Friday Find - House Foods Tofu Shirataki Noodles

House Foods Tofu Shirataki Noodles 4 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I've heard about these noodles for years but since no one carried them locally I never had the chance to try them. You may have heard of them from Hungry Girl. These noodles are supposedly a good replacement for pasta and at only 40 calories for the whole bag (which makes a big plateful of pasta) I figured it couldn't hurt to try them. I finally found these noodles at my local Meijer store for just around $2.00 a bag the other day and I was excited to try them. They are made of Tofu (soybeans) and Yam flour. Since they do not contain any added oils, sugar or white flour this makes them acceptable for my current diet right now. They come in three varieties (shapes): Fettuccine, Angel Hair, and Spaghetti. So far I have only tried the spaghetti and fettuccine. I did not try the angel hair because they looked a little too thin and squiggly for my taste. I may try them later.

At first glance these bags of noodles are a little scary and funky looking. They do not look appetizing because they are long, white, stringy noodles squirming inside a bag of murky looking water. When you read the nutrition label though it might inspire you to give them a try in spite of their appearance. They only have 20 calories per serving (40 for the whole bag) only 3 grams carbs, and 2 grams of fiber. A plateful of pasta of similar size could easily have over 400 calories and too many carbs and sugar to count!

When you open the bag you may notice a very strong odor (they call it an "authentic aroma" on the bag). This isn't all that bad unless you get very close - aka don't stick your nose down in them to smell them lol. It took me making these things twice to realize what the smell reminded me of - it is very similar to ammonia, but maybe not as strong. The trick to removing this odor is to rinse them several times, probably no less than 3 times. Once they are rinsed and drained lay them on a plate and then blot them with a paper towel 4 or 5 times. You will need to blot and toss the noodles several times to get them thoroughly dry. After you have rinsed and dried them, the instructions on the bag suggests microwaving them for a minute or two and the smell practically disappears.

I found the texture to be quite good - not rubbery as some people suggest. They were also not slimey like others have said. But I think this would be because I really blotted them well to remove as much water as possible. I think that step is very key in getting these noodles to work for your dish. The noodles themselves with just a little salt had a nice flavor and tasted a lot like regular pasta noodles to me and I did not find the taste strange or odd even with the strong odor. I made these with the peanut sauce and some veggies and they really soaked up the sauce well. They seem to absorb the flavor of whatever you are cooking with.

From the way that these look in the bag I expected them to be very fragile and mushy so I was quite surprised at how firm these were and how they held up well. I preferred the spaghetti over the fettuccine only because the fettucine was maybe a tad bit more squishy and seemed to have a lot more water on them. These were also very filling and my mind really seemed convinced I was eating real pasta lol.

I have heard that there is a clear line on who likes these noodles. Usually you either like them or you don't. If you can get past the smell - which I did - then I think that most people would actually really like these as a pasta replacement.
Overall I gave these 4 out of 5 because of the strong smell. I would give them a 5 but I feel like some people just would not be able to get past the smell in order to even try them. If you can ignore the smell, and be willing to do the little bit of extra work to make them right, then I think you would have a perfect pasta replacement in these noodles.

Friday Find - Mario Batali Measuring Prep Bowls & Spoons

Today's find is a recent purchase of mine. I ordered these off of Amazon.com this week and I am very pleased with this purchase. It is a set of measuring prep bowls and spoons to match (sold separately).


Let's talk about the bowls first. I have been looking around for a set of bowls and plates (still on the hunt here) that measure portions. I did not find anything I really liked until I found these bowls. It is always a good idea to measure your portions out instead of "eyeballing" because you can easily end up eating twice the amount of calories you think are. These bowls are meant to be prep bowls - aka for portioning ingredients while cooking. I, however, thought they would be perfect for using as regular premeasured bowls for eating. A scale is certainly more accurate for measuring portions, but sometimes you are in a hurry or don't want to hassle with the scale or measuring cups. That's where these bowls would come in handy. These bowls have two measurements each - ex: the 1 cup bowl also has a measuring line inside for 1/2 cup. They range in size from 1/4 & 1/8 size all the way up to a full 2 cup sized bowl. These are perfect for measuring portions of cereal, ice cream, pudding, and what I used mine for this week - applesauce. They come in about three color choices, persimmon (mine), olive green, and cream. The only thing I really do not care for is how the outside of these bowls feel but that is just my own personal preference. The inside is smooth but the outside is a rough somewhat sandpaper like feel. This texture does help to give the bowls a non slip grip but I am just picky that way I guess lol. These are also made of a material (melamine?) that in my opinion, if dropped, could possibly crack. These are really the only two faults I find with them and they are actually made quite well and are surprisingly good quality. At just $9.99 for the set it really is a good find. Other specialty diet plates and bowls that I found were not as good quality and were upwards of $40 or more.

Overall I give these bowls 4 out of 5 ♥♥♥♥ because of the possibility that they could break if dropped.
You can order your own set here.


I did not originally intend to buy the matching spoons to the bowls. I was actually looking for long handled measuring spoons and ran across these. They just happened to be the matching spoons to the bowls. What I love about these is the fact that they are long handled. I always find it to be somewhat annoying to try to use a small and often too wide measuring spoon inside a narrow spice jar or canister. I also wanted some long handled measuring spoons that could double as a serving spoon. These are long and sturdy enough to actually feel comfortable in your hand for using as a serving spoon but not so long that they don't fit into your silverware drawer. The added bonus is that these are magnetized so they nest together and stick to each other. I can't tell you how many times I've had to hunt all over my silverware drawer for the correct size measuring spoon. Why didn't someone think of this before? I also like the fact that these have the measurements molded into the plastic as part of the design. Most measuring spoons I have purchased over the years have the measurements printed onto the spoon, which over time begins to wear away. These range in size from 1/8 teaspoon all the way up to 2 tablespoon. The 2 tablespoon size is probably my favorite. I've never seen this before with a set of measuring spoons. This will be super handy in measuring and portioning things like dressings, mayonnaise and peanut butter. The only fault I could find with these spoons is that the color does not match the bowls. I don't know if this is true with the other colors but the persimmon spoons are a shade or two darker than the bowls. This is not a big deal for me but I know that some people may be particular about this.

These spoons get 5 out of 5 ♥♥♥♥♥ for their great practicality and low price of only $4.99.

Order yours here.

P.S. Amazon.com right now is having a 4 for 3 sale on many home and kitchen items. You buy 3 items and get a fourth one free. I actually got the spoons for free with my order with this special.

Friday Find - Calorie Count Toolbar & Site

I have decided to change the Friday Food Review to the Friday Find. From now on I will be reviewing all things diet related including new foods, products, programs, and exercise equipment instead of just foods. I decided to do this because I really don't sample new foods all that often and I didn't think that you would be interested in reading about my boring daily diet of egg whites, salad and veggie burgers lol.

Today's find comes to us from a site that I just discovered this morning. I know this is pretty soon to be reviewing this site, after only surfing it for a couple hours, but I think I may have found a little gem on the net and I would like to share.

http://caloriecount.about.com

Rating: 4 out of 5 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Pros:
Many diet tools available.
Free of charge.
Forums, groups and message boards offer support at no cost.
A nutritionist is available for questions as well as an advice column, Q&A, a health blog and videos.
A large list of available foods, recipes and the ability to suggest new food items not listed.
Your own blog or journal to track your thoughts as you diet.
A grading system that tells you if your diet (or food choice) deserves an A+ or if you are failing.
And my favorite feature: The calorie count tool bar for your browser.

Cons:
Diet tools are not more customizable to your own personal goal choices.


There really is not much wrong I could say about this site. The only problem I have found with the site so far (and I should note that you cannot blame them for this) is that you cannot customize the calorie range and diet goal to your own personal preference. The site is set to only allow you to stay within what they deem is a healthy calorie range & time limit. Aka you can't set a goal to lose 100 pounds in 3 months eating only 500 calories a day. This is fine, and they are probably right to advise someone to stay within a healthy 1-2 pounds a week. My complaint with it though is that I feel it should be personal preference and because it is automatically set you cannot customize a true goal date. Other than this minor fault I think the site is fantastic.
All of the tools available are over and above my expectations for this free of charge diet site and community. From the calorie tracking to the diet analysis tools you really cannot beat this site.
The best feature of all though is the calorie count tool bar for your browser. You download and install the very small program and it runs continuously at the top of your browser giving you a constant look at where you stand in your diet. It also has one click access, through this tool bar, to your account features like your food journal, diet journal, your mail and the forums and other tools. The best part of the calorie count toolbar? The Eat Meter for sure. There is a small bar, or meter, that shows you how close you are to your max daily calorie range. It is a constant reminder at the top of your screen reminding you to stay within your goals. This was a smart, but simple concept and whoever came up with this is brilliant!

Here you can see a screen shot of the tool bar at the top of my screen (click on the pic for full view):



Overall I gave this site a 4 out of 5 only because of the non customizable goals. I have tried many other free diet sites and this one so far I think I could safely say is my favorite. There really is so much to this site that I could do an entire week's worth of posts just on the features, but go check the site out for yourself and tell me what you think.