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Green Giant Veggie Spirals - Zucchini

3/19/2018

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The spiralized vegetable craze has been around for at least a couple of years now, so this isn't really new; however, Green Giant's spiral veggies products are new, so I thought I'd try these out to see if the convenience is worth the extra price. I paid $3.50 for a bag of 12 ounces. The Green Giant veggie spirals also come in beet, carrot and butternut squash flavors. I chose the zucchini to try since zucchini seems to be the most popular vegetable used for spiralizing as a pasta alternative. 
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I didn't include an image of the ingredients because the only ingredient is zucchini. That's great. No added salt, sugar, sauces or anything. Perfect. As you can see, there are four servings in this container. 
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Preparation instructions. I chose to prepare this the recommended way, in the skillet. 
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Out of the package and into the pan. It was completely frozen. 
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Starting to get pretty watery. 
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Obviously, I didn't follow the serving suggestion of adding some olive oil to finish. I added some tomato sauce and some vegetarian beef for a "bolognese" sauce. I did; however, add a pretty decent amount of salt and pepper and a small handful of cheddar cheese shreds. As you can see, the volume decreased as the noodles cooked. I also didn't drain the water. I just mixed it in with the sauce. This really was only enough for one hearty serving if this is all you're eating (which it was). If you are serving  this as a side dish, then four servings seems more reasonable. 60 calories of zucchini versus 200 calories of pasta is a no brainer for me. Don't get me wrong - I love pasta. I'm Italian, so my love of pasta runs deep. I rarely eat it anymore because it's just empty carbs for me and I just can't afford that. So, this dish was probably about 150 calories total and I got a great serving of veggies in as well. 

There is no disguising that this is zucchini. You just can't hide the taste and believe me, I have tried in order to convince a picky eater that this was a legitimate pasta substitute. 

Is it worth the extra money? It depends. If you grow your own zucchini or get it from a generous neighbor and already own a spiralizer, then it really isn't. I don't own a good spiralizer, so this is almost worth it for me. After you spiralize your own zucchini, you have to squeeze the water out of it. It can be time consuming, especially if you peel it first. The zucchini tasted very fresh, which is great if you love it like I do. I recommend this and look forward to trying the other varieties. 
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Enlightened - The Good For You Ice Cream

3/12/2018

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I found this in the ice cream aisle near the Halo Top ice cream. As most people know, Halo Top is the ice cream that everyone is raving about. It's relatively low calorie, low fat and low carb. I've tried it and quite honestly, it's not my favorite. I saw this and was intrigued by the brand and the flavor. Movie Night!  Wow!  
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Buttered popcorn flavor ice cream?  What?!  I was intrigued but a little scared. I've had buttered popcorn Jelly Belly jelly beans and in my opinion, they're pretty bad. I did laugh out loud at the "disclaimer" here.  
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Wow, these are impressive numbers. Erythritol, in case you didn't know, is a natural sugar alcohol that is not absorbed in the bloodstream; therefore, has no impact on blood sugar and is not "counted" as a carb. Net carbs for this serving would be 7 grams. 
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Sorry for the blurry picture. As you can see, this is fairly free of most frankenfood ingredients. Monk fruit is a natural sweetener with no sugar alcohols. Interesting to note that this contains corn fiber and ghee, ingredients not usually found in ice cream. 
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Initially, this ice cream was extremely hard. I could barely get the spoon in it. So, follow the directions and let it soften unless you like really hard ice cream. If you're dying to dive into it, you could microwave it for a few seconds. Notice the caramel swirl and chocolate bits.
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As a caramel lover, I was super happy to find that there are generous swirls of sweet, gooey caramel throughout the ice cream. The chocolate bits were evenly distributed. This ice cream has a very creamy texture and super smooth mouth feel. It's hard to believe it's so low in fat because it definitely reminded me of a decadent Ben & Jerry's. The popcorn flavor mixed with the caramel and chocolate was good. The flavor combination was perfect. Not too much popcorn flavor, but just enough so that you could taste the popcorn well-balanced with the caramel and chocolate. My husband really liked it and said that it was certainly good for something out of the ordinary and I agree. I paid $5.99 for this pint. Sure, it's more expensive than some other brands, but on par with Halo Top price-wise, but far superior in taste. Enlightened Ice Cream is available in many other flavors. I wanted to try this unique flavor, but I will definitely be back to the ice cream aisle for more. Highly recommended! 
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