Product Review Skinny Pasta

In my quest to cut down on carbs and calories, I decided to try Skinny Pasta.  It comes in a bag, pre-cooked that you strain, then heat in the microwave for two minutes.  

A bag comes with a really generous portion. Boasting just 4.5 calories and 2g of carbs per serving, a bag has two servings or one big one.  Just add your favorite sauce and protein for a meal.  

It started to sound almost too good to be true.  At under $5.00 per serving, it really sounded much too good to be true.  It had good reviews, so I ordered the sampler pack of six bags to try.

It needed a little salt, but after that, the taste was really good. The texture is a little different from regular semolina pasta.  It's soft and has a good bite to it, but it's still a different texture that's different from al dente.  It's not bad, just different.  It doesn't have that almost airy texture that perfectly prepared al denta semolina pasta has.  

Its basic ingredient is Konjac, an Asian plant with a tubular root that is cooked to create a type of gelatin that can be shaped into different kinds of pasta.  

A same-size serving of traditional semolina pasta is 200 calories and 42g of carbs, so Skinny Pasta's 5 calories and 2g of carbs is quite a difference.  For me, it's worth the difference in texture.

Available at Amazon using the link below.  

https://amzn.to/46Ma9Hg

Factor 75 Roasted Red Pepper Filet Mignon

Roasted Red Pepper Filet Mignon with Tortellini Primavera & Lemon Garlic Butter

This is a really good one.  They charge an extra $9, but it'd be twice that at a restaurant.  

You get a six-ounce filet, seared on the grill, then finished in the oven and served over a bed of roasted red peppers (bell peppers) with garlic.  Green and Red Bell Peppers are the same plants, but the red ones were allowed to ripen on the vine, giving them a more complex flavor.

The tortellini I really wish they'd serve just by themselves.  It was so good.  Served with a generous portion of herb butter spinach on top, this pasta could be a meal all by itself.  The pasta is made with brown rice flour to cut back on carbs.  I've yet to see them serve pasta made with semolina flour.

The only real drawback I can see is that you don't get to choose your cooking temperature on the steak, and I usually like mine rare to medium-rare, and this came medium-well.    The extra cooking time didn't damage the taste or the texture of the beef, though.  It was almost tender enough to cut with a fork. 

Nutrition Per Serving
Calories                    570kcal
Fat                            32g
Saturated Fat            12g
Carbohydrate            27g
Sugar                        6
Dietary Fiber            4g
Protein                    42g
Cholesterol            155mg
Sodium                    780mg

Use my link when ordering from Factor 75 and get a significant discount.

https://www.factor75.com/plans?locale=en-US&c=HS-26VKT8M3A&utm_campaign=clipboard&utm_source=raf-share&utm_medium=referral

Factor 75 Summer Squash Medly

 Summer Squash Medley with Pimento Cheese & Roasted Asparagus

This is one of my favorite meals yet, and check out the 120 calories.  It comes with a generous portion of Zucchini and yellow squash topped with a really tangy pimento cheese sauce.  They really don't skimp with the portions.  This meal weighed in at a respectable 11 ounces.   Freezing and canning squash can ruin its texture, but these have never been frozen or canned, so they still have that farmers market fresh texture.  There's a healthy portion of chopped asparagus with herb butter sauce.  

Not vegan, but vegetarian, this meal is a little low on protein, so pair it with a chicken breast. All the other nutritional numbers look great!

Nutrition Per Serving

Calories                120kcal
Fat                        10g
Saturated Fat        4g
Carbohydrate        5g
Sugar                    3g
Dietary Fiber        2g
Protein                3g
Cholesterol           15mg
Sodium                190mg

Use my link to get a great discount

https://www.factor75.com/plans?locale=en-US&c=HS-26VKT8M3A&utm_campaign=clipboard&utm_source=raf-share&utm_medium=referral

Mushroom, Tomato & Goat Cheese Cavatappi

 Mushroom, Tomato & Goat Cheese Cavatappi with Herb-Roasted Zucchini

Tonight's meal is a meatless selection from Factor 75.  It’s vegetarian, not vegan; it’s also my favorite so far.

Done well, I prefer good mushrooms to medium-quality meat, and these were done well.  This is the second dish I’ve gotten served over a cauliflower-based cavatappi, again trying to make your carbs count.  If you’re shooting for less than 300g of carbs per day, this entire meal is only 44g.

Goat cheese is a factor in weight loss in that it’s digested more easily than cow’s cheese.  It can also have the effect of making you feel more full than cow’s milk cheese.   The main reason to use goat cheese, though, is its tangy fresh goodness.  I’d put goat cheese on anything.

This is the second time I’ve had a dish with their Herb-Roasted Zucchini as a side.  Side dishes can be carb and fat bombs, Factor 75 wisely spends those calories in the main dish while making the side dish still very enjoyable.  It might have been on two meals this week because zucchini is in season.  Using seasonal vegetables is a very good sign.  

With good mastication, it took about thirty minutes to prepare and eat tonight’s meal.  That’s two minutes for heating and twenty-eight for enjoying.  With wine and a dinner partner, this could easily stretch to an hour.  At 440 calories and a good time, you can’t go wrong.

Nutrition Per Serving Per Serving

Calories         440kcal
Fat         23g
Saturated Fat 12g
Carbohydrate 44g
Sugar 13g
Dietary Fiber 6g
Protein 15g
Cholesterol 105mg
Sodium         890mg

I have been heating up flavorful, filling food with Factor for some time now, and I thought you’d want in too. Sign-up with my personal link and you will get up to $150 off your first boxes. 

https://www.factor75.com/plans?locale=en-US&c=HS-26VKT8M3A&utm_campaign=clipboard&utm_source=raf-share&utm_medium=referral

Factor 75 Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Fusilli

Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Fusilli with Italian Herb-Roasted Zucchini

One thing I've noticed about the Factor 75 foods is they really like to be flexible and creative with the pasta they use.  Fusilli is a spiral-shaped Italian pasta.  Pasta is made in different shapes because increasing the surface area gives more places for the sauce to cling, increasing your flavor profile. This particular dish uses Lentil flour to make its pasta rather than wheat flower.  Lentils are tiny beans, and they make pasta with the same texture as wheat pasta but with more protein and more fiber, basically more bang for your carbs.

You get about 2/3 of a boneless, skinless chicken breast cut up into the dish.  You don't miss having more chicken as it's about eight ounces of food.  It's seasoned with basil, oregano, and garlic and then covered in a generous portion of the cream, sun-dried tomato sauce.  

Like with my last review, the zucchini side dish was generous.  Normally you'd expect chefs to just load it down with salt and butter and call it a day, but since they're choosing to spend their fat ounces on the main entry, there's hardly any fat at all, so they make up for it by really developing a garlic-centered flavor profile.  It's a generous portion and really very good.

They recommend you not freeze your meals, although you could.  From a cold but not frozen state, they recommend you microwave it for two minutes, which gets the meal very warm, almost too hot to take the cover off, but doesn't overcook the pasta or the meat.

Summary: Of the two meals I've reviewed so far, this was my second favorite, but still very good.  I'd have no problem serving this to an important guest.  It's flavorful and filling and under 500 calories, which is important to me.  You get 28 grams of protein, which is just two grams less than a Premier Protein shake.  

     Nutrition
1 serving - 12.4 total ounces.  

Calories            490
Fat                    27g
Saturated Fat    12g
Carbohydrate    36g
Sugar                9g
Dietary Fiber    6g
Protein              28g
Cholesterol      130mg
Sodium            900mg

Sign up with Factor 75 with this link for a generous discount

Factor 75 Cavatappi & Italian Pork Ragu

 This is my first meal with the Factor75 program. The meals come cold but unfrozen in a box, a week's worth at a time. I chose the “calorie smart” and “protein plus” menus. I’m starting with the six-meals-per-week plan. There are several other options. With shipping, that’s $98.37 for six meals, $16.40 per meal.

Tonight's meal was cavatappi, which is a type of spiral pasta, and Italian pork ragu with steamed broccoli. The meals come in plastic trays with two wells. It’s hard to gauge the size of the portions from looking at the trays because the wells are pretty deep. The portions were generous, though, and by the time I finished eating both wells, I was pretty full.

The meal was 490 calories, with 26g of fat, 23g of protein, and 43g of total carbs. If you’re using Noom, it’s already listed in the meal options.

This is their image. I’ll start making my own as I write more of these.

Microwave pasta isn’t always great, but this was perfect. The Ragu was flavorful but not too meaty. I guess they have to do a balancing act to keep the calories at their goal. It ended up being a generous portion. I was full when I finished it.

The steamed broccoli was steamed broccoli. They had a garlic sauce with a little butter, which I would have preferred a whole bunch of butter, but they’re trying to economize calories, and so am I. Green vegetables like this cost almost nothing on Noom, so I could have eaten three times as much without going over my budget, but what they sent was more than adequate.

For $14 and two minutes in the microwave, I’d say it’s worth it. That’s less than I’d spend at a restaurant for about the same quality, and more than I’d spend at a fast food place, with much greater quality.

They made a real effort to make sure their shipping boxes were recyclable and biodegradable, so maybe the meal trays are next.

Use this link and get a $150 discount on Factor75 food.  

Product Review: Jean Jacket

PRIJOUHE Men's Denim Vest 

I mainly wanted this as a light jacket with lots of pockets.  I tend to carry a lot of stuff, and the inside pockets on this vest are gigantic.  I can fit my phone, gloves, a bottle of water, handkerchiefs, and more in them.

It has two side pockets, a breast pocket, and two really large inside pockets.  Wearing this is like Batman's utility belt.  

The denim is really heavy and durable.  It comes in a whopping 24 color styles (I got black) and sizes small to 5X.  They also offer the same jacket with sleeves, but in Mississippi, sleeves aren't that practical. 

Available on Amazon

 

My Little French Press

 

I really like my French Press.  It makes just one cup of coffee.  It comes in black or pink, and they also have a two-cup model.

A French press is a little more work than a Keurig or drip coffee maker, but it makes a superior cup of coffee.  I use two tablespoons of coffee to make a 12-ounce cup of coffee.  The ritual is part of my mornings.  

  Available on Amazon

Pink Salt

The sun's all the way up at 6:00 am.  You sure can tell it's summer.

Me and Feist-dog are heading to church.  I ordered some gourmet salt from Amazon last week, and they sent me an entire case.  When I inquired about what I should do with the extra six bottles, the Amazon lady said I should keep them no extra charge.  Hopefully, my sister will be at church.  I'm gonna try to unload one on her.  

Pink Salt Grinder - Amazon