Tag: pasta

Barilla Plus Pasta – Review

Tonight I made a delicious (and healthy) pasta sauce with tomatoes, along with some chopped tatsoi and garlic scapes from the CSA share this week. I usually make higher quality Italian white pasta, even though it’s made with white flour, I find that since we only eat pasta once or twice a week, it’s worth it to eat the “good stuff”!

But tonight, I was filling my salt bowl from the kosher salt box and noticed the almost empty box of Barilla Plus farfalle that’s been sitting in the cupboard for months (probably almost a year). I told myself okay, just cook up what’s left in the box, so I could finally be done with it!

Barilla Plus Pasta review

Yep, so I cooked it (al dente) and I tasted a test piece. At first bite, I thought, okay, maybe not as bad as I thought, but then I immediately changed my mind! The texture is horrible! It’s got a tiny bit of waxy coating of some sort, and it breaks apart easily with a texture of cooked beans. No toothsome-ness like my favorite Dececco pasta!

Barilla Plus Ingredients:
Semolina, grain and legume flour blend, [grains and legumes (lentils, chickpeas, flaxseed, spelt, barley, oats), egg whites, oat fiber], durum flour, niacin, iron (ferrous sulfate), thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid.

As you can see, there’s nutritious high fiber ingredients, but when I want to eat beans and grains, I’ll cook them myself. I suppose this type of pasta can be helpful to families that do not get enough daily fiber, and may be an easy way to sneak beans and grains into fussy childrens’ diets.

I’ve tasted so many different types of pastas: quinoa pasta, corn pasta, whole wheat pasta (which isn’t that bad once in awhile), and brown rice pasta. None of them come close to the taste and texture of high quality white semolina pasta!

Yes, white flour is not the most healthy choice, but ya know what, I’m not eating it every day, and when I want pasta, it’s got to be a delicious treat! It’s got to be worth the calories!

Besides Dececco, I’ve actually had good luck with the Whole Foods 365 brand as well, but Dececco is definitely my favorite! And I’ll never buy Barilla Plus again! Glad that box is finally gone. I should have just dumped it in the trash instead of wasting calories and taste buds! LOL

Plan Ahead Cooking Sunday

Today was another plan ahead cooking day!

It’s been very busy at work, so time is limited for cooking healthy meals. I don’t want to revert to my old ways of “convenience” processed food and take-out, so I have been using my slow cooker (crock pot) a couple of days a week. It’s been a great time saver, but I was recently reminded about the crock pot/slow cooker lead problem. So, I am trying NOT to use it until I perhaps test the crock with a home lead test.

So, today in the oven:

  • A big pot of bolognese sauce (inspired by Cristina Ferrare’s Big Bowl of Love Bolognese recipe)
  • Braising two large boneless chuck steaks (London Broil) with onions, warm spices (cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, pepper, paprika) and wine. Unfortunately the beef was mostly frozen when I started, so when I tried to sear, it was just steaming. It didn’t matter though. I tasted a bite, and it was fabulous!
  • I also decided to make a batch of brown rice in the already hot oven for use later in the week.

The Meal Plan:

  1. Bolognese sauce with pasta tonight.
  2. Cooked extra pasta for our lunches for either tomorrow or Tuesday
  3. Even after dividing into 4 portions, there is still some bolognese sauce left-over, so I think on Tuesday, that’ll be transformed into chili with beans and rice.
  4. The braised beef has been divided into freezer bags. It’ll be enough for three separate dinners, including a small portion for transformation into soup or stew.
  5. I also have boneless chicken defrosting in the fridge, and tomorrow or Tuesday, I’ll make chicken soup with rice. That’s usually a quick easy meal.
  6. We’ll have a meatless meal sometime later in the week. It might be a great time to finally try making a pizza with homemade flatbread!
  7. Gotta try to fit in salmon, and that could be a good day for DH to have left-overs. (He doesn’t eat fish)

I’m also considering a rice cooker purchase. It’s difficult to find a rice cooker that’s NOT non-stick, but these Vitaclay rice slow cookers look promising.

Fresh Roasted Tomatoes with Pasta

I had an amazing dinner tonight! I recently picked up the CSA share for the week and there was an abundance of wonderful tomatoes! I knew I had to roast some for pasta.

yummy fresh tomatoes from the CSA

I sliced the heirloom tomato we received, plus one roma and two slicing tomatoes, and I mixed them in a baking dish along with some chopped pepper, onion and basil leaves.

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Quinoa Pasta with Raw Tomato Sauce

It’s Raw week over at the “I Heart Cooking Clubs” web site. Raw? Hmm, what kind of inventive dish could I make that’s raw?

I launched the Mark Bittman “How To Cook Everything” iPhone app and searched for “raw” – the first recipe that popped up was “Linguine with Raw Tomato Sauce” – oh that sounded good.

I was hungry for lunch this afternoon, so I decided to make one serving for me.

simple ingredients

The ingredients and cooking steps are so simple, it’s laughable!

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Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pasta – Review

ancient harvest quinoa pasta

I love pasta, but it’s tough to find a really tasty whole grain pasta. I love brown rice pasta, but I also like trying something new. So, I purchased a box of the Ancient Harvest brand of quinoa pasta. It’s a blend of organic (non-GMO) corn and quinoa flours. It’s totally gluten free, and looks and tastes just like regular white flour pasta!

It’s got a nice corn yellow color and I really appreciate that it’s made from simple organic ingredients.

When cooking, the water became a bit cloudy, but the pasta was not sticky or clumpy. I have a bit of a starchy problem sometimes when cooking brown rice pasta, but the quinoa pasta does not have that issue at all.

We ate it as part of our Meatless Monday meal with some tomato olive sauce and it really was delicious.

Even though it’s so much more expensive than regular pasta, I would definitely purchase it again. Looking at the Ancient Harvest web site, it looks like they also offer a wheat/quinoa blend too.

Amazon offers a 12 pack for $26.

Meatless Monday – Quinoa Pasta with Tomato Puttanesca Sauce

Meatless Monday - quinoa pasta with tomato puttanesca sauce

We went meatless tonight (with a little bit of dairy) by eating a satisfying plate of quinoa pasta topped with tomato puttanesca sauce. I included some lovely kousa squash in the sauce, which was part of our CSA vegetable share this week. It’s a summer squash similar to zucchini.

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Recipe – Roasted Tomatoes & Spinach Over Pasta

I love roasted tomatoes. I made them by accident a couple of weeks ago, on top of chicken breast, and ever since, I’ve been dreaming about their delicious flavor. Similar to sun dried tomatoes, but even better!

So, I the other night, I roasted a batch, added some pasta with wilted spinach and we had a delicious dinner!

roasted tomatoes & spinach over pasta topped with parmesan reggiano cheese

Ingredients for Roasted Tomatoes & Spinach Over Pasta

  • 4 or more Plum Tomatoes
  • 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 5 oz whole grain pasta (we ate Barilla Plus elbows)
  • 3 cups of baby spinach
  • 1/2 oz Parmesan Reggiano Cheese – or any other hard cheese (grated or thinly sliced – I like using a veggie peeler)
    Salt & Pepper to season

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Beware! Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta Changes Their Ingredients!

Yuck!

Most of the time, I use Ronzoni Healthy Harvest whole wheat pasta, but sometimes you just want something that tastes like good old fashioned white pasta, so I also keep Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta in the pantry.

I just finished off a box, and glanced at the ingredients list before I tossed it into recycling. What? Something is very wrong here! BHA & BHT along with Fractionated Coconut Oil?? I know I would never have purchased a product with those kind of ingredients! What happened?

I looked at another box, and those ingredients were not listed! The only difference between both boxes was it was now listing “Now With Vitamin D” – so to include Vitamin D, they have to also add icky toxic preservatives and Fractionated Coconut Oil*?! Not happy Ronzoni!

The reason I am not happy about “fractionated” coconut oil is because it’s refined with heat, not cold pressed. I like coconut oil, but it’s gotta be extra virgin for me to consume it!

Here is a full list of both the old and new versions:

Older without Vitamin D:

Semolina (Wheat), Durum Flour (Wheat), Modified Wheat Starch, Calcium Phosphate, Niacin, Iron (Ferrous Sulfate), Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid

New with added Vitamin D (highlighted bold text signifies a new ingredient)

Semolina (Wheat), Durum Flour (Wheat), Modified Wheat Starch, Dicalcium Phosphate, Niacin, Iron (Ferrous Sulfate), Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Food Starch Modified, Vitamin D3, BHA & BHT perservatives, Fractionated Coconut Oil

Out of protest, I will not be purchasing ANY Ronzoni products! It’s sneaky and deceitful how they dramatically changed the product like that! Once the cupboard needs a pasta refill, I will switch to a more reputable brand!

Note: Their parent company is New World Pasta

Brands include Healthy Harvest®, Ronzoni®, Smart Choice®, San Giorgio®, Creamette®, American Beauty®, Skinner®, Prince®, Catelli® and Lancia®.

In 2006, the Company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ebro Puleva, S.A., one of the world’s leading food companies. Ebro Puleva’s other subsidiary in the United States, Riviana Foods Inc., has such well-known brands as Mahatma®, Carolina®, Success®, Minute® and Gourmet House®.

So, needless to say, I will also be staying away from their other products as well, not that I buy any of them now, but I surely won’t in the future!

Ronzoni stinks! :P Blah!

UPDATE May 12, 2010:

I happened to be at the grocery store the other day, and I noticed the Smart Taste pasta. I was curious, so I took a look at the ingredients again.

Wow! No more BHA & BHT perservatives, Fractionated Coconut Oil. Amazing!

I still don’t trust them, since they added these ingredients in the first place without warning, so I am still staying away from their products. They really never should have added these bad ingredients, but it’s nice to see them taking them out of their pasta!

Ronzoni Smart Taste NOW

ronzoni smart taste pasta nutritional data

ronzoni smart taste pasta updated ingredients