Brownies and Zucchini

Full Disclosure: I received these Green Giant frozen veggies for free through the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.  Even though they paid for it, these are completely my own opinions.

Sometimes I come home from work and have no idea what I want for dinner.  Ok, lets be honest, this happens more often than not.  Generally when this happens the husband and I sit and discuss options for way to long, I get overly hungry, cranky, and end up having a bowl (or two) of cereal for dinner.  Although that isn’t a horribly unhealthy choice, it really isn’t the greatest or most interesting choice either.

Recently, I was asked if I wanted to sample Green Giant frozen vegetables through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s program.  As someone who is always looking for easy and healthy solutions for dinner, I accepted their offer.  It came at a great time – as someone who works retail, November and December are by far our busiest months and all I want to when I get home is sit on the couch, watch tv, knit, and not think about making an extravagant dinner.

The product that I chose to try was the Roasted Red Potatoes, Green Beans, and Rosemary Butter Sauce.

To make a meal out of it, we also bought a cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.

One of the things that I love about these is that they steam right in the package!  After about 5 minutes in the microwave, and a little bit of stirring, they are ready to eat.  No extra dishes, very little cleanup.

The meal was definitely filling, and veggies were pretty good. And yes, I even ate some of the green beans. 🙂  They didn’t taste as good as they would have if I would have roasted them in the oven – but the 5 minutes to cook vs 45 minutes (or more) in the oven definitely wins me over when I’m short on time and energy.  The sauce was pretty light, not overwhelmingly buttery, but still flavorful, and the potatoes were cooked perfectly.

I often forget about frozen veggies.  Since Farmer’s Markets have become such a popular way to get local, sustainable, produce, I often think of that as the best way to get vegetables.  However, as the weather gets colder (especially since I live in Wisconsin) things become out of season and the idea of only buying local, fresh, veggies gets pretty unattainable.  Frozen veggies are a fantastic way to add a healthy, and nutritious element to a meal.  Not only that, but with this fantastic invention of the “steam in a bag” veggies, your food is done much quicker than it would be with fresh produce!

Taste: A-, I don’t love green beans (I would have loved a bag of steamed rosemary potatoes, but that probably wouldn’t be as good for me) but other than that, it was pretty delicious.
Cost: A, when I bought mine, my grocery store actually was having a sale and they were $2 each – I think they normally run between $3 and $4.  For 2 (generous) servings of veggies, and the convenience that the steam-able bags are, I’d say thats a pretty good deal!

Would I buy them again?  Yeah,  I think so!  Veggies are often something that take a back seat when I’m thinking about making a quick meal and these are a good solution to that problem – and not to mention the flavors are a lot more interesting than just steamed veggies. Now hopefully I remember to get some the next time I’m at the store – remembering is the hardest part!

Filed under: Product Review Tagged: | chicken, dinner, easy, Green Giant, Product Review