Food Product Archives - My Inner Shakti

Three Things Thursday (21)

Three Things Thursday is officially legal here on MIS. Get it? 21. No? I know I’m a dork, it’s ok!

Moving on…

This has been a fairly full week. My parents left on Monday, work is just the right kind of busy (as opposed to the “I want to pull my hair out” kind of busy), Vishnu’s new rotation is off and running (he only has to work three 12 hour shifts this week…win!), and our friend Rohit is coming in to town this weekend. Enough stuff to keep me just one step behind!

Well, since I didn’t share a Three Things Thursday post for the last two weeks, I thought I’d jump back in with three random new-to-me things.

(1) Snapchat

I am [back] on Snapchat! I originally joined earlier this year, and then deleted the app from my phone because I honestly didn’t get it. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat…it was all a bit overwhelming! But then when I was in Chicago last week, my friends Ankita and Rena convinced me that it’s easy to use and really fun. So I’m giving it another chance!

My username is parpat23, so feel free to add me if you want. I’m still learning how the whole thing works, so my snaps may be a bit sporadic right now!

(2) A new ab routine

[via The Live Fit Girls]

This short little ab routine is the perfect add on to any workout. The whole point is to flow from one move to the next with little to no rest in between. It looks simple enough, but when completed after a run or intense strength workout, you feel the burn. And when I’m feeling extra crazy, I pair this with a little plank tabata!

(3) TJ’s Frozen Cheese & Green Chile Tamales

While shopping at Trader Joe’s a couple of weeks ago, I happened to be looking at the non-frozen tamales when a fellow shopper told me about the frozen ones. She said that both are good, but the frozen ones are the BEST! I took her word for it and brought a pack of the Cheese & Green Chile kind home with me. You guys. These bad boys, while not super healthy, are super delicious! The corn masa is soft and the filling is slightly spicy from the chilies and gooey from the cheese. A must try TJs item in my opinion!

That’s all I have for this week. Thanks for reading!

If you’re a blogger, write a post and link back to one or all of the hostesses: Raj from Pink Chai Living, Nisha from Love Laugh Mirch, or Salma from The Write Balance. Then share a link to your post (not your blog’s home page).

Are you on Snapchat? If so, let’s be friends!

Three Things Thursday (17) – Food Finds

written by Parita 12 Comments

Hello from Atlanta!

I flew in late last night and will be here until Sunday. The main reason for my trip is to help out with a few wedding related things, but let’s be honest, it’s been five months since I’ve been home, so it was about time!

I’m so excited to spend time with my mom, dad, and sister over the next couple of days. Aekta’s home studying for her board exams, so her time is a little more limited, but breaks are a good thing, especially when you get to spend them with your favorite person (right, Aek?!).

Anyway, I’ll share more about Atlanta in a later post.

Today I want to talk about my new favorite food finds via a Three Things Thursday post.

(1) PB2 is not a new-to-me product, but it’s one that hasn’t made an appearance in my pantry in a LONG time. When Vishnu and I went to Costco a few weeks ago, I saw that a huge jar was under $6! So of course, I had to buy two.

PB2 is essentially peanut flour. You can mix it with a little bit of water to form a peanut butter like paste. I don’t like it in that way at all actually and prefer to use it in our morning protein smoothies. It really does add a nice rich PB flavor. And that way, I can save my real PB consumption for something a little more substantial. 🙂

(2) If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, run there now and buy these Thai Vegetable Gyozas! All you have to do is add oil to a hot pan, cook these on one side for seven minutes, add a bit of water, and then let them steam for an additional 10 minutes. They’re crispy, they’re soft, they’re absolutely delicious! You can pair them with plain soy sauce (as I prefer to do) or a soy/Sriracha mixture (as Vishnu likes to do). They come in other varieties as well (shrimp, chicken, etc.). You won’t regret it, I promise!

(3) Enjoy Life chocolate chips are not new to me either. However, I’ve been searching high and low for the dark chocolate chips and almost considered buying a pack of nine bags on Amazon. That much chocolate in the house would not have been a good thing, so I’m glad the Target near us stocks this variety. If you’re a fan of dark chocolate, you’ll love baking with these chocolate chips. They’re the perfect amount of sweet…and the perfect amount of addictive.

Well, that’s all I have today! Your turn to share – what are three things you’ve been thinking about/doing this week! If you’re a blogger, write a post and link back to one or all of the hostesses: Raj from Pink Chai Living, Nisha from Love Laugh Mirch, or Salma from The Write Balance. Then share a link to your post (not your blog’s home page).

Thanks for reading!

Dairy-Free Product Discoveries

written by Parita 33 Comments

It’s been exactly 15 days since I started my dairy-free experiment. And I have to be honest, it’s going ok. I haven’t had any major moments of weakness or die-hard cravings. Of course, there’s always a part of me that wishes I never had to experiment in the first place. But it’s all good!

Anyways, I think it’s been going ok because of the great dairy-free product discoveries I’ve made. Of course, there is no good substitute for real cheese, but that’s the name of this game I suppose.

So let’s get started.

My beloved Silk Unsweetened Original Almond Milk

Technically this isn’t a new discovery but whatever. Coming from someone who used to drink 3-4 glasses of cow’s milk for the first 27 years of her life, you have to trust me when I say this stuff is good. BUT you do have to give it a fair chance. It doesn’t taste like regular milk, but when included in smoothies and other foods, you really can’t tell the difference. In fact, a year or so ago, I made our morning protein smoothie using regular cow’s milk and it tasted gross. Vishnu even went as far as saying it made him feel like he was going to vomit (just being honest!). So yeah, this is and has been my favorite dairy-free product for almost three years now. I love it!

SO Delicious Coconut Milk Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert (aka “ice cream)

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already seen me profess my love for this stuff. It’s good. The flavor is absolutely spot on (at least the Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl was), but the texture isn’t as creamy as regular ice cream. But for someone who can’t/isn’t eating dairy, this is a great little find. You may or may not find yourself standing in front of the fridge, spoon and container in hand, swearing to eat only a little bit only to find that you finished off whatever was left. Again, you may or may not find that to be true…

Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds

I love love love cheese. Almost as much as I love chocolate. So I had pretty high (and probably unfair) expectations for this “cheese.” When I tried it straight out of the bag, I didn’t like it at all. But obviously wanting to make it work, I used it later that night on some eggplant “pizzas.” And honestly, it was ok. It melted nicely (almost too nicely) and was gooey in texture. And while it didn’t taste like mozzarella cheese, it had a nice buttery flavor to it. I’m not sure if I’ll be buying this brand again. I think I want to try some other “cheeses” first. Or maybe even make my own. (Please feel free to recommend your favorite “cheese” in the comments section.)

SO Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer

We don’t drink a lot of coffee at home, but when we do, both Vishnu and I like to add a touch of cream to it. And put simply, this creamer does the trick. It doesn’t have an overwhelming coconut flavor to it, it’s thick and creamy…what more do you want!

Cashews

Cashews are obviously not a non-dairy product per se. BUT, when you’re making your own food substitutes at home, this particular nut is great to have on hand. Now, I have to say that cashews are probably my least favorite nut. But for some reason, when soaked and blended together with a bunch of other ingredients, they are the perfect base to delicious sauces and even cheesecakes (I have yet to make a raw cheesecake but have tried Robin’s creations). I made this sauce last week and put it on everything…literally. My favorite way to use it is as a cheese substitute on nachos. SO SO GOOD! I ate said nachos at least five times between last week and this week.

If you have any favorite non-dairy product and/or recipes, PLEASE share in the comments section.

Honest Tea

written by Parita 9 Comments

As with most things that happen to me, my interaction with Honest Tea comes with a story.

After all of our stuff was unloaded into our apartment on moving day, Vishnu and I headed out in search of food. We were so hungry that we didn’t go very far and settled for the empanada place 20 feet from our building. As I was ordering our food, Vishnu picked up a couple of teas for us. We are HUGE cold/iced tea lovers. In fact, Publix unsweetened iced tea is on my shopping list every week without fail. Anyway, when I took my first sip of this new to me Honey Green Tea by Honest Tea, I was impressed with the flavor. It didn’t taste artificial and was perfectly sweetened without being over the top sugary. And it was 70 calories for the entire 16.9 oz. bottle! Vishnu also enjoyed the tea and said that we should look for it the next time we’re out shopping.

Fast forward about a month or so. I was checking my email and saw that I had a message from Matthew at Honest Tea. I was shocked! He wanted to know if Vishnu and I were interested in trying out some of there products and reviewing them on the blog. Interested? Of course! In a weird way, it was as if Honest Tea overheard mine and Vishnu’s conversation and found us!

Fast forward another week or so. Vishnu and I had a number of packages waiting for us upon our arrival home from T&C. I had a feeling that a small shipment of the tea was part of the mix. What I didn’t expect was all of this.

We had to use the building’s cart to get everything up to our place!

We’ve been making our way through everything rather slowly because we don’t want to run out. Ha!

Our favorite products were the bottled teas and ades. So refreshing and light. And because they’re all under 100 calories PER BOTTLE, there’s no real guilt about drinking your calories. Trust me, the Honey Green Tea, Half & Half, and Peach White Tea are all very worth it!

Vishnu’s favorite was the Pomegranate Blue Ade and the Honey Green Tea.

I’m on a mission to find these in bulk. I think one of the grocery stores near us sells Honest Tea…will have to go see this week (fingers crossed).

We were also lucky enough to receive a few different flavors of Honest Fizz, a naturally sweetened zero calorie soda. Bubbly and crisp!

Both Vishnu and I felt that the flavors were pretty spot on. And while we’re not regular soda drinkers, we both enjoyed occasionally drinking these with lunch/dinner. My favorite was the Orange Pop, and Vishnu’s was the Root Beer.

And finally, Honest Tea was kind enough to send us Honest Kids Juice Pouches. Not only did they hear our conversation, but they knew we are really big kids at heart!

There was no shame when it came to drinking these pouches! I’ve enjoyed my fair share while munching away at lunch, and there have been multiple times where Vishnu’s enjoyed a pouch of juice in order to curb a sweet tooth craving. And if we did have kids around, I would happily serve them these pouches – no added sugar and sweetened only with fruit juice. Not too shabby!

And yes, our favorite flavors were the Super Fruit Punch and the Tropical Tango Punch.

One last thing I want to mention is the company’s aspiration around creating healthy, organic beverages all while promoting higher standards, honesty, and integrity in all that they do. I know a lot of companies are good at talking the talk when it comes to this kind of stuff, but from what I can tell, Honest tea is walking the walk (cheesy but true!). Check out some of the reports on the website for more really interesting information.

Thank you again, Honest Tea! We love your products and can’t wait to find them in our local stores!

Have you ever tried an Honest Tea beverage? Is there a particular brand that really resonates not only with your taste buds but your belief system as well?

Ready. Set. Cupcake!

written by Parita 17 Comments

I hope y’all had a wonderful weekend! We did a whole bunch of nothing. Well, I did nothing and Vishnu studied. It was kind of awesome…for me at least. I have a feeling the coming months are going to be super busy, so I’m trying to soak in the nothingness while it lasts.

When I say I did nothing, I don’t mean I sat on my butt and watched TV all weekend (although that would’ve been nice). I cleaned, prepped my tax paperwork, made snacks for the week ahead, and baked cupcakes.

Let’s focus on the best part of that last sentence – cupcakes. As y’all know, I have a HUGE sweet tooth. It’s insane. So when Ready. Set. Cupcake! contacted me a couple of weeks ago to try a sample of their frozen cake batter and buttercream frosting, I was more than willing to oblige!

Ready. Set. Cupcake! is a neat, fun, convenient way to bake delicious desserts. As I mentioned, the cake batter and buttercream come frozen. When you’re ready to bake, you defrost both for 30 minutes, pipe the cake batter directly into your muffin tins, bake, cool, and frost. I didn’t have to use a single bowl or spatula. And I loved that aspect of this product because I hate having to wash measuring cups/spoons, spatulas, multiple bowls, etc. That’s why, if you’ve noticed, when I make my own desserts, I stick to very simple things that don’t require much in the way of utensils. I don’t have the patience for it!

Also, I love that you can customize your desserts. For example, I turned a plain chocolate cupcake with vanilla icing into a chocolate peanut butter cupcake. All I had to do was knead 1/4 cup of peanut butter into the vanilla icing until incorporated. Voila – from plain to peanut butter. Just like that.

And while these may not be healthy in the “I can eat as many as I want” kind of way, the product line is all natural and free of preservatives, trans-fats, and hydrogenated oils. Not too shabby!

Even Vishnu joined in on the fun!

Honestly, Vishnu and I were both a little skeptical about how these would taste. Frozen batter and frosting!? Ick! Well, I am happy to report that our instincts were wrong. We loved the final product! The cupcake was rich, a little dense, and perfectly sweet. The peanut butter frosting was amazing! And that’s saying a lot because I’m not a frosting person and neither is Vishnu. It was sweet, creamy, and thick. I could swim in this stuff!

So while you do end up with a delicious little treat, there are a few potential drawbacks. At this time, Ready. Set. Cupcake! is only available at Whole Food Markets in the Florida region. I’m hoping this changes soon. Also, this product isn’t cheap. I think it retails for about $7. This is probably something I wouldn’t buy on a regular basis. However, I think it’s a great option if you’re looking for a quick, no frills, semi-homemade dessert that tastes decadent and delicious. And finally, since I didn’t have a mini muffin tin, I baked my cupcakes in a regular sized one. According to the package, you should be able to get 24 mini cupcakes out of one bag. I figured 24 minis equaled 12 regulars. Not so much. I was only able to make six regular sized cupcakes. Kind of a bummer! Hey, at least they still tasted great!

Well, my friends, I hope this coming week has some sweet treats in store for you! Have a great Monday.

What do you think of the Ready. Set. Cupcakes! concept?

The Simply Bar Review

written by Parita 10 Comments

First and foremost, thank you so much for the sweet birthday wishes! Each and every comment made me smile and reminded me of how lucky I am to have “met” such awesome people through blogging. So thankful!

* * * * *

A couple of weeks ago, I was on a mission to find the “best” protein bar the marketplace has to offer. To be completely honest, I prefer to get my protein from real foods. However, for those days where lunch doesn’t fill you up or you need a little snack to keep you going until dinner, I think a good wholesome bar is a-okay! This issue was finding one that fit my criteria…

short ingredient list
<200 calories
>8 grams of quality protein
low in sugar

What I didn’t want was a candy bar disguised as a protein bar. I wanted something that I could feel good about eating.

So, I polled my Facebook friends and Greatist family for recommendations. But many of the suggested bars I wanted to try were not available in my local grocery store or Whole Foods. So I continued on with my research. And then I came across The Simply Bar. It honestly sounded too good to be true. Check out the stats…

16 grams of protein
2-4 grams of fat
under 3 grams of sugar
4 grams of fiber
160 calories or less
<10 ingredients per bar

After learning that my local Whole Foods doesn’t carry this brand either, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I emailed the company and asked if they could send me some bars to try in exchange for an honest review on my blog. Bada bing bada boom – a few bars were at my doorstep within days. Gotta love that!

Obviously, I decided to try the Peanut Butter Chocolate bar first. So I packed it with the rest of my food for the day and headed to work. Like clockwork, I felt a little hungry around 3:00 pm so I decided to try the bar and see if it would keep me full until dinner.

Before I get to that, let me just say that these bars remind me of cross between a granola bar and a rice krispy treat. Very soft and chewy. And unlike a lot of the other kinds out there, The Simply Bars are not coated in chocolate. I’m not going to lie, I was a little disappointed at first. However, , like I said before, I’m not looking for a candy bar. And as far as size is concerned, the bars are pretty substantial. It’s not a three bit bar by any means.

Now, to answer the million dollar question – yes, after eating the bar at 3:00 pm, I was NOT hungry until right around dinner time (7:30 pm). Not bad! And I consistently found that to be to be the case with all four bars.

As far as flavor is concerned, the Peanut Butter Chocolate bar was my favorite because it actually tasted like PB + chocolate. The soft, chewy bar was the perfect afternoon snack. My second favorite flavor was the Caramel Peanut. Again, true to its name, the bar had a warm, nutty caramel taste. I’m telling you, both times it was like eating a flavored rice krispy treat! Unfortunately, the Lemon Coconut and the Cinnamon Pecan flavors just didn’t do it for me. The lemon and cinnamon flavors were too overpowering and tasted artificial. But then again, I’m much more of a chocolate/peanut person, so it’s no surprise that I preferred the other two flavors more.

I think these bars are a great option for someone looking to add a little more protein to his/her diet without increasing anything else. I still can’t get over the stats!

Another important point is that these bars are also gluten-free, vegan, and kosher, which makes them pretty perfect for almost any kind of diet.

If you’re like me and searching for a quality protein bar, I definitely recommend you try The Simply Bar to see if it’s for you. And again, I still think the best way to increase protein intake is by eating fresh whole foods. However, this is a great grab and go option that will definitely fill you up.

In other news…

…it’s Friday, and I am ready for the weekend to begin! Have a good one!

Any protein bar recommendations that fit my requirements? Please share!

Sick All Weekend

written by Parita 9 Comments

.I think the title of this post says it all. Both Vishnu and I were sick…all weekend long! No worries though, we’re feeling much better today. I honestly think we just needed a few days to recover from the craziness of the past couple of weeks. Our bodies had enough and needed us to just rest for a little bit.

Needless to say, we didn’t do too much this weekend. Friday night ended up being a movie night. We watched Live Free or Die Hard. I’m usually not a huge fan of predictable action movies, but this one was pretty good. The effects were a tad over the top, but according to Vishnu, that’s what makes for a good action movie. Whatever…yippee-ki-yay.

On Saturday, we both woke up at 8 am only to go back to sleep and really wake up at 11 am. I’m not going to lie. It was nice. However, I do think all that sleep set a rather pathetic stage for the rest of the day. We literally did nothing. Well, maybe not nothing. I did manage to get a workout in. And I made us a little pre-dinner treat with my new blender (recipe coming soon). Other than that we did nothing but sit on our butts and watch four episodes of The West Wing.

Jillian Michaels and her No More Trouble Zones DVD kicked my butt

What looks like nasty brown goop is actually a delicious dark chocolate frosty treat

After an unproductive two days, I was determined to make the most of Sunday. We got up (throats still a little sore), cleaned, and went grocery shopping. At the farmer’s market we found the world’s biggest apple (or what we thought was the world’s biggest apple)…

It was honestly HUGE.

We also found a new to us fruit…star fruit. It tastes like a cross between a really crisp apple and grapes. Vishnu was a huge fan and suggested making it into a drink of some kind next time.

Well, that’s all I got. I’m hoping for a cough and sneeze free week. Finger crossed!

Have a great Monday!

Three Things Thursday (21)

Three Things Thursday (17) – Food Finds

Dairy-Free Product Discoveries

Honest Tea

Ready. Set. Cupcake!

The Simply Bar Review

Sick All Weekend

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