie thins:

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These are truly fabulous and whenever I venture to my natural food store I cannot help but buy them! They taste like a snickerdoodle (one of my childhood favorites) and their nutrient profile is pretty good. I mean hey, they even have fiber and protein, and just 30 calories/cookie. I would definitely recommend these to ANYONE!