Hello. Oh man, raise your hand if you had a hard time getting back into the swing of things last week. Yep. After overdosing on Free Family Eats and general holiday Eggnogging, I just didn’t get around to turning the blog back on. But here it is, and here’s the first review of the new year: Cheerios Snack Mix.

If you don’t believe that the “healthy breakfast and snack” market is insanely popular right now just take a look at the recent archives of the food sent in for review. It’s pretty much all cereal, health bars or healthy snacks. I guess there’s nothing wrong with going for the “turn over a new leaf” crowd.

I go back quite a long ways with my friend Cheerios - I guess their advertising got me back in the 70s. I also remember lots of parents making the homemade “Chex Mix” (not the kind you can buy pre-packaged nowadays). I’m trying to remember if the one my parents made had Cheerios in it. I think it did. I also believe it featured worcestershire sauce in it?

Anyhow, I was sent this new Cheerios Snack Mix in the Cheddar flavor the other day. First off, I want to say that I wish I was sent the “Original” flavor. Not that I don’t dig cheesy artificial goodness, but I usually like to try the basic flavor of a snack before kicking it up a notch with the cheese.

Still, this snack seemed promising. They tout it as a “balanced” snack because of the Cheerios, and like most snack manufacturers are sure to say it’s Baked and not Fried. I’m glad, because Fried Cheerios does not sound like a delicacy.

There’s 6 different kinds of snack pieces in the mix: standard multigrain Cheerios cereal, Wheat Chex, Corn Chex, triangular Cheese Crackers, “Bread Twists”, and Twist Pretzels. I’ll go through each of them in reverse order, but first let’s talk about the Cheddar powder: it tastes just like Doritos. Yep, that’s pretty much it - you’ve tasted one artificial cheese powder, you’ve pretty much got them all. Well, actually it reminded me more of the artificial cheese powder packet from Kraft Macaroni. But you know what I’m talking about.

I’m not against the taste of it, but I already thought Cheerios ‘n Cheez was going to be strange. The taste of the multigrain Cheerios with cheese powder is a little too weird for me. I think it’ll be an individual taste thing.

Continue reading “Cheerios Snack Mix” …

Sorry for the later post this week - we’ve been dealing with a feeble internet connection lately. It was too frustrating to try and make blog posts when submitting the form could send 2 hours of work into Nowhereland. When it finally got fixed, I realized I didn’t have anything lined up to talk about.

So I turned to an old standby: Pico Pica Hot Sauce.

I don’t mean that I’ve written about this before, but I’ve been meaning to make a post about it for a year or so now. I call it a standby because we always have a bottle of this sitting in the fridge. My parents always had a bottle of this in their fridge. Actually, it seems like it was the same particular bottle for about 10 years…

Although it’s currrently distributed by Juanita’s Foods, it has been in production since 1937. According to the website, it was “one of the original bottled Mexican hot sauces in Southern California.” I believe that Juanita’s is also the number one seller of Menudo (not the band, the stomach pieces) in the U.S. as well.

What I always liked about Pico Pica’s hot sauce was that it IS an old standby. I originally got into it in the 80s after I discovered it tasted remarkably like Taco Bell hot sauce. It’s a little less watery and thin than I remember Taco Bell’s being, but not as thick as some other hot sauces. It’s a blended hot sauce made primarily of red chile peppers, tomatoes and spices.

On the heat scale, it’s not unbearably hot - I can take a lot more heat than this. But it’s pleasant to eat when you’re just hungry but want to add some zing to a bland burrito. It has a mild afterburn, but I wouldn’t call it mild hot sauce. The flavor has a fairly strong cumin or chile powder scent, and a bit of a “raw” taste to it that I suspect some people might not like. I think compared to Tapatio it’s milder and less of a cumin taste to it. But I haven’t tried them side by side.

What I like about it is that it doesn’t have as much of a vinegar taste like some other hot sauces - I mean I dig dashes of Tabasco for certain things like eggs and breakfast skillets, but if you want something to pour liberally on top of your meal then I like Pico Pica better.

Continue reading “Pico Pica Hot Sauce” …

Hi there Cheap Eaters - well, it’s Thanksgiving time already and I’m already running around starting the prep for the turkey (cooked Alton Brown style as usual) and other dishes. So, I don’t have much time to blog - in lieu of the usual wit and repartee, here are three different dish pics representing “eating out”, “buying prepared food and eating in” and “eating in from scratch”:

Ah yes, fish tacos. There’s a halfway decent place near us called Dorados that has fried fish tacos with cabbage, salsa, guacamole - $2 per taco (they used to be less). Not the cheapest, but we like these a lot as far as the fried fish tacos go.

Have you ever tried taking a pic by holding the camera in one hand and a wild, flopping half-eaten fish taco in the other? Not the easiest of things…

I often make a quick pit stop at Trader Joe’s… that is when there’s parking in the lot. For the longest time I was under the impression that this is a high-end foodie shop for those with wallets fatter than a Burger King Enormous Omelet Sandwich. However, there are certain products that are much cheaper at Trader Joe’s than in normal supermarkets. Things like mushrooms, Lactaid, arugula - I find they’re much cheaper (and more fresh) than the average supermarket.

Also, since I’m at the market anyway, I often pick up a package of their pre-made pasta thingies to cook at home for lunch - they have ravioli, tortellini, lasagna, and so-on. These Pesto Tortellini were very good, and I think the one package was about $2.25 or so. It was much more than I could eat as well. I figure an average Healthy Choice frozen dinner is $2, so why not go with the fresh stuff. Simple butter garlic sauce, with some grated parmesan on top.

Finally, this is supposed to be Chicken Chile Verde made from scratch, but it turns out I made it too salty so I had to keep diluting the heck out of it until it became Chicken Soup. It was pretty good, sort of like Tortilla Soup you get at restaurants. I often make Chile Verde Pork, but I had some chicken breast in the fridge so I decided to try that instead. On reflection, it looks an awful lot like Progresso Soup. The amount of effort I put into it versus opening a can of soup - I don’t want to talk about that. =) But I’ll try get a recipe up if I make it again.

In complete contrast to the previous post, I’m going to get right to the point in this review: I Like Fried Chicken. So a few weeks ago, weakened by hunger after grocery shopping at Albertsons near lunchtime (I believe they must purposely make items hard to find so you’ll work up an appetite while shopping and buy some of their deli food), I caved in an purchased their Chicken Dinner Deal.

I would first like to say that Fried Chicken is not exactly good for you - so please, all you nutritionists (and nutritional anthropologists) don’t write in to say how bad all that fat, trans-fat, mega-fat, uber-fat and fuggly-fat is for me. I don’t eat this every day. I would, but my health plan is pretty strict about the “One Fried Chicken Meal Per Quarter” clause. Read it, it’s in the fine print.

Here’s what this dinner contains: 1 whole fried chicken (8 pieces: 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 breasts), 1 lb of your choice potato salad or macaroni salad, and 4 King’s Hawaiian Sweet Rolls. Total price is $6.99. Sorry, this pic makes the chicken look darker than it actually is.

I’m going to confess that I don’t track the stock index price of FCMDX (Fried Chicken Meal Dinners Index), so I’m not sure what the average big meal goes for at Kentucky Fried Chicken, Popeye’s, Church’s or El Pollo Loco. But I’m pretty sure you could line up a deal similar to or better than the price of the Albertson’s meal. Here’s the thing - it’s convenient. I didn’t have to drive to another place to get it, and since we’re talking fast food here - why not get it at the grocery store where I’m shopping at anyhow?

Actually, my own argument is full of holes - there is an El Pollo Loco in the same plaza as the Albertsons, and KFC and Popeye’s is right down the street. So it’s no trouble. Ah, well. Just another reason I didn’t join the debate team.

Continue reading “Albertsons Chicken Dinner” …

Breaking Newz: Due to the current Writer’s Guild of America strike, Cheap Eats will be broadcasting reruns via the interwebnetthingy. I will be proudly walking the picket lines with my fellow writers in Hollywood. I will be wearing a shirt that says “DIE MOVIE MOGUL SCUM”. Come on down and toot your horn to support this great endeavor!

Ah.. yes, I jest. Or maybe not. Stuff like this strike remind me that hey, there are actually people who get a regular paycheck to write things. I’m not saying that I should be hired by a major motion picture studio to write the next Shrek movie. (I forget, are they on XVI or XVII?) No way - those writers are way too good for me. I mean they’re way gooderer or betterer than me (Than I?) I could never be one of them.

But, it gets me down sometimes. It also makes me want to write shorter posts. I think it’s something a huge majority of semi-successful bloggers face, there’s just not enough time in the day to churn out really interesting, humorous posts with character unless you’re writing for Slate or the LA Times. Try writing posts every day for a few years for free - I bet you’ll get a tiny bit bummed occasionally.

Here’s the thing: most of the successful bloggers take a huge amount of pride in what they do. I have to keep reminding myself that however proud I am of the posts that I make: IT’S NOT A JOB. So it’s not a big deal - I can take a break for 15 weeks and only 15 people will notice. These writers who are striking - it IS their job that they’re defending (or at least the union wants them to think so) - so it IS a big deal.

Anyhow, to sum things up… Note to self: Relax and Enjoy the occasional free food coupon.

Sometimes I feel like Stuart Smalley: I deserve good things, I am entitled to my share of happiness, I refuse to beat myself up, I am an attractive person. Well, that’s debatable. I am fun to be with. Not really…

Holy crap, is there going to be some sort of review in all this? I guess so. I was sent the Curves Chocolate Peanut Granola Bars many, many moons ago. Here is what they look like:

The box is the picture at the top of the post. I was also sent the cereal but I’m “reviewing” the bars only. But the cereal is not too bad. However, in either case, I did not feel like jumping up in the air like the lady on the box after eating them. (Mostly because I am afraid of a large 8 ton beer can falling on me if I do anything “un-manly”. Because men should act like men.) If I want to see get my jumping jollies off, I just go to one of the Flickr groups that deal with it.

Well, OK maybe I’ll give the bars just a little hop. A small bunny rabbit jump.

Curves partnered with General Mills to market these 100 calorie each, 0.88 oz granola bars. These are the chewy type unlike the Nature Valley Nut ones we reviewed earlier.

Continue reading “Curves Granola Bars” …

(Edit: If you came here from Consumerist… welcome!)

You know, when I really think about it Stride Gum should have been reviewed long, long ago here on Cheap Eats. I mean, their whole raisin de la existanz (pardon me, Sarkozy) is that the gum lasts a heck of a long time and therefore you’ll spend less money on buying it - therefore shutting the company down. No really, I didn’t make that up. This is the main focus of nearly every commercial they’ve done. In each commercial we witness the demise or partial shutdown of the company factory due to the fact that the gum they’ve created just lasts too long for customers to buy enough of it.

Self-aggrandizing commercials for gum like this are much easier to swallow (no, don’t swallow your gum please). The commercials are 10 Million Billion TRILLION times better than the bloated, sci-fi Matrix-inspired commercials for 5 Gum. I mean you’re selling GUM, not Axe deodorant…

Anyhow, it’s funny, but I actually think the long lasting chew of Stride Gum causes uncontrollable Heroes-like, Philip K Dickian psi-effects . The reason I say so is that I’d never tried any before, but the day that I did I got an email from a Stride Gum rep telling about some new contest to win a Dodge filled with Stride gum they’re having. That’s too much of a coincidence. Paranoia. I strongly believe that the repetitive, jaw movement unlocks some primoridal, deeply buried ESP and they’ve got receivers up at HQ set to the formant frequency of my brain so they HEARD my thoughts. Or rather, they heard my jaw working.

Blah, blah, sci-fi blah… I know, I’m bored too. Which is why today’s review is going to be a mini timeline. I know they have a “Chew Timer” section on the site already, but I decided to do my own research - because chewing gum doesn’t actually exacerbate my repetitive-motion shoulder / back injury which has flared up in the past few weeks. Ouchity. Anyhow, here you go. Timeline starts on the next page:

Continue reading “Stride Gum” …

Awhile ago, a friend of my wife’s had given her this can of Glory Foods Seasoned New Orleans Style Red Beans And Rice, so I decided to get it into the review queue. I have to say that I’ve never heard of this brand before so I just assumed it was another forsaken waif relegated to the shelves of the dollar store. According to the friend, however, it’s a standard item you can get at any grocery store.

I’m also not sure if this isn’t going to turn into one of those reviews like the one on my namesake Bryan’s Tamales where my regional culinary ignorance is once again put on display. Seriously, I had no idea about the MS Delta Tamale Trail until I saw it on Food Network. So people DO eat those tiny wax paper wrapped tamale things on a regular basis…

This 15 oz can of Red Beans and Rice says “New Orleans Style” on the front. Although I’ve been to New Orleans earlier for a few days, I’ve never had red beans and rice at a restaurant over there. So I have no idea if this is a popular regional thing or not - but I’m assuming it is. Hopping onto their website, I saw that Glory Foods makes a ton of different types of canned, frozen and fresh food. In particular, they do a ton of different types of southern style canned beans, peas and veggies which somewhat reassured me this might be a halfway decent brand of Cheap Eats.

Anyhow, I dumped the can of rice and beans into a pot and settled in to wait for it to boil up. My first impression of the mix is that it is actually had much more liquid than I thought it was going to have. I had pictured it being drier but it actually looked sort of like bean soup with rice. It was very viscuous as well - in a way the consistency of the sauce reminded me of when you dump a can of kidney beans out and there’s all that red-brown liquid left over. Reading the label, I saw that a main ingredient was red bean flour so perhaps that’s where it’s coming from.

The red beans and rice warmed up quickly, about the same time it takes for a similar sized can of chili. I dumped it into a dish and took up a spoon.

Continue reading “Glory Red Beans And Rice” …