Emeril’s Roasted Gaaahlic Sauce is both a disappointment and a delight. On the one hand this is one of the best store shelf pasta sauces on the market. Generous chunks of garlic and tomato mixed with familiar onion and basil flavors give this sauce a nice kick that almost all pre-made pasta sauces lack. It really doesn’t need much if anything to be delicious, although adding some fresh ingredients never hurts.
The ingredients do appear to be all natural. The list doesn’t include anything but straight forward spices and ingredients such as lemon juice, olive oil and salt along with everything previously mentioned. Nothing hydrogenated or produced chemically in a lab which are things I try to avoid in my house. This, of course, is also the reason Emeril’s sauces cost fifty cents to a dollar more then the competition, but the quality of the ingredients do justify the price difference.
Now while it’s certainly one of the best tasting pasta sauces on the market, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed mainly because I’ve tried Emeril’s tomato sauce recipes before. Recipes made from his show are going to be much better then anything you’ll buy in a jar at the store and this is true even for his products. Having Emeril’s name and photo on the jar creates some unfair expectations, so be aware this pasta sauce is good but it may not knock your socks off.
Despite my possibly unreasonable expectations, Emeril’s All Natural Roasted Gaaahlic pasta sauce is still one of the best sauces on store shelves. There’s actual seasonings to be tasted instead of the blandness that is usually expected out of store bought sauces. Also, having natural ingredients is a big plus if you ask me, and all of them together make a nice tomato sauce worthy of your purchase.
Organic food products are becoming more and more popular in the United States as many set out to have healthier lives. It’s such a trend that even Wal-Mart has strategically started carrying organic items and one of the biggest organic brands they carry is Stonyfield. Since I hadn’t heard of the brand before, I figured I’d give their low fat yogurt a try.
The first thing you’ll notice about any organic product, and this rings true with Stonyfield, is the price markup. A 32oz tub of Stonyfield low fat yogurt is about 28% more than Yoplait’s and Activia’s tub. It should also be noted that Activia’s largest container is only 24oz making it only slightly cheaper per ounce.
So what makes up the price difference and is it worth it to you? The answer to that is what’s inside the yogurt. First, being organic, Stonyfield’s yogurt is made from milk taken from cows that haven’t been subjected to antibiotics, hormones or other chemicals. Your unlikely to find that kind of guarantee from the other yogurts on the shelf. It also beats out the competition in the probiotic department sporting six live active bacteria rather than the one or two found in Activia or Yoplait.
All that healthy stuff is great but how does it taste? Well, pretty darn good if you ask me. I found Stonyfield to taste less sugary then other yogurt products. There’s still sugar added in there, particularly the vanilla flavor which has 28 grams of the stuff at 170 calories per 1 cup serving. That’s slightly better sugar wise than the competition especially when you consider there’s more potassium, calcium and other nutrients in the organic yogurt. Also note, that other brands of yogurt come in smaller serving sizes. So while Stonyfield’s Vanilla Low Fat Yogurt may seem high in calories, it’s still comparable on a per ounce basis.
Stonyfield Farm’s Plain Low Fat Yogurt looks even better on paper. Half the sugar and calories with all the same nutritional goodness. The only complaint I have is it has a strong diary taste to it similar to cottage cheese. That’s a problem I have with plain yogurt and dairy in generally however, not just Stonyfield’s yogurts. Some fresh fruit generally can mask that taste quite well if you’re like me and not a fan of the taste.
Though it costs a bit more, Stonyfield Farm’s Low Fat Organic Yogurt is well worth the price of admission if you value the holistic nature of food. It’s less sugary while being more nutritious then other brands. Also keep in mind that while I only bought and tried the tubs, which limited my flavor selection to just vanilla and plain, there are a variety of other flavors to try under the Stonyfield brand. Those are individually packaged and offer a whole new world that I plan on looking into and I hope you do too.
It’s odd, Pillsbury is typically a very good brand for quick cooking items such as this, their crescent rolls with I love come to mind. However, when it comes to their canned pizza dough they leave a lot to be desired. To me it tends to be a bland, hard texture. Pillsbury pizza dough does work if you’re in a pinch and simply need a crust, or don’t care how it tastes, but I cannot help but think you’d be better off purchasing little Totinos Pizzas for a $1.50 and adding to them rather than doctor up the Pillsbury crust. Some people I’ve seen complain that the crust gets rubbery, however, I haven’t experienced this. Instead, I find that the crust simply gets harder or stale especially if you try to eat as a leftover from the day before.
Whether you’re looking at the thin or classic crust varieties, the calories in Pillsbury pizza crust isn’t too bad. The Classic, thicker crust comes at 160 calories a serving or 960 calories for an entire roll/can. The thin crust goes a little higher at 180 calories per serving but has one less serving, making it only 900 calories. Pizza is never a low calorie affair and, assuming you’re only having a couple servings, you shouldn’t be to bad off. Still, homemade crust would probably be lighter in calories and much tastier in the end. Additionally, Pizza dough isn’t nearly as difficult to cook as other breads are. But if you don’t have the time and don’t have a favorite frozen pizza to doctor up, then Pillsbury pizza crust dough would probably be the next best thing. Just don’t expect all that much from it.
Store bought hot dogs can be a bit of a guessing game. None of them ever look all that appetizing and rarely do you ever know what the darn things are made of, usually the ingredients label lists couple dozen different things meat and animal parts included. This is why when I do buy hot dogs they’re of the Beef or Turkey variety, less guessing that way. Well, last week I think I found the king of commercial hot dogs and no it’s not the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest ones, those things taste like rubber if you ask me.
No, I found Johnsonville brats and have fallen in love with them. They’re not perfect, no hot dog will ever be perfect in the eyes of the healthy conscious, but they pack a flavorful punch with the satisfaction of seeing beef in the actual ingredient list as the primary one. Sure it could be beef bits, the label doesn’t specify where the beef came off the cow, however, it’s better than most hot dog manufactures produce so I’m happy to indulge with Johnsonville’s hot dogs every so often.
With that said, you’re probably never going to look skinny eating these things. Johnsonville beef brats contain 210 calories per brat, 160 of which comes from about 18 grams of fat. There is 8 grams of protein to help make up for it, but it never really saves these hot dogs from looking unhealthy. Personally, I love these things but only have them every once in awhile when the thought occurs to me (once a month maybe). There is no way I could see myself munching on them everyday particularly with so many other healthy options out there.