Gardein - ~new~ sweet & sour porkless bites!~

     SO!  i went grocery shopping the other day, and i checked out the gardein section, i spotted their new mini crabless cakes which i had heard about but, to be honest, i am not that eager to try.  i never was much of a seafood person, so the thought of them dose not thrill me.  maybe if they are on sale one day i might give them a go, but eh.  BUT!~  then i spotted THES:

    WHAT!~  looks so good!  so in my basket they go! ... so what are they like?  they are pretty darn yum!  when you open the bag they look like this:

and they come with a funny little pack of sweet and sour sauce that looks like this (i like to take pictures):

and, because we all want to know, a whole bag of them looks like this:

the recommended cooking method for these guys is to fry them up, which i did!  & according to the package it takes 6-8min.  i dont know if that's how long it took, but it was pretty quick.

they have a sort of coating on them which makes them kind of crispy!  and they are kinda spicy and pretty darn tasty!  nutritional info: 1/3 of the pack or 70g = 110calories (without sauce), i made 6 and that was 48g (76ish calories).

i did not totally burn them!  i decided to give the sauce a try too!  i ate half with and half without.

the sauce is a sweet and sour sauce.  it is pretty tasty too but it has a spicy hot kick to it, though i am a total lightweight when it comes to hot stuff, so it is probably not that hot at all really.  i tried these again a few days later when i made a veggie stir fry with rice and mixed in the sauce with that and it was not that hot that way!
     super excited about these!  they are really tasty!  i will probably mostly eat them without the sauce, or with some other kinda sauce because my insides suck with anything hot, but i will definitely be getting these again!  yay gardein! i think they may possibly help fill the void that formed when they stopped selling the bbq wings anywhere in the whole darn city that i have seen!!!  alas.
    anyway, happy eating!

gardein - crispy Pocket Meal stuffed with Kale, Barley and Sun Dried Tomates

     Well!  Finally posting about the final pocket meal from gardein!  I actually got this ages ago & when i just looked it up on the web site, they are now calling it a crispy chick'n with veggies, which is actually somewhat more accurate.

     This pocket meal is quite a bit different than the other 2 they offer.  This one is sold individually, so it is a bit larger.  It had a bit more of a complex cooking procedure, if you want to call having to flip it half way complex.  Microwave on med for 80 sec, flip and microwave again for 80 seconds, then let rest 2 min.  Or,  bake in the toaster oven for 12, flip again for 12 and then let rest 3 min.  (and you can broil each side for 3min for extra crispiness)  I microwaved mine, i think i did a min each side and then it was good, just a little hole with not too much ooziness.

      So, the pocket itself is an oval shaped thing with a 'crispy' outer layer.  I say 'crispy' in brackets because, well, i guess the layer is crispy and tasty enough, but it is super thin and falls off really easily (mine did anyway).  I found the crispy layer to not be a feature of the product because of this, so i thought it was kind of strange.

   i cut the thing open and pulled out the insides to have a look!

     The first three vegetable ingredients are spinach, kale and onion.  It also contains brown and wild rice as well as pearl barley, all of which were obviously visible.  and finally some sundried tomatoes.  plus a bunch of other ingredients to make up the sauce.
     So, then when i shoved all the stuff back in and finally tasted the thing is when i got my surprise!  I had noticed that it had a fairly thick soft outer shell, but figured it would be some sort of spongy weird breading.. you never know!  But!  it is made from their fake chicken product!  Surprise!  Not at all what i was expecting!

    So all this rice-y veggie saucy stuff is surrounded by a thick pocket of chicken and coated with a thin layer of crispy breading!  I thought the sauce tasted somewhat similar to that of the italian pockets, if that helps any.  I think the name is a bit misleading: crispy pocket meal stuffed with kale, barley and sundried tomatoes.  The crispy layer pretty much just fell off, and the thick layer of chick'ny stuff made it pretty soft and juicy not crispy.  Plus, if i want to get picky, it is stuffed with kale, barley and sundried tomatoes, but it has more spinach and rice in it than kale and barley.  The name 'crispy chick'n with veggies' is much more suiting.
     Overall, i think it was just too meat-y for me.  I love gardein's chick'n products! (especially the tenders & the bbq wings, which i can not find here anymore!)  but this was just too much for me.  I think i needed some breading or more rice or some grains or something like that to offset it.  I think my favourite of the 3 pocket meals is the italian sausage one!  I have a similar problem with the pulled porkless, too meaty!  but both are good!
my post about the BBQ Pulled Porkless Pocket Meals and the Italian Sausage, Roasted Red Pepper & Spinach Pocket Meals

Gardein -- AM/PM Pocket Meals -- Italian Sausage, Roasted Red Pepper & Spinach

     Ok!  My second post on Gardein Pocket Meals!  & these ones are "Italian Meatless Sausage, Roasted Red Pepper AND Spinach!"  That's a lot of stuff!  The title on this box says "AM/PM" & even though i am not quite sure what that means, i do seem to remember at one time doing a search and seeing someone posting somewhere about some gardein breakfast sandwiches (which i have never seen), could those be the am and these the pm?  i do not know.  but i do know that the package looks like this:

     I was a little worried that i  might not like these ones (because i am picky like that) but i was wrong, they are yummy!  From the outside they look pretty much exactly like the pulled porkless ones did.  Each box contains 4 & they are fairly small but pretty packed full of stuff & good for a snack or part of a meal.
     This time i tried microwaving them!  That is the 'ready in 3 min' that it says on the front of the box (though i only microwaved mine for 2 & that was plenty), the back of the box suggests that you cook them in the (toaster)oven for something like 25min (which i did with the pulled porkless one).  The little guy still kinda exploded on me, but the contents did not all burst out!  Microwaving gave it a much chewier texture than baking it, but still delicious!

     Inside was a lovely combination of all sorts of good stuff!  There was the italian sausage, which was not really spicy (good because i dont do spicy, stomach issues), the red peppers & spinach, but there was also chunks of carrot & onion!

     I don't have the box anymore so i cant give you the exact ingredients, but i pulled it apart & took a pic of the insides!  I have to say that i think that this one is my favourite of the 2, it has lots of flavour, good texture & i like the chewiness of the pocket itself when you microwave it!

      Yum. Yum. Yum.

     Also!  I mentioned other products before!  I thought there were 2 other ones, but at the store there was just 2 boxes of the same one, this "Crispy Pocket Meal with Kale, Barley & Sundried Tomatoes".  It came in a package of 1 & is currently lost in the bottom of my freezer.  Ooops.  Hopefully it will be found sometime soon & i will let you know how it goes!

Gardein -- BBQ Pocket Meals -- Pulled Porkless

     I went grocery shopping the other day (first tuesday of the month = 15% off = yay!) & was super excited to find a brand new gardein product!!!!  gardein = the best fake meat product ever.  I had already picked up some crispy tenders & was looking at the other frozen foods, when i spotted the familiar logo.  (oddly this new stuff was in a different location than the other gardein stuff, it was with the pizza pockets)  I found:

     gardein pocket meals!  -- now, there were 2 different types of pocket meals & i chose the pulled porkless.  Unfortunately I don't remember what the other flavour was? & at this time these are not listed on the website?  There was also another type of new gardein product!  It was also a pocket-type thing but they were larger, individually wrapped ones.  There was also 2 different kinds of those, all I remember is that one had kale.  I was not really paying much attention because I was thinking I was going to look these new products up online, ugh.
     Anyway, back to the pulled porkless pocket meals!  Each box contains 4 little pockets!  & they are pretty little, but I found it to be rather filling as a snack or part of a meal.  I should also mention that each one contains 230 calories.

     I cooked mine, as directed, in the toaster oven, for 25min, flipping halfway.  I was not paying too much attention & it kinda exploded a bit!

     But i just shoved the insides back in & ate it up.  The crust was crisp & flaky, pretty tasty.  The BBQ sauce was tangy, with a tiny bit of heat, it was very similar to the BBQ sauce that comes with the sweet & tangy barbecue wings (which are just listed as bbq wings on the canadian site now & have not been available here for a little bit).  The meat pieces were small, but it's supposed to be shredded pork & their texture was good, as to be expected from gardein products!

     Overall it was a tasty bit of food & I plan on giving the other variety a try!  Also I think next time i am going to attempt to just microwave it, though not the top recommended method of preparation, having these in the freezer on hand as just a quick snack/meal that you can zap & go would be super duper convenient!  Yay gardein!~