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      Product review: me & goji cereal

      December 15, 2010 /

      Now this is one of those ideas that will make you smack your own forehead, and tell yourself you should have come up with the idea –make your own cereal based on various lists of ingredients. That’s the premise of me & goji, the brainchild of two friends named Alexander and Adam, who enjoy healthy food that tastes good–but also with an eye toward the fact that different people like different types of cereal ingredients.

      So you go to www.meandgoji.com, and you choose a base such as flakes, or hoops or granola; and add things like dried fruits and nuts. I ordered the oat rings with dried cherries, granola clusters and almonds. And there are several things I like about me & goji. First, the oat rings are solid and sturdy and stand up to milk for several minutes. You know they are made from whole grains, yet they taste really good. The cherries are tart but not too tart, and the clusters and almonds add a nice counterpunch. The only drawback is that I would like to have more of the secondary ingredients. I’m guessing it’s about 70% oat rings, and 10% of each of the others.

      It also comes in a cool capsule that you can stick easily in a gym bag and have a good snack after working out. You also get to name it whatever you want, so mine was “Mikey’s Mix.”

      You also pay per ingredient, so you have some control over that. And me & goji might cost you more than a traditional box of healthy cereal, but the fact that you can custom design it and tote it easily anywhere makes it worth that. It’s also a cool thing to order for holiday gifts and/or stocking stuffers. In fact, I’m going to order some today for that very reason.

      So check out me & goji, but don’t beat yourself up for not thinking of the idea first.

      Healthy, Uncategorized, Your Kitchen

      A Can A Week: Hormel Hot Chili with Beans

      December 14, 2010 /

      A few weeks ago, I posted my Grub for Guys chili recipes. But if I have to eat chili from the can, it’s almost always going to be Hormel Chili. I mean, right on the can, it says, “Since 1891.” Holy crap, they’ve been making chili for 120 years and in three differet centuries.

      And being that they make several different kinds of chili, I thought we’d review a few of them on our “A Can A Week” feature. This week it’s Hormel Hot Chili with Beans. Hot as in spicy, and when the word “HOT” is almost as big as the “Hormel Chili,” you sure expect at least three chili peppers on a scale of 1 to 5. I’m going to give it about a 3.5 there–I love spicy food, and this chili is maybe one of the spicier canned foods you’ll find, but it’s not like I was reaching for a glass of milk after each spoonful, or even water. I’d say, though, that it’s just the right amount of heat, so as not to overpower the chili.
      The heat also creeps up on you a bit, like a swift kick in the back of your throat.

      Flavorwise, you really can’t beat Hormel Chili, and this one is no exception. There is a real depth of chili flavor, with tomatoes being there but more in the background. The bean to beef ratio is about 50/50, and pretty decent for a can of chili.

      If you eat the whole can (and just like with last week’s Chef Boyardee review, why wouldn’t you?), you’re ingesting 520 calories…but you’re also talking 32 grams of protein and 14 grams of fiber. So no, Hormel Chili may not be classified as health food, but it’s got some nice nutritional value too. And as I write this, I’m FULL and may not eat until dinner time.

      So if it’s been a while since you’ve tried Hormel, or if you haven’t tasted the Hot Chili with Beans, go check it out and see if you agree with this assessment. And now, time for a nap (well, not literally).

      Next for the Hormel line, we’ll review their Turkey Chili.

      Food on a Budget, Tailgating, Your Kitchen

      Product Review: The Biggest Loser Meal Plans

      December 13, 2010 /

      You’ve probably seen the commercials and ads online for The Biggest Loser Meal Plans, by eDiets. The TV show on NBC of the same name has been wildly successful, in part because of the fact that our country is dealing with a horrible epidemic of obesity; and in part because it’s just a brilliant premise for a reality show.

      But while I do blog about the show for Premium Hollywood, I’m no nutritionist, so keep that in mind when reading my review of the Biggest Loser Meal Plan samples that were sent to me. I’m going to go light on the nuts and bolts of nutrition information, and heavy on how this stuff tastes and how it made me feel afterward.

      The cooler they sent me had 15 meals–five days’ worth of breakfasts, lunches and dinners–and a box of five snacks. The instructions are to refrigerate immediately, or if you’re not going to eat them within 7-10 days, to freeze the meals.

      The breakfasts included panckakes with egg whites and blueberry-apple compote (the pancakes were crumbly and egg whites rubbery, but I could have eaten a whole bowl of the blueberry-flavored apple slice); a Southwestern egg and cheese burrito (the tortilla held up remarkably and the burrito as a whole was tasty but could have used more cheese—perhaps that’s why they call it a “diet”); and the spinach and cheese frittata more resembled an “egg loaf,” and it came with some really tasty sweet potato hash.

      The lunches included oven roasted turkey and gravy with cranberry-walnut rice and a jerk-rubbed pork loin with bourbon espresso sauce. Both of those featured meat that was thinly sliced and tender, and the dishes as a whole were delicious and did not taste like diet food. The chicken pesto pita was good except for a grisly chicken piece or two, and came with a bright three-bean salad. The tuna salad wrap unfortunately was soggy upon opening, and the edamame it was served with did not taste fresh.

      Among the dinners were a few real winners—the Asian chicken with black bean pesto and sugar snap peas; and Tex-mex chicken with black beans, corn and salsa. The chicken meatloaf was also tasty and the Cuban style pork sandwich was nicely intact, but the quinoa salad it came with was not.

      In the snack box were items such as cookies, chips and popcorn—healthier versions than what you’d buy in the store, but also small enough portions so that you won’t over-indulge. In fact, that’s the point of meals like this—you eat these, snack sensibly and drink lots of water, on top of exercising properly, and you should lose weight. The portions are small, but so are meals like Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones—and that’s because portion control is as big a problem as any when it comes to obesity.

      But a funny thing happens when you eat these meals, too—you feel full for hours afterward. And for that reason alone, these Biggest Loser Meal Plans have done their job. For more information on the diets, please visit www.biggestlosermealplan.com

      Healthy, Your Kitchen

      Huevos rancheros

      December 10, 2010 /

      Here is another killer recipe I posted on Grub for Guys a couple years ago….

      You want something the morning after a night of, um, sipping a few cocktails? Yeah, usually what you’re craving is not just a giant glass of water and some coffee, but some protein to soak up the residual alcohol. Well, here’s a bonus…even if you don’t drink, my Huevos Rancheros recipe tastes good, and it’s a quick, easy and healthy breakfast any day of the week.

      Ingredients:
      2 six-inch corn tortillas
      2 eggs
      ½ cup refried beans
      Hot sauce to taste
      Chopped cilantro (optional)

      Directions
      Put the tortillas in a toaster oven at 300 degrees for about 5 minutes, or until they start to become brown and crisp. Another option is to fry them quickly in a non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray for maybe 30 seconds on each side. The key is to make sure they are crispy and not still limp (no blue pill jokes, please).

      Put the refried beans in a microwave safe bowl and nuke them for about 45 seconds. Spread ¼ cup beans on each tortilla.

      Then fry the eggs in a medium size skillet until the whites begin to set—that means they are safe to eat and the yolk will be slightly runny. Those yolks will also be delicious and may be enough to cure your hangover alone. Put an egg over the beans on each tortilla, douse liberally with hot sauce and cilantro, and serve.

      This recipe serves two people or one really hungry dude. Heck, some guys could probably down three or four of these, but the recipe is easy enough to adapt if that’s the case. Enjoy!

      Food on a Budget, Healthy, Recipes, Your Kitchen

      Product review: Pomegranate 7-Up

      December 9, 2010 /

      This holiday season, if you’re looking for a refreshing non-alcoholic drink, you might try new (and for a limited time only) Pomegranate 7-Up Antioxidant. The original 7-UP lemon-lime and cherry flavor are very refreshing (with no caffeine), but this pomegranate one is even more so, at least in my opinion. The pomegranate flavore is sublte at first and then creeps up on you, unlike what you might expect from juice-based drink. I’m also not a huge soda pop guy, but this stuff is really tasty and I’d be inclined to buy it in the store. Bonus: it reminds me of the Shirley Temples my dad made me as a kid.

      Oh, and they send a bottle of the diet version too, and while I’m not a big fan of diet soda, this one had an especially strong after-taste of artificial sweetener. Of course, the one with “real sugar” is actually made with high fructose corn syrup, but HFCS does make drinks like this taste pretty good!

      It came with an info sheet that has recipes for cocktails, and I take it this would make a nice holiday mixer based on the light flavor and cheery red color alone. Definitely a product worth checking out.

      Ingredients, Tailgating, Uncategorized, Your Kitchen

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