Category: Grocery stores (Page 17 of 18)

      Product review: Schwan’s mini meatball sandwiches and mini mozzarella bites

      October 19, 2011 /

      You’ve probably seen those yellow delivery trucks that are essentially refrigerators on wheels. These vehicles carry Schwan’s Foods. What you may not know is that you can order these products online now to be delivered to your door, but not necessarily by yellow refrigerator truck.

      Anyway, I have never tried anything that Schwan’s made but I have heard that their food is mighty tasty, something you can’t always say about frozen foods. So I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was pitched two new products from Schwan’s–mini meatball sandwiches and mini mozzarella bites–as the company tries to appeal to the football watching public. So I popped them in the oven (the meatball sandwiches require about twice the time so I put those in first) and ate them–you guessed it–on Sunday while watching football.

      Chef JimThe mini meatball sandwiches are kind of like mini Hot Pockets, but with one difference (no offense to the folks who make the aforementioned pockets)–they taste really good. The crust is actually nice and flaky, despite being a frozen product, and still house a good amount of whole grains without being grainy tasting. The meatballs do not taste like mystery meat, and don’t even have a weird texture as some frozen meatballs do. The only thing I would have liked more of is the tomato sauce, but this can be easily rectified by nuking some spaghetti or pizza sauce and dipping the sandwiches.

      Chef JimIn fact, you might want to nuke extra sauce to go along with the mozzarella bites. For some reason, I was expecting breaded cheese sticks, but these were more like tiny pillows of dough with mozzarella cheese inside. Just like the sandwiches, the crust was nice and flaky and these were nice little bites. These have no sauce–it’s basically dough and cheese, but still delicious and perfect dipping into warmed pizza sauce.

      Grocery stores, Healthy, Product Reviews, Tailgating, Your Kitchen

      Bacon woes

      October 11, 2011 /

      I had good intentions with another bacon recipe to post this past weekend, but lo and behold, not every recipe I develop is any good. My plan was to take refrigerated crescent rolls, and fill them with bacon and sausage and cheese. Mmmmm, breakfast-y goodness, right? Well, not really, and this makes me wonder how many recipes out there that are really good actually fail sometimes and fail as miserably as my breakfast sandwich.

      I cooked a bunch of bacon, and our 4-year old son ate more of it than I needed. That’s my boy. I was left with two slices. I cooked a link of turkey breakfast sausage. Then I took the rolls out or should I say, Mrs. Mike and I (mostly her) had to fight to open the package, which should have been our first sign. I won’t say the brand, because I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus here, but I will say this–the crescent rolls I bought were butter flavored. Now, you’d think that anything’s better with butter, right? The catch here is I don’t think it’s real butter we’re talking about.

      Anyway, I assembled the roll by pinching two triangles together to make a rectangle, and then I laid down some cheese, bacon and the sausage link and rolled that sucker up. I baked it for a few minutes longer than what the recipe suggested, and took a bite. B-L-E-C-H. I took another bite. B-L-E-C-H. It was the butter flavored roll, not anything else that made it disgusting. I imagine that with normal crescent rolls or biscuits, this sandwich would taste really good. But I haven’t recovered from that vile butter taste to give it a go.

      I will say this, though…..it’s been fun writing about bacon and coming up with recipes, so why not extend bacon week for another little while? I’ll be preoccupied for a few days but will deliver more bacon posts next week and into the following week before turning our attention to Halloween candy. Sound good? I thought so.

      Grocery stores, Ingredients, Recipes, Your Kitchen

      Maple-y bacon breakfast sandwich

      October 6, 2011 /

      Psst, don’t tell your cardiologist about this one.

      Last week, I saw Eggo French Toast Waffles, which are more of a waffle and less like French toast (the key is there is maple syrup baked in), in the freezer case at the grocery store. I thought our 4-year old would like these, so I picked them up. Then of course, I realized it’s bacon week and anything goes.

      So this morning, I toasted two of these “waffles,” and scrambled some eggs. I cooked up two slices of thick cut bacon in the microwave. When the pillows of maple goodness were toasted, I put a slice of cheese down on one of them, then topped with the scrambled eggs and the bacon slices and put the other waffle on top. And there you have a breakfast sandwich that is every bit as tasty as it sounds, and looks (above).

      Grocery stores, Ingredients, On the Grille, Recipes, Tailgating, Your Kitchen

      Classic BLT

      October 4, 2011 /

      One of the best things about bacon is the BLT–bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. I’m not quite sure why it all goes together, but it does. You can come up with all kinds of variations, but to me, the simplest form of BLT is the best–bacon, iceberg lettuce, ripe tomato, and mayo on white bread or a white roll. Today I bought some white sandwich rolls and ate two of them, pictured above.

      Here is how to do it. First, cook some bacon (yesterday we went over a few ways to do this). I chose to make two kinds–Oscar Mayer center cut bacon and a maple bacon I found today. I mixed the two on my sandwich and they came out amazing. After cooking the bacon (2-4 slices per sandwich), spread some mayo on the bread. Layer cooked bacon, tomato and lettuce, and that’s it! You can add a bit of salt and pepper if you like, or use rye or wheat bread, or even use a wrap, but the basic flavors are key.

      Okay, on to come up with more bacon ideas!

      Food on a Budget, Grocery stores, Ingredients, On the Grille, Recipes, Your Kitchen

      Product review: Planter’s Tailgate snacks

      August 30, 2011 /

      Chef JimFootball season starts next week–next Thursday night to be exact, with the Super Bowl champion Packers hosting the Saints. Then the Sunday after that, it’s the first NFL Sunday. Of course, this weekend marks the start of the college football season. And fans of both college and pro football share one thing in common–they love to tailgate, and that means lots of good food and good drink.

      So with that, Planter’s is putting out some great new products for you to enjoy munching while watching the games, and they were kind enough to send a few for me to try…..

      Honey Smoked Tailgate Almonds–Smoked almonds have long been a favorite of mine, but these are unique. They combine the smoky flavor of smoke-flavored almonds with the glazed sweetness of honey roasted nuts. So you have a sweet and smoky combo that, quite honestly, makes it hard not to eat the whole can. Good thing they sent me giant 19 oz. cans!

      Tailgate Nut Mix--This is a smoky, salty combo of chipotle almonds and peanuts, corn nuts and pretzels. This has more of a subtle smoky taste, but there is more of a savory, almost tangy flavor that makes this just an explosive (though not spicy) snack. And again, I”m glad there are 19 full ounces of this stuff!

      There is also pumpkin spice almonds, which are not my thing, but definitely a fall season item.

      So go grab a couple of these cans and happy football season to you all!

      Grocery stores, Product Reviews, Tailgating

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