Stouffer's Spinach Souffle Review

I checked out the weather last night, no sign of rain in the forecast. I get up this morning to a rainy, gloomy day. Today's forecast, of course calls for rain. They also say it won't last and the afternoon will be clear and sunny. I hope they're right this time.

Yesterday was a nice day, no rain. I had a great breakfast, a Banana Pudding Smoothie with cinnamon.

It was yummy.

Today I've included 3 reviews in 1 post.

The first review of lunch. I tried Stouffer's Spinach Soufflé.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 4Oz

Servings Per Container 3

Amount Per Serving

Calories 150 Calories From Fat 90

%Daily Value*

Total Fat 10g  15%

Saturated Fat 2g  9%

Polyunsaturated Fat 0g

Monounsaturated Fat 0g

Cholesterol 110mg  37%

Sodium 390mg  16%

Total Carbohydrates 9g  3%

Dietary Fiber 1g  5%

Sugars 4g

Protein 6g

Vitamin A 10%

Vitamin C 6%

Calcium 10%

Iron 4%

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:

                                     Calories:            2,000              2,500

Total Fat                     Less Than              65g                 80g

Sat Fat                        Less Than             20g                 25g

Cholesterol                 Less Than            300mg           300mg

Sodium                       Less Than         2,400mg        2,400mg

Potassium                   Less Than         3,500mg        3,500mg

Total Carbohydrate                                300g              375g

Dietary Fiber                                           25g                30g

I had the spinach souffle with leftover brown rice with some added frozen mixed vegetables. As you can see the soufflé was a much darker green than in the package photo. I have to say I was not a fan of their soufflé, mainly because of the eggs. I'm very particular about eggs, because I am not that fond of them. The first thing about this that I didn't like was the smell. You could smell it all over the kitchen as it cooked. Lucas said it smelled like eggs, but I think it was a combination of the eggs and spinach, because it smelled worse than just eggs to me.   

I've never eaten souffle before and apparently souffle is not the thing for me, if it all has the same texture. It was soft and mushy. I deliberately over cooked it to firm it up a little. The taste was not bad, but it is not for me. I mixed it with the rice and vegetables to make it edible for me. I'll just have my spinach in an omelet, if I'm craving spinach and eggs, thank you. I did give it 2 stars, but it definitely is a thumbs down for me.

A thumbs up for my afternoon snack and review #2. Emerald's Sweet & Salty Dark Chocolate & Peanut Butter flavored mixed nuts.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1/4 cup (28g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 150

Calories from Fat 99.0

                                                           % Daily Value *

Total Fat 11g                                           16%

Saturated Fat 1g                                        5%

Cholesterol 0mg                                       0%

Sodium 90mg                                            3%

Total Carbohydrate 9g                             3%

Dietary Fiber 2g                                         8%

Sugars 6g

Protein 4g                                                 8%

Est. Percent of Calories from:

Fat  65.6%

Carbs  23.8%

Protein  10.6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs.

The nuts get 5 stars for their sweet & salty quality, just slightly sweet with a hint of salt. The almonds have the dark chocolatey coating and the other nuts have the sugary peanut butter coating and somewhere in the mix, you get the hint of salt, but you need to try the whole combination and not just one nut at a time. These are definitely yummy!

For my 3rd and final review in this post, I tried Bertolli's Vodka Sauce with dinner.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1/2 Cup

Amount per Serving

Calories 140

Calories from Fat 90.0

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 10g                                     15%

Saturated Fat 4.5g                             22%

Cholesterol 25mg                               8%

Sodium 710mg                                   29%

Total Carbohydrate 9g                       3%

Dietary Fiber 2g                                   8%

Sugars 8g 

Protein 3g                                            6%

Est. Percent of Calories from:

Fat 65.2%

Carbs 26.1%

Protein 8.7%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs.

I had the vodka sauce over tri-colored cheese tortellini with some shredded Italian blend cheese, an extra sprinkle of Parmesan and garlic toast on the side.

I don't think the Bertolli's is quite as good as the sauce I'd first tasted on the WW Smart Ones Mini Rigatoni with Vodka Cream Sauce. 
It was still pretty good. I think I could sort of taste the Vodka in it. It does have some chunks of tomato in the sauce, which I have no problem with, but some people may not care for (my son & husband included). I simply use my hand blender to blend it all into a smooth creamy sauce. I gave it 4 stars.

Now to get this posted. It's taken a bit longer than I'd anticipated. Happy Thursday!!!

Stouffer's Cheese Manicotti Review

This morning is pretty much like most mornings, I'm awake and I'm typing away during or after breakfast. Lately I've really needed my morning coffee. Yesterday was no exception. I had a big cup with coconut sugar, powdered creamer and cinnamon. I was on a peppermint kick for a few days, but now it's cinnamon. 

I also had a yogurt parfait with Dannon peach yogurt, Gala apple chunks, a cinnamon waffle cut into chunks, and a little Kellogg's Fiber Plus Berry Crunch cereal, just for texture. Yummy!

It looks a little better than the last parfait I fixed. I really need parfait lessons. I had to use a bigger glass this time. The other one was snack size.

I fooled around too long before fixing something to eat. I munched on the last of my sesame sticks while I fixed lunch.

I had a boiled egg salad with iceberg salad from a bag, spinach, cucumber, carrot, onion, and broccoli, topped with grated or chopped boiled egg.

Usually I use a grater for my egg, which works really well. I learned that little trick when I worked in a school cafeteria. It's a great way to make egg salad. This egg was just chopped since I was only doing one.

I used light buttermilk ranch for the dressing. I added a little black pepper and dill weed at the last minute.

For dinner I made Stouffer's Easy Express Cheese Manicotti. 16 minutes in the microwave vs. 67 minutes in the oven, you can guess where this was prepared.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 2 pieces (278.7 g)

Amount Per Serving

Calories 340

Calories from Fat 143

                                                      % Daily Value*

Total Fat 15.9g                                       24%

Saturated Fat 8.1g                                 40%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 45mg                                   15%

Sodium 950mg                                       40%

Total Carbohydrates 32.9g                     11%

Dietary Fiber 5.0g                                  20%

Sugars 8.9g

Protein 15.0g

Vitamin A 15%	•	Vitamin C 10%
Calcium 30%	•	Iron 9%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

It cooked up pretty well, no cold spots or underdone noodles. I didn't much care for the cheese filling inside the manicotti noodles. It was not very cheese like. It was more the texture of grainy pudding. I was in the mood for something cheesy and gooey and this didn't satisfy that craving. The sauce wasn't bad. It had a pretty good flavor, slightly spicy like with black pepper maybe, but not hot spicy. For me the filling was the main turn off in this dish.

I had the two manicotti suggested serving amount with a medium salad with light buttermilk ranch and a piece of garlic toast. This was a plenty for me. I actually could have gotten by with a smaller salad. I really have a hard time making small salads.

There are six manicotti in the package or 3 servings. Lucas ate 2 also. I forgot to ask what he thought of them. I may ask and add his opinion later. I just don't think I'm much of a fan of frozen manicotti. I haven't found any yet that I've really liked.

For me it was just edible and gets 2.5 stars, since I did like the sauce. I don't think I'll be buying it again though, unless they say, "It's new and improved" or something like that.

After dinner we watched a movie, Transformers Dark of the Moon. I liked the other Transformers movies, lots of action and not a lot of blood and gore. I also like Shia LaBeouf. He is great for part he plays, kind of tough, very sensitive, and funny when he needs to be. I was a little worried about the new girl friend in this one. She wasn't exactly who I would have picked for the part. She was just there for eye candy, I suppose, but those bee stung lips only had a comedy effect for me. I still gave it 4 stars.

After the movie, I stayed up late reading. I'm still trying to get "The Girl Who Played with Fire" read. I only have until Wednesday to finish it. I'm not sure I can manage that. Wish me luck. I may try to get in a little reading done this morning. Happy Sunday!!!

Babysitting Adventures & The Internet Problem

Back to the blog again this morning, still trying to catch up, wishing I'd done Tuesday's post off line as well.

Tuesday started off a little earlier than usual. My two favorite girls and I were going to spend the day together. Not use to having little ones around for that long at one time made for an interesting day. It was a little disorganized, but we did it and we had a good time.

Breakfast was rushed. I grabbed the quickest easiest thing I had, the last piece of red velvet birthday cake, ah, the breakfast of champions. This is actually half of 2 pieces stacked on top of each other. Lucas ate the other half. It doesn't look to great, but that didn't affect the taste.

I also had a few dry roasted almonds, so that it didn't feel like a completely unhealthy breakfast.

The rest of the day was spent playing, running back and forth between the two kids. They are a busy set. Having two kids of your own is just a little different from having two that belong to someone else. First of all my home is not exactly kid friendly. Secondly, I have routines, they routines and the two routines don't always work together exactly, but things did go more smoothly than expected. Meals wasn't one of them. It was a grab and go kind of day.

For lunch Lucas fixed some potatoes O'Brien. I grabbed a bowl of them with the last of the leftover Manwich sauce and a sprinkle of Monterey Jack cheese. It wasn't exactly what I would have chosen otherwise, but it was there, it was ready and it filled the void.

I didn't sleep well the night before & neither did Lucas who was helping me with the girls, so we also fixed some coffee and using a package of Ghirardelli Peppermint Cocoa Mix, we made ourselves some Peppermint Mochas.

I added a little extra peppermint syrup to mine. It was pretty good. It definitely helped up keep up with the kids.

We all snacked on apple chips, even Mary had one.

The kids snacked and ate on & off all day long, not really stopping for a real meal. By the time Mom came back, we had filled several plates & juice cups, watched several tv shows & movies, even though Netflix was down and Lexi had typed on the computer we'd set up for her. We'd installed Kidoz for her, but without internet it was useless, luckily she reads and writes and was happy to type out "her bills". We also had a wireless keyboard and mouse for Mary who was happy clicking and pushing buttons herself. It was quite a day.

After Lindsay and the girls went home I sat down with a Stouffer's French bread cheese pizza, which was not bad but not quite as good as I'd hoped. The sauce was just alright, sort of bland for pizza sauce and under the cheese and sauce was a layer of soggy bread. I suppose this is unavoidable being pre-made and frozen, but not a problem with regular frozen pizza. I gave it a 3 and would probably choose to stick with regular frozen pizza or make my own French bread pizza using my favorite sauce. It would be nearly as simple and I could choose my preferred toppings as well.

My reward for a hard day of playing was a Reese's flavored Klondike Bar. Yummy!!

After enjoying a little sit down time, I got around to calling about the internet problem. After 3 calls and answering lots of questions and doing lots of plugging and unplugging of cords and cables the phone company finally decided they would send someone out the next day to check it out, so still no internet on Tuesday. I was sort of disgusted and didn't even fool with the blog other than uploading my photos (mistake). Now I'm trying to get caught up. For now I'm posting the events a day at a time so I'll get to the rest of the story of "Babysitting Adventures & the Internet Problem", in the next post which we be up hopefully sometime between today & tomorrow. Happy Thursday!!

Stouffer's Five Cheese Lasagna Review

After breakfast I'm feeling rather chilly, I felt the same way yesterday after my Caramel Apple Smoothie. It is made with fresh apple chunks, oatmeal, ground flax, caramel fruit dip, vanilla or plain yogurt, ice, and apple cider. I've been thinking about this one for a little while. I just hadn't gotten around to it until now. This cool weather we've been having has gotten me thinking about Fall foods, apple and pumpkin in particular. It's really because of the cinnamon & spices. It seems I always think of the sweet things first. What does Fall make you think of? What's your favorite Fall food?

After breakfast and blogging, Lucas and I went for a walk. We did pretty good even though we've not gone in a couple of months. It doesn't seem that long. We walked 3.76 miles at an average pace of 16.32 minutes per mile. I know that's pretty slow, but we did better than I figured. I would like to get to around 15 minutes per mile, but I will have to get new shoes first I think. I did have one sore foot after walking yesterday, but it's better today.

When we got back from our walk yesterday, I was ready for lunch. I used part of a can of Hunts Manwich with my leftover MSF veggie crumbles cooked with peppers and onions for a vegetarian sloppy joe. I sprinkled the top with shredded Monterey Jack cheese and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the cheese.

I used more of the Tuscan Artisan bread we'd gotten the day before.

After lunch we went to Mom's for a little while. She & Lynda and gotten some new snack mixed and gave me some to try. One was Dutch Apple snack mix with dried apples, sesame sticks, and yogurt cover raisins. It was really good. It has a sweet buttery taste to it. This one is addictive.

I also tried the Raspberry Nut Supreme snack mix. It is a pretty sweet mix, but the plain pecans, cashews, and almonds, help to tone down the sweetness. Pecans are my favorite and another thing that I associated with the Fall season.

I had Stouffer's Five Cheese Lasagna for dinner. Stouffer's makes really good Mac & Cheese, but I'm not as fond of the lasagna. I did like it, but I think it needed to cook a little longer in my microwave. I wasn't sure how many watts my microwave is, going by the directions, I cooked it for 4 minutes on high & 4 minutes on 50% power. It seemed mostly sauce and cheese with a couple of lasagna noodles. The top noodle was cooked just about right, but the bottom noodle was a little tough. The sauce is not bad, but not great. I give the lasagna 3 stars. I would eat it again, but I would probably choose a different brand if given a choice. So far the Amy's Spinach Lasagna is my favorite, but it is more expensive.

I had two thin slices of the Tuscan Artisan Bread with garlic, parsley and Parmesan cheese to go along with my lasagna.

I was feeling sort of lazy and not too hungry from snacking, so I didn't bother with a side salad.

I was later getting to bed last night. I didn't get any reading in before bed. I suspect there will be late nights for the next few days. I will be babysitting on Tuesday & Wednesday, plus Zumba on Tuesday. I have a feeling this is going to be a busy week. I feel tired already. Happy Sunday!

A Good Day For Soup

Today started off cold and dreary. As you may know, I played too long yesterday and didn't get my post in until this morning/today. It was a long post. I got up a little early knowing I need to get that done and it took longer than I had hoped. I got me a double chocolate banana muffin for breakfast. I sliced it into and spread a generous gob of creamy peanut butter onto it. I also cut up a gala apple to go with it. The muffin was even yummier with the PB spread on it. It wasn't the healthiest breakfast, but it was one of the tastiest.

Just as I was finishing up this mornings post, it began to snow, great big giant snowfakes, which didn't last long. It barely covered the back porch and then began to sleet and ended in rain. It has been a lazy day and I could use a nap. To avoid sleep, I got up and fixed me some lunch.

 I decide to have some soup, perfect for a cold dreary day. I had dried vegetable soup mix from Yoder's Amish Market. You just add water and let is stand for about 5 minutes, then you bring it to a boil, add any extra veggies you'd like and let it simmer for 10 minutes or more depending on what you add. I added the last little bit of yesterday's succotash, thin strips of cabbage, and some canned pinto beans; a few crackers and I was good to go. I'm not sure what kind of crackers, I used. I threw away the box and put them in a plastic container. Whatever they were, they were good, lol, and so was the soup.

After lunch I was still fighting sleep, so I gave in and took a nap. When I woke up I had a cup of hot water with lime juice and honey. I think I could have slept longer, lol. I am hoping my nap doesn't interfere with my sleep tonight.

It wasn't long before I was ready for dinner. I planned to have a Stouffer's single serving vegetable lasagna, fresh baby carrots and broccoli with dip. I threw together a dip using, sour cream, vinegar, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and Parmesan cheese. It was very good. I plan to make it again with measurements and hope to post the recipe.

Thanks to my lazy day, I did get a head start on my blog. We never got anymore snow, but it was a good day for soup and I don't know about you, but every time I look at that muffin pic with the peanut butter, just makes me want another one, lol, How about you?

What's your favorite, cold weather comfort food? See ya tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel.