Focussed On The Future

Over the holidays I cooked a turkey, for just the second time in my life. The circumstances were similar to the first time: as a bonus for spending lots of money at the SuperStore we received a free turkey. It sat in the freezer for a couple of months until I got tired of it taking up space and decided to cook it.

The results were similar to the last time around as well. To begin with, the defrosting instructions were completely and utterly wrong. They said that a turkey of this size (5.9kg) should defrost in the fridge for two to three days. I remembered from last time that the turkey was still frozen after that, so this time I left it in for almost four. Except for the outermost layers, it was still frozen solid.

There were also "quick thaw" instructions which said to put the turkey into a basin, cover it in cold water, and let it sit for six hours. I decided to try that instead. Despite having already defrosted in the fridge for four days it took the full six hours before it was sufficiently thawed to start cooking. Even then I had to work a bit to free the neck from where it was still frozen to the inside of the bird.Next time I'll do what my Mom does: throw it into water before going to bed and let it thaw out overnight.

I've determined that I'm really not that keen on turkey. It's okay, and it's nice that you get so much meat off a single bird, but all in all I prefer the taste of roast chicken.

As before, the big hit was the stuffing. I use this recipe, minus the walnuts and olives. I've got enough turkey stock left over that I'm going to make another batch today or tomorrow. Yum!

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays. As usual I spent the bulk of my time doing as little as possible, just playing games and watching videos. It was lovely.

Now back to work until my vacation in February.

Usually when I buy dates I buy Medjool dates. They're big and sweet and yummy.

Today at the grocery store they had honey dates for almost half the price of Medjool. They were pitted, too, which means that you're not paying for the stone, so the price per gram of edible fruit was probably less than half. I don't recall having had honey dates before so I picked them up. I've just finished a handful and they're slightly less sweet than Medjool, but not by much. They are still plenty sweet for my sugar-saturated tastebuds. Aside from that the only difference I can see is that they are smaller.

Is that the main reason for the price difference? Are we so obsessed with "bigger is better" that we pay more than double for bigger dates? Or is there some specific cachet to Medjool dates that commands such a whopping premium?

And here's the part that I've been waiting for, even if you haven't: a chart comparing the nutritional stats of all the President's Choice Blue Menu frozen meals that I've reviewed.

Calories are per gram of food. Fat, sodium (Na) and fibre are milligrams per gram of food. Vitamins and minerals are percent of daily requirement per 100 grams of food (just to avoid lots of leading zeroes).

Red means a particularly bad stat, green a particularly good one.

Dish	Wt	Cal /g	Fat mg/g					Na mg/g	Fibre mg/g	Vitamins %/100g		Minerals %/100g		Taste
			Tot	Sat	Ω-3	Ω-6	6/3			Vit A	Vit C	Ca	Fe
Barley Risotto With Herbed Chicken	290	1.0	20.7	5.17	0.34	3.45	10.0	2.0	17.0	2.76	2.07	2.07	5.17	Bland
Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla	125	1.6	36.0	8.0	0.0	0.0	n/a	2.48	40.0	0.0	0.0	8.0	8.0	Tasty
General Tao Chicken	365	1.29	10.9	2.74	0.27	2.74	10.0	1.89	8.22	1.1	1.1	0.55	2.2	Tasty-
Chicken Bangkok	280	0.89	8.93	3.57	0.0	0.0	n/a	1.79	10.7	5.36	2.14	2.14	5.36	Tasty-
Sweet Chili Lemon Grass Chicken	350	1.0	12.9	1.43	0.86	2.86	3.33	1.91	2.86	1.14	10.0	0.57	0.0	Tasty
Chicken & Ricotta Cheese Calzones	246	1.95	36.6	12.2	1.63	6.50	4.0	4.47	16.3	1.63	1.63	6.5	16.3	Tasty
Whole Wheat Rotini With Chicken Pesto	280	1.32	28.6	7.14	1.43	5.36	3.75	2.39	21.4	5.36	1.43	5.36	7.14	Tasty
Roasted Vegetable Lasgna	283	1.02	31.0	15.9	0.0	0.0	n/a	1.91	17.7	7.07	5.30	8.83	8.83	Delicious
Chicken Szechwan	225	0.89	17.8	4.44	0.0	0.0	n/a	1.96	8.89	6.67	8.89	1.78	6.67	Tasty-
Sweet And Sour Chicken	350	1.0	5.71	1.43	0.29	1.43	5.0	1.11	5.71	0.57	8.57	0.57	0.0	Tasty+

As you can see, it's a pretty mixed bag. The rotini seems the clear winner, but only because several of its numbers just barely escaped being flagged in red.

Hmm. Not really sure what that tells me, except to stay away from the risotto, and I knew that after the first few bites.

This dish consists of vegetables and seasoned chunks of chicken breast in a peanut sauce, on a bed of lo mein noodles. The vegetables are supposed to consist of sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, carrots, red pepper, peas, bok choy and bean sprouts. My meal only contained a single sugar snap pea and I didn't see any bean sprouts at all, which is fine by me since I don't like sprouts.

The peanut sauce was surprisingly bland. Fortunately the noodles, chicken and vegetables provided enough flavour of their own to push the dish to a 'Tasty' rating, though just barely. The dinner had more visible vegetables in it (as opposed to being ground up in a sauce) than most of the others, which was a nice plus.

Stats:

Weight: 225g
Calories: 200 [0.89cal/g]
Fat: 4g [17.8mg/g]
Saturated Fat: 1g [4.44mg/g]
Trans Fat: 0g
Omega-3: 0g
Omega-6: 0g
Omega 6/3 Ratio: n/a
Sodium: 440mg [1.96mg/g]
Fibre: 2g [8.89mg/g]
Vitamin A: 15% [6.67%/100g]
Vitamin C: 20% [8.89%/100g]
Calcium: 4% [1.78%/100g]
Iron: 15% [6.67%/100g]
Taste: Tasty-

Pros: low in calories (tied with Chicken Bangkok for lowest calorie density so far); low in total sodium (though sodium per gram of food is average); good source of vitamins

Cons: no omegas; not much fibre

If you're beginning to think that there's nothing in my life except food and geocaching, you're right. Since we've had snow on the ground for the last few days with a week of rain due to start tomorrow, geocaching is out, which means you're stuck with just my frozen dinner reviews for at least another week.

This dish consists of whole wheat rotini pasta and chunks of chicken breast in pesto sauce, with bits of zucchini, spinach and red bell pepper tossed in.

While I liked the taste it came across more as a plain cheese sauce than specifically pesto. It was a bit stingy with the sauce, too, probably to keep the overall fat content down.

Stats:

Weight: 280g
Calories: 370 [1.32cal/g]
Fat: 8g [28.6mg/g]
Saturated Fat: 2g [7.14mg/g]
Trans Fat: 0g
Omega-3: 0.4g [1.43mg/g]
Omega-6: 1.5g [5.36mg/g]
Omega 6/3 Ratio: 3.75
Sodium: 670mg [2.39mg/g]
Fibre: 6g [21.4mg/g]
Vitamin A: 15% [5.36%/100g]
Vitamin C: 4% [1.43%/100g]
Calcium: 15% [5.36%/100g]
Iron: 20% [7.14%/100g]
Taste: Tasty

Pluses: decent source of omega-3, with an excellent ratio of omega-6 to omega-3; good source of fibre; decent source of vitamins and minerals.

Minuses: high in fat; a bit high in sodium.

Lunch today was President's Choice Sweet Chili Lemon Grass Chicken, from their Blue Menu line.

Chunks of white chicken breast meat and red bell pepper in a sweet chili sauce, with a side of plain jasmine rice.

The sauce has a very mild taste. So much so that I was ready to rank this dish as Bland after the first couple of bites, but after a while the flavour started to come out more and I ended up liking it. The chicken and bell peppers both pick up the flavour nicely. Spicing is fairly mild but sufficient to leave a pleasant warmth in my mouth between bites. The use of jasmine rice means that the rice by itself has a bit of character, but that's less of an issue in this dish as there's plenty of sauce to spread over it.

Stats:

Weight: 350g
Calories: 350 [1cal/g]
Fat: 4.5g [12.9mg/g]
Saturated Fat: 0.5g [1.43mg/g]
Trans Fat: 0g
Omega-3: 0.3g [0.86mg/g]
Omega-6: 1g [2.86mg/g]
Omega 6/3 Ratio: 3.33
Sodium: 670mg [1.91mg/g]
Fibre: 1g [2.86mg/g]
Vitamin A: 4% [1.14%/100g]
Vitamin C: 35% [10.0%/100g]
Calcium: 2% [0.57%/100g]
Iron: 0% [0.0%/100g]
Taste: Tasty

Pluses: Good ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 (3 to 1). Very low in saturated fat. Lots of vitamin C.

Minuses: Very little fibre.

Don't worry, I should be done with these food reviews by the end of the week.

For lunch today I had President's Choice General Tao Chicken, from their Blue Menu line.

The dish consists of breaded chicken bits in a sauce which looks like it's made from a tomato base but isn't. There's also a side dish of rice with peas which probably accounts for 2/3 of the meal's total weight.

The sauce was sweet and spicy. Not eye-wateringly spicy, just a bit of a chili kick. I liked it.

The chicken was moist but a bit chewy. Whenever I've had General Tao Chicken in a restaurant it's been a bit chewy as well, so I'm going to assume that that's how it's supposed to be, rather than a flaw in the meal.

The rice and peas were very bland. I mean, even blander than the plain white rice that I cook for myself. (Mind you, I do use basmati, so that helps.) The rice was light brown in colour which I'd expected to mean that it had been flavoured with soy sauce. However it turns out that that's just caramel colouring. I ended up adding some soy sauce to liven it up which, unfortunately, also boosts the sodium level. If the rice in all of the Blue Menu dishes is like this, I'll be disappointed.

Despite the poor showing of the rice I'd buy the dish again.

Here's the nutritional breakdown:

Weight: 365g
Calories: 470 [1.29cal/g]
Fat: 4g [10.9mg/g]
Saturated Fat: 1g [2.74mg/g]
Trans Fat: 0g
Omega-3: 0.1g [0.27mg/g]
Omega-6: 1g [2.74mg/g]
Omega 6/3 Ratio: 10.0
Sodium: 690mg [1.89mg/g]
Fibre: 3g [8.22mg/g]
Vitamin A: 4% [1.1%/100g]
Vitamin B: 4% [1.1%/100g]
Calcium: 2% [0.55%/100g]
Iron: 8% [2.2%/100g]
Taste: Tasty-

On the plus side it is quite low in fat and includes some omega fats. (I'm going to stop highlighting the lack of trans fat since all of the Blue Menu products appear to have either no trans fat or minute amounts.)

On the minus side it's the most calorie-laden of the three dishes reviewed so far. (In absolute terms, that is. In terms of calories per gram of food the quesadilla wins hands-down.) And the omega 6/3 ratio is 10 to 1, which is far too high.

As far as the sodium goes, it has the highest total amount of sodium so far, but the lowest per gram of food. So call it a wash.

Yesterday, in keeping with my desire to start eating a bit more healthily, I went to the local Superstore and brought back 9 different kinds of President's Choice Blue Menu frozen dinners. Blue Menu is their line of healthy (or at least healthier) prepared meals. I'm going to record in this journal my evaluation of each one as I eat it.

Taste will be ranked on a four-level scale: Offensive, Bland, Tasty, Delicious.

Today I had the "Barley Risotto with Herbed Chicken", which consisted of barley, brown and wild rice, seasoned chicken and some veggie bits (tomato, red bell pepper, carrot, celery, parsley).

The texture is good (assuming that you like the texture of cooked barley, which I do), but I found the taste to be extremely bland. There was a bit of a tomato taste to the risotto, and the chicken tasted faintly like chicken, but that's about it.

I won't be buying this one again.

Nutritional stats:

Weight: 290g
Calories: 290g [1cal/g]
Fat: 6g [20.7mg/g]
Saturated Fat: 1.5g [5.17mg/g]
Trans Fat: 0g
Omega-3: 0.1g [0.34mg/g]
Omega-6: 1.0g [3.45mg/g]
Omega 6/3 Ratio: 10.0
Sodium: 580mg [2mg/g]
Fibre: 5g [17mg/g]
Vitamin A: 8% [2.76%/100g]
Vitamin C: 6% [2.07%/100g]
Calcium: 6% [2.07%/100g]
Iron: 15% [5.17%/100g]
Taste: Bland

On the plus side, it has a decent amount of fibre, no trans-fats and very little saturated fat.

On the minus side the sodium is a bit high and there's too much omega-6 relative to omega-3 (10 to 1! should be more like 4 to 1).


EDIT: For nutritional values I added the ratio per gram of food in the serving, in square brackets. That should make it easier to compare across dishes.

EDIT2: And now I've standardized the format for the nutritional info.

After my confusion over the three different, contradictory sets of directions for cooking beans, which were in the recipe book I used for the soup I made a few days ago, I decided to do an experiment. I soaked a handful of beans in cold water overnight and then simmered them for 13 minutes, which was the most straightforward interpretation of the recipe.

Now that I know the proper meaning of the word "simmer" I first allowed the water to come to a boil before reducing the temperature slightly, leaving the water just below boiling point. (As opposed to just cooking the beans at low heat, which is what I did when I made the soup.)

At the end of that the beans were edible but still mealy. I let them simmer for an additional 15 minutes, after which they were soft and tender.

The beans I'm using are Great Northern white beans, which are almost twice as large as white navy beans, which is probably what the recipe had intended. It didn't say explicitly, it just said "white beans". So it's just barely possible that the 13 minutes of simmering called for in the recipe would have sufficed had I used navy beans.

Now to be fair to the recipe's author, he did say to test the beans for tenderness after the first 8 minutes of cooking, though I don't know that I would have been willing to keep the soup simmering for over twice the time stated in the recipe: I'm a follower of recipes, not an innovator.

Regardless, the next time I have to deal with dried beans I think I shall be much better prepared for it.

I know that it seems like the only thing in my life right now is food, but that's not the case. I also have geocaching. Unfortunately geocaching is like billiards insofar as it's fun to do but not a lot of fun to talk about. So food it is.

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