Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamers

It's nearing the end of the school term.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel sort of, not really.  This week, and the next 2 weeks will be pretty hectic for me.  So I didn't think I would be blogging again until a few weeks later.  But after eating my lunch, I felt obligated to post, to prevent all of you from eating this junk.

 I have a coworker that loves to eat these funny looking frozen dinners.  She said that they're sooooo good. The combination of this is soooo good, plus my head being stuck in presentations and studying the textbooks is exactly why I bought some Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamers to keep in the freezer.  That and I had coupons.  I think these Gourmet Steamers ended up being $1 or $2 each.  Last night was a day where we didn't have enough leftovers from dinner to pack a lunch for the next day.  So perfect opportunity to give this frozen dinner a try.

The idea of it is great.  The pasta, meat and veggies are separate from the sauce which keeps the pasta from going mushy.  Again, idea and design of the container is great.  While the food was nuking in the microwave, it smelled pretty good too.  It's not until I took it out of the microwave that my appetite began to decrease.  It looked kinda gross to be honest with you.  I was hoping that once I mix the sauce it, it would be better.  Nope.  Just as bad, just with sauce on it.  I tried a piece of the chicken, made me think of a news article I read a few years ago.  It was about pieces of meat, that used some sort of glue to reform them into 'whole' pieces of meat.   Needless to say, it was not a very enjoyable lunch.  I really should just cook a bit more pasta next time I make it for dinner, and portion it for lunches and freeze it.  My very own, healthier version of 'frozen dinner'.  So please don't buy it.......it's not even worth paying a $1 for.

Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamer - Pre Mix

Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamer - Post Mix

The Old Spaghetti Factory

I've seen the Old Spaghetti Factory in the USA, and in Hong Kong.  Seeing how tacky it looked and how it's always filled with tourists with their backpacks and DSLR's around their neck, I have always said that I would never be caught dead in the Old Spaghetti Factory.  I've also been told by the hubby that the food is just ok and we make better pasta at home.

The night before our half marathon, we had to go downtown to pick up our race packets.  We also needed to cargo-load.  My friend suggested we go to the Old Spaghetti Factory to do our carbo-loading.  The pasta is just so-so, but the garlic butter is amazing and you get ice cream included.  So off we went to eat bread and garlic butter.

I stepped in the door and was overwhelmed by how tacky this place was on the inside.  It was like the dumping ground for a carnival, trains and whatever junk you can think of.  We waited maybe 20 minutes for a table and was seated at the corner somewhere.  I was starving at the time and hoped that our server would come by to take our orders fast.  Nope, no where to be seen.  We waited a very long time and got another server to look for our server not once but twice.  It felt like our server was hiding from us.  He finally came over with our bread and garlic butter, which was very yummy by the way (we all had disgusting garlic breath after), and took our order.  I ordered some Mediterranean chicken dish that came on pasta with a side of mushrooms.  Our salads came soon after.  Nothing special, just iceberg lettuce with some strips of carrots and cabbage.  Our mains took like half an hour to come.  I forget if the 3 of us finished 2 or 3 loaves of bread and garlic butter at the time.  Our mains finally came and we all just ate in silence.  Not because the food was good, but because we were starving.  Inhaled my dish even though my whole wheat pasta was salty, dry and undercooked.  Not al-dente, but undercooked.  

After we finished we waited for our ice cream, we left.  I can now safely say, I will NEVER ever visit the Old Spaghetti Factory again.  My gut instinct was right, it's just a crappy tourist trap.  I really don't know why I'm writing this blog since it really wasn't worth mentioning.  Or maybe I feel the need to warn you readers to not to step foot into this place?

The Old Spaghetti Factory

#54 The Esplanade Toronto, Ontario M5E 1A6 

Zucchini Pasta

Why didn't I think of this sooner?  Zucchini in place of real pasta.  It's carbless = guilt free!  I came across this recipe when I decided to look through all the interesting recipes on Sweet Potato Chronicles.  This is only one of the ones that I've tried.....but many more on my list. 

The sauce I used was a sausage tomato sauce. In the recipe, there's many more suggestions of different sauces you can use.

Zucchini Pasta with Sausage Tomato Sauce

Love this website!

Shiso Tree Cafe

A bunch of my friends and I decided to meet at Shiso Tree Cafe (J-Town) on Friday night because we haven't seen each other in such a long time.  The type of food Shiso Tree Cafe serves is Japanese style Italian pasta (Wafu).  I had no idea such a thing existed.  The definition of Wafu: pasta cooked in a japanese style or to japanese tastes (as opposed to a western style).  I was in for an awesome night!

When we walked in, we immediately saw a board that listed the specials.  We looked at the specials and took a peek at the regular menu and most of us decided to order off tthe specials menu.  All the pasta dishes come standard with a salad with wafu dressing and slice of garlic toast.  You also had the option of making it a full meal by adding $7 for a soup and a slice of cake for dessert.  The cakes I hear are not actually made by the cafe but brought over from Bakery Nakamura (J-Town).

For our appetizers we ordered the Nori Fries and Fries with Tartar Sauce.  Both delicious freshly cut fries, not from frozen.  The Nori Fries were supposed to be dressed with wafu dressing topped with shreds of nori.  However none of us could taste the wafu dressing.  The Fries with Tartar Sauce were the same fries as above topped with a large amount of home made tartar sauce.  Most of us loved the sauce, minus the one that normally dislikes mayo.

While we were chomping on our fries, the soups arrived for the ones that ordered the combo set.  There was only one soup option which was the soup of the day.  The waiter never mentioned what it was when he set it down so we figured we could take guesses after we tried it.  None of us had a clue.  It was green, undersalted, and super creamy.