Results tagged “vegetables”

Pictsweet Deluxe Steam'ables Spring Vegetables

By: Delia L | Sep 8, 2009

I bought these Pictsweet Deluxe Steam'ables Spring Vegetables because of the colorful mix that I saw on the front of the bag. Seeing all the veggies pre-cut was an added bonus. I don't mind cutting vegetables, but you have to buy a lot of different vegetables to create a mix, which can get pretty pricey.

The product was even more appealing with the steamable microwave bag and the ground peppercorn seasoning. The vegetables include squash, carrots, asparagus, onions, and red pepper which, upon microwaving as directed, turned out with a firm texture. The sauce really fits with the veggies. It's light and adds just the right amount of flavoring, and you can even see little specks of seasoning along with all the vegetables.

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Green Giant Immunity Boost

By: Delia L | Sep 8, 2009

I'm a big fan of the Green Giant line of frozen vegetables. I like how they put some thought into the mix of vegetables in order to optimize their healthy benefits. Recently, I tried the Green Giant Immunity Boost, named for the high amounts of vitamins A and C for a healthy immune system.

This is described on the packaging as having, "Broccoli Florets, Julienne Carrots and Red and Yellow Sweet Pepper Strips In A Garlic-Herb Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil Seasoning." I can vouch for the fact that all the described veggies were present and accounted for - is there anything worse than seeing 2 pieces of something that was featured prominently on the packaging?! The texture was firm, no soggyness here and the garlic-herb olive oil seasoning really enhanced the taste, proving that less is more.

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Green Giant Simply Steam Garden Vegetable Medley

By: Delia L | Aug 17, 2009

Green Giant Simply Steam Garden Vegetable Medley has sugar snap peas, roasted potatoes, red peppers & garden herbs, and since the photo on.the box looked so inviting, I decided to try it.

Just like the other Green Giant Simply Steam varietes reviewed (like the Green Giant Simply Steam Healthy Weight Vegetable Medley and Green Giant Simply Steam Baby Vegetable Medley), this one was delicious. The steaming bag is easy to manipulate and facilitates quick prep and clean-up. The vegetable medley turned out nicely - not too soft - and I enjoyed the garlic and parsley seasoning but could have done without the viscous margarine base. Overall, though, it was a pleasant eating experience.

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Green Giant Simply Steam Baby Vegetable Medley

By: Rae Pellegrino | Aug 17, 2009

As a big time veggie girl, I am a fan of pumping up the volume of any meal with low cal, high volume veggies. Even though fresh is the best option, living in the north limits that from time to time, therefore, I diligently pick up a bag or two of frozen veggies each week at the supermarket to toss into meals. I've never been a fan of high calorie veggies in sauce (visions of cheesy broccoli casserole still haunt me from my childhood) so I decided to try out the Green Giant Simply Steam Baby Vegetable Medley, which was described as being infused in a "light sauce".

I decided to try this meal starter over brown rice with some roasted chicken on the side. It was divine! The light sauce that coated the sugar snap peas, cauliflower and baby carrots gave both the rice and chicken flavor with no additional seasonings needed. In my opinion, it was the perfect, quick, healthy and filling meal ... as I was able to cook the chicken and rice on the stove while the veggies were steaming in the microwave (which took less than 10 minutes for everything).

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Green Giant Digestive Health Frozen Vegetables

By: Delia L | Jul 11, 2009

Green Giant says their Health Blends mix of vegetables, "contain premium vegetables, uniquely blended and lightly tossed with a great tasting sauce to provide you with specific nutrients to help you feel at your body's best." Well, how could I resist?! I surveyed the various types such as Healthy Vision, Healthy Weight (which got our elusive 5 kiss rating), Immunity Blend, before settling on trying the Green Giant Digestive Health because it seemed like an interesting mix in a convenient, compact package.

The carrots, beans, and spinach come in a Steamable bag, and I love how you just have to pull the bag open to access your food. All the components came out with a firm texture, and the garlic herb sauce made from a canola oil base provided a thick layer of additional flavor, which unfortunately, masked the natural flavors of the vegetables. This may be seen as a good thing as those who don't like vegetables. The sauce was delish, so it was still a win-win situation.

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Birds Eye Steamfresh Asian Medley Frozen Vegetables

By: Tanya Patrice | Jul 5, 2009

Birds Eye Steamfresh Vegetables steam perfectly in the bag. According to Birds Eye, their Steamfresh Asian Medley Frozen Vegetables is a blend of broccoli, carrots, baby cob corn and sugar snap peas in a light Asian seasoning. The directions on the bag say that it can be microwaved in the bag for 4.5 to 5.5 minutes, or on the stovetop by adding 2 tablespoons of water and cook for 6 to 7 minutes. I actually chose to do this on the stovetop and it was delicious - and this is coming from someone who ~~does not~~ did not think that they liked anything but raw veggies. There was lots of broccoli as was to be expected since it's the 1st ingredient, and it was firm and crunchy - I think I'm finally beginning to like broccoli. The carrots were short strips (Julienne style), and there was less, but still a plentiful amount of baby corn and sugar snap peas.

Bird's Eye says this is "Specially Seasoned." It was lightly seasoned at best, or maybe their seasoning was so good that it didn't detract too much from the actual taste of the vegetables. Either way, I was glad that the fresh taste of the vegetables shone through. From the ingredients list, the seasoning is actually salt, sugar, dehydrated onion, maltodextrin, dehydrated garlic, black pepper, soybean oil and natural flavor. That seems a pretty common combination to me - nothing "Special" but that's marketing for ya!

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Green Giant Valley Fresh Broccoli and Cheese Sauce Steamers

By: Tanya Patrice | Feb 2, 2009

Confession time: I don't eat enough vegetables! There now you know my secret. Everyday it's a struggle, but I really do try. I love salad, but when it comes to cooked vegetables, I just don't like the taste. I like the steam in the bag idea, and since most vegetables are flash frozen quite soon after harvesting, the nutritional profile is not too far from the fresh stuff. I decided to give Green Giant 100% Natural Valley Fresh Broccoli and Cheese Sauce Steamers a try.

I followed the directions and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes. The broccoli came out like crunchy hard chunks. It was delicious with the cheese sauce, which although it provides extra calories, also made it quite tasty. Thankfully it wasn't too goopy and there wasn't too much of it. I shared it with 2 kids, and while they didn't eat all their portion, they didn't complain about the taste either. I can't speak for all kids - oooh, they can be so picky - but this was well received by the ones I gave it to. From an adult's perspective - 2 thumbs up!

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Disney Garden Carrots and Ranch Dip

By: Emily W | Dec 14, 2008

Disney is creatively using their characters appeal to attract children (and adults) to healthy eating through fruits and vegetables through their Disney Garden Products initiaive. I love having fruits and veggies pre-packaged, washed and ready to go since I'm more likely to eat them and grab them on my way out the door. To help Mickey and Friends spread the word on convenient healthy eating, I opted to review Disney Garden Carrots and Ranch Dip which features the characters from the movie Cars.

The carrots are small and thin (as opposed to big, fat ones that sometimes make their way into the baby carrot world). The ranch dip is actually a ranch dressing, and tastes like ... ranch dressing. I double dipped about 3/4 of my little bag of carrots (the other 1/4 just got a single dunk) and had just enough dressing. As you may infer, the dressing cup is a bit on the small side; then again, so are the carrots, so they complement each other nicely.

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Pictsweet Deluxe Steam'ables Asian Vegetables

By: Delia L | Dec 5, 2008

Believe it or not, one of the highlights of the freezer section for me is the collection of frozen vegetables. There is such a wide variety of options, and everything is precut, easy to prepare, and super healthy with lots of vitamins and minerals. Pictsweet Deluxe Steam'ables Asian Vegetables have all those qualities and more.

Steaming the vegetables in their own bag inside the microwave was quite convenient and produced veggies that were ready to eat. The vegetables include broccoli, carrots, green beans, sugar snap peas, celery, and red peppers. They were fairly crisp amidst the "Oriental seasoning" (AKA soy sauce), and the sauce itself was decent and reminded me of a Chinese restaurant. I appreciate the concern to make vegetables taste better (although I also like plain veggies), but after my intuitive amount of shaking the bag after steaming, there wasn't an equal distribution of the sauce over all the vegetables. As a result, some bites had minimal sauce while others had a very strong soy flavor. This minor problem could be easily avoided by shaking the bag more or by mixing the veggies more on your plate, but I do think it's worth mentioning.

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Libby's Canned Pumpkin

By: Sarah J | Nov 10, 2008

Autumn is here, and along with all the great clothes, changing leaves, and fun festivities, comes great Fall flavors. What I get the urge to eat anything pumpkin! This flavor lends itself to many classic dishes, both sweet and savory, along with healthy and well ... some not so healthy eats (damn you pumpkin pie)! Still, most of these dishes couldn't be created if it wasn't for the wonderful Libby's Canned Pumpkin.

This stuff is awesome. Cooking your own pumpkin can be time consuming and tedious, so having ready-to-eat pumpkin in a can is a miracle in my book. It makes cooking anything with pumpkin faster and simpler. Plus, it is delicious and full of pure pumpkin flavor! Libby's says, "Our 100% Pure Pumpkin is exactly that - with no additives or preservatives. We wouldn't want anything to interfere with our unique, delicious pumpkin flavor." I wholeheartedly agree.

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Green Giant Simply Steam Healthy Weight Vegetable Medley

By: Tanya Patrice | Feb 21, 2008

Green Giant Simply Steam Healthy Weight Vegetables have "sliced carrots, sugar snap peas, black beans and edamame lightly tossed with butter sauce." Toss the bag in the microwave and 4 minutes later these veggies are steamed and ready to go. The veggies steamed to perfection and the flavor was outstanding thanks to the butter sauce, which left very little residue on the veggies.

The edamame retained a nice crunch, the carrots and sugar snap peas were not too hard not too tender. The black beans were plentiful (too plentiful according to the review at HeatEatReview) and it did take a little getting used to because the texture is starchy and a bit different from the smooth texture of the other vegetables. But I have no complaints because there was not a bean, edamame, string bean or carrot in sight when I was done with this.

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Bell Peppers

By: Tanya Patrice | Aug 3, 2006

I often say that I don't like vegetables, but now that I think about it, that's not really true. There are many vegetables that I don't particularly care for but then there are a few out there that I really like and eat often (which I have reviewed), including lettuce, cucumbers and Bell Peppers. I love the taste of bell peppers - slightly sweet, slightly tart and always juicy - not hot and spicy at all, which is what you would expect from something with the word 'pepper' in its name. I love the variety of colors that they come in - green, red and yellow. The difference in color is due to the stage of ripeness, i.e. a red bell pepper is a more mature than a green bell pepper, and a yellow bell pepper is more mature than a yellow bell pepper. They are also always reasonably priced, and always available in abundance at grocery stores.

They are many ways to incorporate bell peppers into foods. Some of my favorite ways include:
* Add to a salad to get that 'crunch' factor.
* Chop into small pieces and use as an ingredient. For example, I started incorporating bell peppers into my scrambled eggs after I saw a friend from the Bahamas do it. The taste of the omlette was amazing and the bell peppers just adds a little something extra to it.
* Stuffed Bell Peppers. Cut the bell pepper into big pieces and use as a 'boat' for tuna or chicken salad. The picture on the right is of bell peppers stuffed with tuna (and red beans) made by my dad who is an 'experimental cook.'