I was at Wegman’s the other day and decided to pick up this BBQ Ranch Chopped Salad Kit.  I love a good salad bar, but I am so lazy when it comes to making salads myself at home.  I thought this kit would help bridge the gap.  🙂

The kit comes with Romaine lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, green onion, and carrots; it also includes a package of tortilla chips, a package of bacon bits, a packet of BBQ sauce, and a packet of ranch dressing.

Pros:

• The vegetables were all cut up in tiny pieces, which made it easy to mix with the dressing.
• The salad has a lot of textures with the crisp vegetables, crunchy tortilla chips, and creamy dressing.
• It comes with bacon bits!
• At $2.99, I felt like this was a good value.  The kit made 2 entree sized salads once I added protein (see Con) and a slice of bread.

Cons:

• The kit does not contain any significant source of protein.  I added a few slices of turkey to make this an entree.
• The toppings were wrapped in packages that were mixed in with the vegetables, so I had to use my hand to fish them out.
• The salads are fresh which is great, but that also means the “Use By” date was just 2 days after purchase.

Bottom Line:  I would buy it again to use as a meal on a busy weeknight.  And it kind of inspired me to try to make my own version.

Sometimes when I go to Trader Joe’s I race in to grab a pound or two of whole wheat pizza dough, a package of veggie burgers, and a few 19 cent bananas. But sometimes I get to wander up and down the aisles, looking for new and useful food products. Last week, I spotted these baby beets. Now, roasting your own beets isn’t really difficult, but it raises the temperature of my house about 10 degrees which is great in January but not so much in June.

One of the sponsors of Fitbloggin’ was Attune Foods. They’re the people that make Uncle Sam’s cereal and other products. Attune was very generous, and not only provided a great breakfast one morning, but also gave us coupons for free cereal so we could enjoy it back home.

For regular readers, it would be easy to predict that my very first product review from Fitbloggin would be oats! When I was first handed a sample of Coach’s Oats, I assumed it was a package of flavored instant oatmeal, but I was totally wrong. Coach’s Oats have the texture of steel cut oats, but only require about 5 minutes of cooking time. The grain is toasted first, and then cut up into small pieces before it is packaged. There are no artificial ingredients, the only difference is the processing and these oats are still a whole grain. I made up a batch of the sample using water as directed, and as promised they were ready in 5 minutes.

Of course, I would never actually eat plain oats for breakfast, so then I topped my bowl with cinnamon, banana slices, and peanut butter. Much better!

These oats have the firm texture of steel cut, and a flavor that is slightly more nutty than sweet. This is a great product if you prefer steel cut oats but don’t have the time to cook them. While I really enjoyed my bowl, I have to admit that I like the creamier texture and sweeter flavor of rolled oats. Thanks to Coach’s Oats for letting my try these, and I appreciate any company that works to make whole grains more convenient.

I received this sample of Jasmati Rice quite some time ago. I generally prefer to use brown rice for it’s firm texture and nutty taste, plus it’s a whole grain. But brown rice isn’t traditionally used for Indian dishes, so when I made the Red Bean Curry I also cooked up my rice sample. As the name implies, it’s a hybrid of jasmine and basmati rice.

Maybe I’ve been eating brown rice too long, but I forgot just how good white rice can be! It was soft and fluffy, and perfect for soaking up leftover curry sauce. While I will still choose whole grains the majority of the time, I really did enjoy this rice. And there’s nothing wrong with that once in a while, so I think I’ll be stocking this in my pantry.

It’s crunch time folks, and I’ll be breaking out a lot of convenience foods. I needed a quick dinner (and lunch for the following day) so I pulled out these Cumin and Chili Chickpeas along with a package of pre-cooked brown rice. The chickpeas required 90 seconds in the microwave, and the rice required 60 seconds.

While the microwave was going, I put together a speedy salad of Romaine and cucumbers. Less than 10 minutes after I walked in the door, dinner was served with a glass of seltzer. (By the way, my new water glasses are simply recycled jars of Teddie Peanut Butter. I feel very green.)

Here are the chickpeas close up. They are spiced very well, but for some reason I expected more sauce. This isn’t like a package of curry. I really enjoyed the chickpeas, but they might have been better served on the salad itself or scooped up with a cracker. The dish itself was a little dry, but it was still a fast sort-of-home-cooked meal. The chickpeas are vegan and gluten free, and they better not be sold out because I need to go buy another bag.

A year ago, I came home to find Nature’s Pride bread on my doorstep, and they surprised me again last week. This time, they sent a loaf of Hearty Wheat with Flax. This bread has plenty of whole grains and fiber, and the flax is a source of omega-3 fatty acids.