Product Review: Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Veggie Meatballs

These meatballs couldn’t have appeared at a better time. About a week ago, I was searching for the vegetarian meatballs we normally eat (Nate’s) at my grocery store. They didn’t have them! I asked an employee about them, and she said they no longer carried any of their products! I couldn’t think of any other company that made veggie meatballs, and was envisioning a world without veggie meatball subs, and then I see these meatballs at Target (along with the long-missing veggie hotdogs!!!). Instructions call for either baking these or microwaving them, and I chose baking. You spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and bake for about 20 minutes, turning once. I made spaghetti and meatballs. After baking the meatballs, I added them to my pot of spaghetti sauce. I really liked these. They tasted very meaty. Liam didn’t like them, saying that they tasted like his (veggie) burger at Red Robin. I think these are a great addition to the MSF lineup. Hurray! PS: still trying to figure out the new camera.

rating: 9

 

Product Review: Yves Veggie Shrimp Scampi

This may not be new to you, but it’s new to me! Toby saw this at Wegman’s last week, and we tried it last night. I bought two packets for my family of three. Each package contains a little bag of “shrimp” and a bag of sauce. The directions say to pan-fry the “shrimp” for a couple of minutes and then add the sauce. Cook the whole thing just a little bit longer, and then add to rice or pasta, whichever you choose. I chose angel hair pasta. I thought the “shrimp” were ok (Toby didn’t care for them, he said they got gross the more he ate). I didn’t care for the sauce. I wish they sold the shrimp separately! We shan’t be making this again.

rating: 5

 

 

 

 

Product Review: Organic Batter Blaster

I was looking for something else in the refrigerated section of Wegmans, and this caught my eye. How convenient, I thought. And organic? I’m in. So I tried this last weekend. It WAS pretty neat to use…you can practically draw with the nozzle, so I got on a letter kick, and served Liam pancake letters for breakfast. Liam and Toby thought they were great and “tasted like pancakes”. But their palate is not as refined as mine (LOL) and I didn’t think they were that great. They will do in a pinch (and are really great for kids), but I just didn’t think the taste was there.

rating: (for kids)= 10, (for me)= 5

 

Product Review: VegeUsa’s Citrus Sparerib Cutlets

I can’t remember where I found these…I am sure it must have been Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. I bought these a while ago, and while cleaning out my freezer last week I discovered them. We had them last night for dinner, and I am pleased to report that they were really good! They had a great texture, and the sauce was really good, but it’s a little too spicy for me. You can cook them several ways, but I chose to let them thaw out, and then bake them in my oven for about 15 minutes in foil. I just looked at VegeUsa’s website, and they’ve got many, many awesome-sounding products. I will have to search them out and try some more stuff!

rating: 8 (would be a 9, but they are too spicy for me)

 

Product Review: Morningstar Farms Biscuits

I had heard about these in internet-land, and was really excited when I saw them at a local grocery store. I bought the bacon-egg-cheese flavor and the sausage-egg-cheese. Directions say to just microwave them. I made myself the bacon biscuit, and my husband the sausage one. I thought it was way too much biscuit, and the biscuit was really dry. Hubby said the same thing. I ate half of mine, and gave the rest to him. He said that mine was WAY better than his. I didn’t really like the filling too much, either. I guess he will be eating the rest of the biscuits. I give these a 3, and hubby gives them a 7.

http://www.morningstarfarms.com/products_sausage-egg-cheese-biscuits.aspx

 

Product Review: Vegetarian Plus Vegetarian Chicken Drumsticks

Here’s another item I picked up at Whole Foods recently. Again, like the other product I just reviewed from Vegetarian Plus, these can be prepared a variety of ways. I chose the baking method. You just thaw out the little bag and then empty the contents into some foil and wrap it all up and bake. These come with a bag of curry sauce that you can pour all over the “drumsticks” before baking. I wish I had not used the sauce. The actual “drumstick” was good! It was very close to real chicken texture-wise, and was very tasty, but the sauce was not wonderful, in my opinion. AND these little drumsticks are very heavy on the Weight Watcher points! I think one serving (2 drumsticks) was like 5 points or so.  And these little drumsticks are kind of small! They were good, but they weren’t that good.

rating: 8

 

 

 

Product Review: Vegetarian Plus Vegan Black Pepper Steaks

Last weekend we made a Whole Foods run, and I picked these up. You can prepare them many ways, but I chose to wrap them in foil and bake them. You have to thaw them first, and I didn’t realize this until about 1.5 hours before dinner. I put them out on my counter, and they pretty much thawed out.  I baked them for about 15-20 minutes. These were good! Especially if you like pepper! With these I served a salad and a baked potato, and the baked potato was really good dipped into this black pepper sauce. I would try these again.

rating: 9

 

 

Product Review: Veggie Patch Veggie Dogs

I am still trying to find a veggie dog to replace my beloved Morningstar Farms hot dogs (that have been discontinued). I got these at Wal-Mart. Their packaging looks very much LIKE Morningstar Farms products (and was right beside them on the freezer shelf- deceiving!) Instructions are to boil these “dogs”, but after I boiled them, I then pan-fried them a little with some cooking spray. I served them with some mashed potatoes and red cabbage (a favorite German meal Toby’s mother made us one time- the dogs are in place of sausages). These were good! No, they aren’t MSF-good, but they are edible and actually kind of tasty. I will buy them again.  And for those of you watching your points, they are 2 points+ each. Not bad!

rating: 8

 

Product Review: Match Meat “chicken” + Chicken Croquettes

Here’s the other Match Meat product I purchased recently- their version of “chicken”. I have tons of other fake chicken around the house, but this is different because it’s minced- it’s all ground up, kind of what you would use in chicken salad. And that’s what I was going to make with it, until I changed my mind and went with Chicken Croquettes. I looked around for some recipes, and got some ideas, then I came up with my own version.  You can shape these into patties or balls. We used to get vegetarian chicken croquettes at a restaurant in DC (Georgia Brown’s) until we discovered that most of what they say is vegetarian really isn’t. So that took care of that. These were really good. REALLY good. I had some leftover, so today for lunch I microwaved one and then smushed it, and ate it on some toast. It was kind of like a crunchy chicken salad. I served the croquettes last night with some mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, and buttermilk biscuits.

rating: 9.5

(Faux) Chicken Croquettes

2 cups minced “chicken”- I used Match Meat
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs (I used Italian-seasoned)
2 eggs, beaten
1 onion, sauteed (I sauteed mine in 1 tbsp butter)
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp poultry seasoning
panko, for frying
oil, for frying

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together (except for the panko and oil). Form into patties or balls, and roll in panko to coat. Heat oil in a large pan and fry the croquettes, turning as they brown lightly.

 

Product review: Match Meat “crab” + Paula Deen’s Crab Cakes

I heard about this new brand of vegetarian “meat”, called Match Meat. They make fake chicken, crab, sausage, etc. On their website, you can put in your zip code and see where to buy them near you (I had nothing available near me), or you can buy them through their online store (I tried this, but shipping was very expensive). I ended up buying some from another website, but shipping was still pricey. I bought the ground chicken and the ground crab. I really wanted the pork, but it wasn’t offered at this particular store. So I decided to try the crab first, and looked up a good-sounding recipe. This one from Paula Deen got really good reviews. I subbed in panko instead of regular flour, and I omitted the cayenne. I mixed up everything and let it sit in the fridge a couple of hours. I swear, these looked like real crab cakes. Toby tried one and said wow, these could fool a meat eater. This recipe made about 10 crab cakes and we had ONE left over. I served them with some french fries and some grilled corn on the cob. This was really good, but it’s too expensive right now to have it in our regular food rotation.

rating: 9

www.matchmeats.com

Crab Cakes
(from Paula Deen)

Ingredients

* 1 pound crabmeat, picked free of shells (I used 1 package of Match Meat fake crab)
* 1/3 cup crushed crackers (recommended: Ritz)
* 3 green onions (green and white parts), finely chopped
* 1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper
* 1/4 cup mayonnaise
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 teaspoon dry mustard
* 1/2 lemon, juiced
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* Dash cayenne pepper (I omitted)
* Flour, for dusting (I used panko)
* 1/2 cup peanut oil
* Favorite dipping sauce, for serving

Directions

In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients, except for the flour and peanut oil. Shape into patties and dust with flour.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, carefully place crab cakes, in batches, in pan and fry until browned, about 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully flip crab cakes and fry on other side until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Serve warm with preferred sauce.