Chicken and Vegetable Wonton Soup

First off, if you lived off ramen noodles cooked in a hot pot in your college dorm for 4 years, this soup is the adult version of that meal.  It is just as fast, cheap (but not as cheap as ramen), and hearty, but a little less “college-y”.

Now for the review.

Autumn is here - SOUP SEASON!

The package says this soup is one serving, but I would call it 1.5.  There were 7 or 8 hearty wontons, so that is quite a few to eat in one sitting.  I really like this soup!  The broth is tasty, the wontons are good and meaty.  This warm soup would be good on a cold fall or winter day. 

I wish it had more veggies – there were only 2.5 snow peas and kind of a lot of carrots.  Would it kill them to throw in a couple more snow peas??  The photo on the package seems to show more veggies than our bowl had.  The photo also makes it look like the veggies and won tons float – I think that was artful use of chopsticks to push things to the top and make them look jazzy in the picture!

Here is our bowl.  Served with San Pellegrino, which Trader Joe's was OUT of last night.
Oh I hope they have not stopped carrying it...

My favorite part of this soup is the CILANTRO – if you get a bit of cilantro in your bite it really jazzes things up.  That being said, I realize that cilantro is one weird a** herb!!!  Have you read the articles that explain that, to some people’s taste buds, cilantro tastes just like SOAP???  Isn’t that freaky??  I love cilantro, so I feel sorry for the people who think it tastes like getting your mouth washed out with soap.  Here is a link to a good article about cilantro:  Cilantro Haters

This is easy to prepare – I microwaved it for 4.5 minutes, let it rest for one minute, then dove in.  this would be a good “bring to work” lunch.  It wouldn’t stink up the break room when you microwaved it like some other frozen lunches do. 

Find this one in the frozen food section

Here is what David thought of it, “This is a nice idea.  It is lovely and warm for the winter time.  For me the soup was a bit “Campbell’s Soup-y” and a bit sweet rather than them more vinegar-y and flavorful hing that I would expect from a Chinese wonton soup.  And the dumplings – though I love dumplings, these are a little bit, ummm, I could do with them being more, ummm, GRANULAR I guess.  That is, BITS of meat and BIT of vegetables in there, rather than just like a chunk of a chicken hotdog in there.  I do agree with Susan that the cilantro is a great idea.  I would give this a 3.25.”

And I would give this soup a 4.  So those 2 scores will be averaged together for the final rating. 

Price:  $2.29

Rating:  3.75

Day 205 - Kale and Cauliflower Curry Salad

I picked this one up because sometimes, when I know I am going to have a challenging work day, I squirrel away a tasty Trader Joe’s salad to have as a mid-day treat.  I was happy when I sat down for lunch today with my CNN on, an ice cold San Pellegrino Limonata in front of me (reviewed on day 141 of this blog – one of the most frequently read reviews, probably because of the shopping comparison “event” that happened at WalMart…), a fresh sliced tomato from our garden, and THIS KALE AND CAULIFLOWER CURRY SALAD.

Healthy lunch!

 The first thing I thought when I opened the container was, “Would it have killed them to cut the cauliflower florets up a little bit more??”.  They were some very large cauliflower hunks, I’m tellin’ ya.  Because of that, I recommend having a knife with you when you eat this salad.

Maybe the cauliflower hunks don't look huge here, but in real life they did.

The kale in it was quite good.  And there was a big surprise!  At least to me, who had not read the ingredient list but only the name of the product, it was a surprise.  Not only does this salad contain kale, curry, and cauliflower, it has WHEATBERRIES hidden on the bottom.  SURPRISE!  And then there was a single plump golden raisin, too.  (I could have done without that, but I can hardly complain when there was only one of them…)

The package says the recommended serving size is half a package – oops, didn’t read that until after I had devoured the whole thing.  It didn’t seem extravagant or piggish to eat it all, so if you are having it for a meal and not an appetizer then I think the recommended serving size is a bit off. 

See?  The wheatberries are not mentioned.  Shhh - they are a secret!

Taste wise it was good.  The kale was the best part, followed by the wheatberries.  I added a bit of freshly ground pepper and that was it.  It is not a strong curry flavor but the curry does add a nice touch.

Overall, it is a fine salad.  Not my very favorite from TJ’s but certainly not the worst.  J

Price – $3.99

Rating - 4

Day 141 - San Pellegrino Limonata

Wow, was THIS a great surprise treat to find on the Trader Joe’s shelves recently!  Either they just started carrying this drink) (which I think is the case because the sign says "new", or we have missed seeing it there for years.  San Pellegrino Limonata is a drink we buy at Safeway when they have it on sale, because we really like it but it is usually pretty expensive. 

  

Look how excited David is to find Limonata at Trader Joe's!

So as far as the PRODUCT REVIEW goes, yay!  This “sparkling lemon beverage” is delicious!  Yummy!  Amazingly refreshing!  Bubbly without being TOO bubbly.  Lemony without being over-the-top-crazy lemony.  Best served very cold.  Has a sweet little foil “cap” to feel off before drinking, making you feel like the can you are putting your naked lips on is not dirty.  18% fruit actual juice, so feels healthier than drinking a can of soda.  We had some for guests yesterday at a party and they really liked it, too.  It is a really nice summertime drink.

YES!  San Pellegrino Limonata at a very reasonable price at Trader Joe's!

A tasty, refreshing treat

So we know how this reviewer feels about the product (2 thumbs up!), which just leaves the issue of the best place to PURCHASE the product…

Like I said, our normal point of purchase is Safeway, but only when it is on sale.  However, Trader Joe’s had the 6 pack for the low, low price of $4.99 (which comes out to only .83 cents per can).  This seemed like a great bargain so of course we grabbed some.

We brought it to FLORIDA with us, which is where I did my very scientific, rigorous price comparisons.  First, I checked how much the same product sold for at the Publix Grocery Store in Ormond Beach.  Publix is a nice store and typically prices things much higher than other places, so we were really surprised to find San Pellegrino Limonata for the exact same price that Trader Joe’s was selling it for!

Publix, normally expensive but in this case not

I wanted one more price point to compare, so we went to the most Florida store of all, WALMART, and we had the most WALMART-ISH experience a person could ever have.  No lie, this was like, uber Walmart.

Before we could get back to the canned drinks section, we had to pick up a couple of greeting cards.  But when we turned to enter the greeting card lane, you will NEVER GUESS WHAT WE SAW…  (Well, it is Walmart, so I bet you could guess LOTS of things, but I do not think you would ever guess correctly, so I am going to flat out tell you here…) – WE SAW HUMAN EXCREMENT!  Yes – POOP!  Human poop in the greeting card aisle!

And before you ask, no, it was not BABY poop.  And no, it was not DOG POOP.  It was full grown adult human freshly plopped poop.  And there was not just one plop, oh nooooo…  There were 2 large “plops” and a small one.  Not to mention the skid marks where someone had run their Walmart shopping cart THRU said poop, and (close your eyes if you are easily grossed out…), A FOOTPRINT from where some unfortunate soul, probably wrapped up in looking at greeting cards, stepped in it… 

It didn’t take long for a Wal-Mart associate to show up and “stand guard” at the end of the aisle, trying to prevent more poop spread.  But the gawkers kept gawking, including my partner David who for some reason could not take his eyes off the whole fiasco.  “Poop….” We kept repeating…  “Poop!  In the GREETING CARD AISLE!” as if the location made the whole thing even more egregious.  Pretty soon the Wal-Mart janitor showed up, perched atop his Walmart-esque zamboni machine, and sucked or whisked away said poop.  Even he was a bit disgusted by the whole affair, and you KNOW a Walmart janitor has seen it all before. 

Lucky for you, gentle readers, I do not have a photo to place here of the human poop in the greeting card aisle.  That is not for lack of trying – David decided he really needed photo documentation of this experience and tried to get one but couldn’t get his cell phone out and organized fast enough.

But I DO have this proof – the sign from the same San Pellegrino Limonata being sold at Walmart for ONE PENNY less than we paid at Trader Joe’s.



There you have it folks, a whole penny cheaper at Walmart!

So here’s the thing…  How much is a pleasant, clean, friendly, POOP-FREE shopping experience worth to you??  To me, it is worth much more than a penny.  I will gladly pay one cent more for my drinks to have a sanitary shopping floor.  Heck Trader Joe’s, you could even come in at a nickel over Walmart and you would still have my business.

Price - $4.99

Rating – 5

Experience in the greeting card aisle at Walmart in Ormond Beach, FL - priceless