This is the other Knorr® – Lipton® Sides Made With Whole Grains package that I got in the mail. They call it Alfredo, but we all know it’s just creamy instant pasta.

Our earlier review of Knorr Sesame Chicken Rice Sides was fairly positive, whole grains and all, so I was expecting this to be at least decent for this type of side dish. Actually, I was hoping to belt out their glorious tagline “Life just got more delicious!” right after tasting it. Or something.

I haven’t had such a good experience from Pasta Alfredo in general, even those dishes that are homemade or restaurant quality. I think one of my first introductions to Alfredo was at Olive Garden. A decidedly unauspicious place to first get a plate of Alfredo Pasta… I don’t know if they’ve improved but I remember that pasta being pretty lifeless. And salty.

But the heart of the problem seems to be my low tolerance for an excess of cream and cheese in pasta. I’m not THAT lactose intolerant, but I just can’t seem to stomach the joyful slatherings that occur in every so-called Alfredo Pasta that I’ve eaten. In fact, the boil-in-a box ones seem to be less disturbing to my system at times.

Another issue with pasta of this type is the “Clumping Factor” which occurs when the creamy, buttery sauce starts to solidify with the excess starch from the pasta. They aren’t messing around when they say “serve immediately”. You’ve got to be a quick eater to fully enjoy it, although I suspect handmade noodles might fare better in a time test. I think you’ve got about 30 minutes to gulp the mess down usually, though it’s been awhile since I’ve had any Alfredo besides this package.

Anyhow, here’s the review.

Packaging:

These Knorr-Lipton Rice and Pasta sides come in a foil bag that you just rip open and dump straight into the mix. As I said earlier, the design is OK. Boy, the alfredo on the package picture sure looks delicious. It’s almost like they’ve coated every single noodle by hand with the sauce… I have no idea how they got it to look like that. I see they have some salad in the picture background for color… it definitely needs it because the noodles look a bit lonely. But hey, that’s why it’s a SIDE dish.

I put the required additions into a pot: 1-1/2 cups water, 1/2 cup milk, and 1 tbsp butter. Then I boiled it and dumped in the bag. They said to cook it uncovered for 10 minutes over medium heat until it was tender, stirring occasionally. Try stirring near constantly instead! At about 3 minutes I had to turn the fire down to low, and keep stirring it for fear of it burning. I actually went 7 minutes total instead of 10, but that’s OK because I like the noodles al dente.

Also, they say to let it sit for 3 minutes but I’d basically put it in your serving dish right away due to the coagulation issues. The sooner it gets eaten, the better.

Appearance and Texture:

The biggest issue is of course the glue-like consistency of the dish, but I had other problems with the sauce as well. I couldn’t get it to coat the noodles anywhere near like the picture. Maybe that’s dumb of me to expect it to look like it but I did try. Mixing it well seemed to help, though that broke up the noodles a bit.

Those fettucini noodles are extremely flat, although they are the right shape for alfredo. They are so flat they’re almost like paper or something. Also they are quite a bit shorter, though that wasn’t a big issue.

Continue reading “Knorr Alfredo Pasta Sides” …

Well, here’s ANOTHER Cheap Eats review of a healthier product… you’d think we’d changed our focus or something. Not so… I promise I have reviews of unhealthy cheap eats coming up soon…

Anyhow, I recently received samples of Knorr® – Lipton® Sides Made With Whole Grains to review in the mail. What we have here is their Sesame Chicken Rice Sides.

First, an aside: One of my earliest memories of going camping with my family is eating out of styrofoam cups filled with Lipton Cream of Chicken Soup. The soup was a dried powder that you added boiling water to. It was a bit gluey, and probably extremely bad for you. But because we only had it during camping trips, it was a sort of treat for us. We also had the bigger packs of Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup that had these unbelievably skinny noodles… almost like broken angel hair pasta. And don’t forget that slightly metallic tasting Lipton Instant Brew Ice Tea powder which came in a tall glass jar which was a staple on trips to hot environments.

So, when you say Lipton I get a good shot of childhood nostalgia. But this is Knorr – Lipton … they’ve apparently joined forces (well, they are both owned by Unilever) to make this Rice Side. Ok, on to the review.

Packaging:

The Rice Side packaging is a five ounce foil bag, with the rice and flavoring placed together directly inside and not in an additional bag as is sometimes the case with these instant rice products. The designs is fairly nice and notably features both logos prominently. The package says “Whole Grain Rice & Pasta Blend in a Sesame & Chicken Flavored Sauce” which is pretty accurate. This is a SIDE dish… you’re not supposed to consider it as stand-alone food. As such, calling it “chicken flavored sauce” is fine I guess… I suspect it’s mostly just the same thing that’s in Knorr Bouillon Cubes…

The directions on the back are pretty easy to follow. Just put everything in a pot with 2 cups water and optional tablespoon of margarine. Cook it for 12 minutes, let it sit for 3. Stir up and serve. Not rocket science.

Appearance and Texture:

I cooked this for the recommeded time plus two minutes in a clear glass soup pot… so I could see how it was doing even though covered. I added the 2 minutes of cooking time because it didn’t seem done yet.

The rice side seems a bit wet though I think that’s the intention. It’s definitely not a fluffy rice dish, but more of a sticky pilaf. I didn’t mind the wet consistency at all. The challenge for them of course is going to be selling the public on the virtues of brown rice. But after all, this IS their whole selling point… the “first mainstream side dish made with whole grains”. Note, that “mainstream” addition… I’d guess that’s pretty important because there are untold number of healthy choice rice sides that have been on the shelves for years.

Hey, everyone knows it’s healthy. But those who aren’t used to the extremely firm and rougher texture of brown rice may need some time to adjust. I grew up eating home-cooked brown rice (or a mixture of brown and white rice) around 2-3 times a week so I’m used to it. You really need to chew brown rice. In this respect, I think it was a wise decision to mix this rice side with little bits of whole grain pasta in order to make the dish easier to eat. The pasta shapes are tiny tubes of durum semolina and contrast nicely in texture with the harder rice.

I thought the colors of the rice dish was a bit boring, though it did jive with what you expect healthier food to look like. It’s a mostly dull beige in color – but hey it’s a rice side dish after all so what do you expect?

Continue reading “Knorr Sesame Chicken Rice Sides” …

I realized that I’ve been ignoring fresh fruit and produce lately at Cheap Eats and opting to profile fast food or snacks. So today we’ll talk about Grapefruit. Citrus fruit can be pretty good cheap eats especially if you can find them for FREE. What, how does that work again?

Well, if you in a fairly temperate locale, there’s a good chance that you’ll have some fruit trees around you. If they aren’t your own, then perhaps your neighbors or relatives have one. Often, the fruit is left on the tree until it rots and falls to the ground. What a waste.

Now I’m not suggesting you go over to your neighbor’s house in the dark of night and appropriate their citrus crop. But if you see them completely ignoring it, you might think about asking them if you might have a few of those lemons, limes, oranges, tangerines, kumquats, tangelos, and grapefruits.

I think lemons can be especially useful for any number of recipes (tons of them call for fresh lemon juice). Limes are great for drinks. Oranges are a bit more difficult to get for free, because most people who grow ‘em definitely eat them.

I’ve got lime and grapefruit trees in my backyard but neither are spectacular producers. My parent’s trees however, are exploding with fruit. Along with oranges and billion of avocadoes (hello, guacamole), I recently picked up a bunch of grapefruits from their house.

Continue reading “Grapefruit” …

Hang onto your hats folks, because we’re about to review Dannon’s Light ‘N Fit Yogurt line. Huh? A diet food review on Cheap Eats? Don’t we scoff at diet foods? Well, I was lucky enough to receive actual yogurt samples in the mail the other day so I’m not about to complain about the price. By the way, they didn’t send me a coupon for yogurt, they sent four ACTUAL Dannon 6 oz. yogurt cups in the mail in a handy carrier filled with blue ice. Pretty cool.

Everyone’s concerned about calories these days, but here at Cheap Eats we could give a floopy rutabaga about staying healthy. Still, for those who are interested, 60 calories for 6 ounce cup of this Dannon Light ‘n Fit seems to be pretty decent for those watching their weight. (The handout sent with it says that their Light ‘n Fit yogurt has gone through reformulations that now make it the “lowest calorie, nationally branded light yogurt available”)

Of a bigger concern for me, was the fact that like nearly all diet foods today it contains artificial sweetener in the form of Splenda. I’m going to preface these reviews by saying that I have a long, well-documented disklike for any artificial sweeteners. It especially bugs me in soda and desserts. Saccharin is particularly problematic. It just leaves a horrible aftertaste that stays in your mouth for hours.

Lately though, the foods that have Splenda in them have seemed less offensive to me in terms of aftertaste. Still, if this doesn’t bother you then I would disregard everything I say about artificial sweetener in the following reviews.

First up is Raspberry Dannon Light ‘n Fit Yogurt:

One of my favorite flavors in candy, yogurt and other treats is Raspberry. So I had some high hopes for this particular flavor. Dannon’s Light ‘N Fit yogurt line (they also have “Smoothies”) is a blended yogurt like Yoplait. So this isn’t the “fruit on the bottom” yogurt I used to get when I was a kid. It’s already mixed and quite smooth in consistency.

The Raspberry yogurt was ultra silky smooth in both texture and taste. Unfortunately, I had an extremely hard time eating this particular one. For me, when I think of raspberry flavor, I actually want to taste the tartness of the raspberries and there didn’t seem to be any “tang” in this flavor. As it was, it tasted cloyingly sweet and 5 seconds afterwards there came a huge sucralose aftershock that lingered around just like Diet Soda. Ugh. In addition, there was a sort of funky smell to the yogurt… not so much like raspberries and yogurt than raspberries and socks. Hm…

I feel that making this flavor lightly more sour would probably de-emphasize the artificial sweetener. In addition, although all 3 flavors I got contain “fruit puree”, this was the only one that didn’t seem to have any chunks of whole fruit in it. It helped to get over the fact that this was light yogurt when there was a little “distraction” in the form of real fruit.

Cheap Eats Score: 4/10

Continue reading “Dannon Light ‘N Fit Yogurt” …

I had been meaning to post about this jar of Bertolli Vodka Pasta Sauce awhile back but somehow never got around to it. Well, I finally downloaded the pics so here you go.

I usually don’t make a habit of buying ANY pasta sauce in jars if I can get away with it. The reason is not only does it tend to be quite a bit more expensive than opening a can of crushed tomatoes and making your own sauce, but I tend to think that many of the tomato based pasta sauces in jars are overly sweet. There are a couple exceptions (one is Barilla Pasta Sauce which is super tangy).

I’d never even bought Bertolli Sauce before, though I’d gotten their Extra Virgin Olive Oil on sale before and it was quite reasonable and pretty good for the price. But because this sauce was on clearance for under two bucks (I can’t remember the exact price) and because it was a bit different than the usual straight-up tomato based sauces, I decided to give it a whirl.

I wish I still had the Bertolli bottle so I could rattle off all of the questionable ingredients in it. The thing is, it’s actually made with “fresh cream”, their own Bertolli Olive Oil, tomatoes, and actual vodka. Yeah, I made damn sure that was listed on the label before buying it!

The usual route most people go is dump the pasta sauce in a pot, heat it up, and then pour it over spaghetti, but I decided to instead use it as an ingredient rather than just a sauce. Using about half the jar, I mixed mixed up a quick sauce similar to the usual one I make for Quick Bacon Pasta. The results, which actually look nice for once, are below:

I used Mostaciolli, bacon and a bit of parmesan cheese, as well as cubed zucchini and parsley to make this feel a bit more healthy. Kind of like a Carbonara of sorts.

Continue reading “Bertolli Vodka Pasta Sauce” …

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. Famous words from Alton Brown on his Good Eats show. Why should you be afraid?

Well, to make a short story long: Every year for the last 30 or more years, I’ve relied upon parents and other family members to provide the main dish at Thanksgiving. The piece de la resistance to mangle a French phrase or two. The TURKEY!

We usually had Thanksgiving at my parent’s house or grandma’s house, and though there were many turkey ups and downs (overcooked, dry, undercooked, and soggy) there always WAS a turkey to be had. A full fledged, brown bird. I can’t remember for sure, but I believe I’ve always had The Bird on Thanksgiving without fail. Just like you see on TV, Turkey with all the Trimmings.

Well, this year the task of preparing the Turkey has fallen to ME for the first time ever. I’ve taken on the task in order to give my parents a bit of a break since their home is currently being remodeled and is in poor shape to host a Thanksgiving.

Cooking a turkey… where to start? Well, I guess I’ve passed the first test which is actually buying a frozen turkey ahead of time in order to let it defrost. I didn’t realize that everyone is thinking the exact same thing: buy the turkey on the weekend before Thanksgiving. So I thought I had plenty of time when I headed over there this past Friday night to look for one.

But the turkey icebox at the supermarket was a graveyard! Of gigantic 20-22 pound gargantuan birds. I wanted a 14-16 pound turkey just like the rest of the civilized world. As we pawed through the frozen carcasses looking for the ideal sized bird, I made a resolution to go earlier next year if I got the chance again. Finally, we found a stray 16.6 pound turkey hiding out under its bigger brethren. Whew!

I’ve never had occasion to shop for turkeys, Thanksgiving or not, so I didn’t really know what the prices would be like. They always have some sort of sale going on at all the major supermarkets on frozen turkeys. The three biggies near me are Albertson’s, Ralph’s, and Vons. I can’t remember the exact details, except that Vons was the most reasonable.

For all the supermarkets, you have to buy a certain amount of groceries in order to get the deal on the bird. For Vons, it was: Buy 25 dollars worth of groceries and then get an under 16 pound bird for $5 or an over 16 pound bird for $7. Unfortunately, our bird tipped the scales at 16.6, so we had to fork over the extra $2. I believe Ralph’s was, buy $25 of groceries and then get 2 turkeys for the price of one, while Albertson’s was buy $75 of groceries and get a free turkey? Not sure…

Now, since it’s still Wednesday and we haven’t yet done the deed, I won’t be able to post any pictures of the roasted turkey that we’re attempting to make. However, we have decided on a plan of attack and it’s going to be the “Brined” turkey recipe from Alton Brown’s Good Eats show. I’ve made brined roast chickens before which turned out pretty fabulously, so we picked the brining method for our first try. Plus, I’ve never had a brined turkey (parents weren’t into the idea) so this’ll be a fun test.

Brining is an extra step and is a bit trickier than a chicken because the Turkey is so darn large! I actually went to Home Depot to get a clean 5 gallon bucket in order to do it.

Well, in case you are wondering, here is the recipe taken straight from the Food Network site. We’re skipping the allspice berries and candied ginger, but we’re planning on following the rest of the steps pretty much to the letter. I’ll report back on the results after the holiday!

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine. Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

Price: $7.00 for just the Turkey
Bought at: Vons
Cheap Eats Score: 7/10

Some people do like it hot, and that definitely includes me. I feel like I’ve been eating hot sauce, chili sauce, taco sauce, Tabsaco Sauce and spicy salsa since I was born.

Quite often, ethnic foods tend to have quite a kick to them. Sometimes it’s “built into” the food and other times it’s served on the side as is this Chinese Chili Garlic Sauce from Huy Fong foods. These are the same manufacturers of the famous Sriracha Hot Sauce, and seeing as I live in the new Chinatown (not the one near downtown L.A.) near good old M.P., it’s no surprise that Huy Fongs headquarters is based in Rosemead, not far from where I live. Actually, I believe this is originally Vietnamese and not Chinese since a lot of that language is on the packaging (as well as French). Still, nearly every Chinese restaurant carries it. You’ll recognize the bottles of the stuff from the distinctive green cap, although I believe a lot of competitors copy this loook.

I stuck with the blended Sriracha hot sauce for quite awhile as the condiment of choice (I put it on corn on the cob the very first time I ate it, haha) for it’s powerful hot kick and overpowering garlic aroma. I put it on nearly everything. However, recently I’ve gotten into a different variety of their sauce. This one has the actual chili seeds whole in the sauce and is a bit more chunkier as opposed to blended.

Continue reading “Chinese Hot Sauce” …