Top Ten Macaroni and Cheese Dinners

December 26, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

Mac and Cheese Fest 2006

The links below will take you to review of the ten best microwaveable macaroni and cheese meals. Please note that these are the ten best meals we tried. There might be better meals out there, but we’re so sick of eating macaroni and cheese that it isn’t funny anymore. Enjoy our macaroni and cheese reviews:

Filed Under Mac and Cheese, Site News | 6 Comments

Tofurky “Giblet” Gravy

December 25, 2006 | Reviewer: Heather

Tofurky 'Giblet' Gravy

Price: $3.99
Serving: 2 Tbsp (60g)
Calories: 40
Fat: 3%, 2g
Sodium: 10%, 240mg
Protein: 1g
Carbs: 2%, 5g
Fiber: 8%, 2g

Tofurky says: This rich brown gravy is the perfect topping for the sliced Tofu Roast. Made with unbleached flour, expeller pressed canola oil, natural flavors, herbs and spices, this gravy is then packed with diced, Tofurky cubes or “Giblets.”

Heather says: Oh, and this gravy product kicked ass. In fact, it went faster than the non-vegan gravy at the Thanksgiving table. But please note the “giblets” in quotes. Silliness. In my field, we call this the anthropology “hand quotes,” a tiny gesture that *wink*wink* implies all is not as it seems. I find this particular use of quotes amusing but weird, especially considering the origin of actual giblets - now that’s a Christmas discovery from which I’ve never quite recovered. Anyway, these “giblets” are both non-poultry innards and dee-licious. Yumm.

Filed Under Four Stars, Tofurky Reviews, Vegan, Vegetarian | 1 Comment

Amy’s Kitchen Organic Indian Samosa Wraps

December 22, 2006 | Reviewer: Heather

Amy's Organic Indian Samosa Wraps

Price: $3.89
Serving: 1 Roll, 142g or 5 oz.
Calories: 240
Fat: 10%, 6g
Sodium: 28%, 680mg
Protein: 8g
Carbs: 13%, 38g
Fiber: 15%, 4g

Amy’s Kitchen says: We took lightly spiced organic potatoes, peas and tofu and wrapped them in a wheat tortilla and baked it. The result is outrageously delicious.

Heather says: Yes, another Amy's product. Geez. Really? I know. I can't help myself. You tell Lean Cuisine to start working on their vegan product line, and I'm all over it. Truly.

Anyway, about this product. Like nearly all Amy's meals, the back of this item's box has a great little story about how the product came to be. This one details how one of their cooks, "who is of Indian origin but hails from South Africa" came up with the recipe for these samosas. Only instead of using chapatti, their clever chef wrapped the samosa in a (surprise!) wheat tortilla. That's one of my few critiques of the Amy's product line. Whatever unique name they choose to slap on the front of the box, invariably, if it is a wrap-like product, it'll be little more than a fussy burrito.

So, Amy calls this thing an "Indian samosa wrap." I call it a vaguely Indian fusion whole wheat burrito. Semantics, really, but still. Anywho, let's just call it this: tasty. Although it in no way approaches the deep-fried goodness of a real veggie samosa, I would most definitely buy this item again.

Filed Under Amy's Kitchen Reviews, Four Stars, Vegan, Vegetarian | 6 Comments

KA-ME Peanut Satay

December 22, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

Ka-Me Peanut Satay

Price: $3.59 (ouch!)
Serving: 1 container, 11.6 oz.
Calories: 640
Fat: 42%, 27g
Sodium: 70%, 16800mg
Protein: 17g
Carbs: 27%, 82g
Fiber: 12%, 3g

KA-ME says: Considered the crossroads of the Far East, Malaysia assimilated cultures and cuisines from China, India, Thailand and the Middle East. Peanut Satay, Malaysia’s signature dish, delicately blends exotic spices, coconut milk, tamarind fruit and crunchy peanuts into a robust sauce for Kokkien noodles.

Abi says: You know what you don’t want to hear when you pour sauce onto your noodles? This: “Oh ew, that looks like blood.”

There were two reasons that these noodles weren’t delectable:

Kokkien noodles cooked in a microwave just aren’t my bag. It wasn’t so much that the noodles were bad as that they just weren’t that good. This little container holds nearly 700 calories worth of food. You’d better give me some darn good noodles next time.
Allison’s comment aside, the sauce wasn’t so hot either. A little spicy, but without any backup flavor for the spice. Yes, this is a one-note disaster. I was psyched to try a new sort of peanut noodle, but I can’t say I’ll be coming back to KA-ME.

Other peanut-containing things we’ve eaten: