Nibble Boxes: Graze Box #3

Received my 3rd Graze box on Friday yet I was sick over the weekend and couldn't enjoy it. Now that I'm feeling slightly better, it's time to dig in!

Boston Baguettes with a BBQ Relish
So far I'm 1-1 with these dippers. First thing I notice when I open up the pack is that the "baguettes" have some sort of dry rub on them. My automatic thought was that the BBQ Relish had spilled over but that's definitely not what happened. I had to look at the website to find out they're actually tomato baguettes. The dip is very tasty, it's a sweet BBQ that has chunks in it. Yet the chunks aren't great as I ended up not having enough dip for my dippers because big chunks kept attaching to the dippers! Which wasn't too bad of a thing as the dippers themselves are tasty with the tomato seasoning on it.

Scandinavian Forest (lingonberries, blueberries, cherry raisins, apple)
First thing that I notice is that there are 4 ingredients in this one whereas usually there are up to 3. Awesome! I'm also surprised that all of the fruit is still moist, I was expecting dried fruit only. Yet everything is nice and plump. Even the tiny ligonberries, which is great since I'm honestly not sure if I've tried them before or not. In this small a quantity it's hard to really gauge what they'd taste like in a normal meal. I know they're a Scandinavian staple for cuisine (especially jam, it seems) which explains the name. This is a very delicious fruit combination that actually is good eaten mixed versus individual sampling. Oddly enough, when eating them this way, the ligonberries really shine through and you can really taste them!

Jalapeno Fiesta (jalapeno peanuts, salsa almonds, roasted seeds)
This smells delicious! Reminds me of what a typical Mexican bar mix would be like. The spices on the nuts are not too strong so you can't enjoy the taste of the nuts while enjoying the flavors, which is great. The roasted seeds are a mixture of sunflower and pumpkin seeds. As with other similar snacks they become coated in the spices of both the salsa and jalapeno.

Honeycomb Crunch (milk chocolate honeycomb, almonds, raisin)
I have no clue how almonds and raisins relate to honeycomb. Not complaining, just find the combo a bit strange. The milk chocolate honeycomb, as expected, was amazing. They're basically a bite sized version of Esther Price and I only wish there was more of it. Mmmm!

Quick Tasty Food: Salsa Chicken Pasta

Who doesn't love salsa? Who doesn't love chicken? ... Ok, not everyone likes them. Obviously those people won't like this recipe. I, on the other, loved this random creation. I had the brilliant idea to marinate chicken in salsa. I grabbed a Hot Salsa from Whole Foods that was on sale and then grabbed a pound of chicken. Cut the chicken up into pieces (I went for half inch cubes). Cover the chicken in the salsa and marinate. How long? Depends. I sort of forgot about it so it marinated for almost 2 days and turned out great. In other words, marinate for however long you think is adequate, with at least a suggestion of an hour.

I then dumped the chicken and salsa in a skillet set to medium heat. I also decided to make some pasta so I had a small pot going of that. After a few minutes, turn the chicken pieces to make sure both sides cook. Once the pasta was done, I added it to the chicken salsa.

I also decided it needed more veggies than what was in the salsa. I wanted to go with a can of corn but all I had was cream corn which likely would not have been very great addition. Thus, I went with French style green beans. Dump the whole can (drained, of course) in with the chicken salsa pasta.

After that I realized that I likely made the wrong choice with the hot salsa as there was a definite spicy smell coming from the skillet. I added maybe a half cup of Mexican cheese, yet you can obviously go with whatever cheese you want. I just had some Mexican on hand because I had planned to make some Taco Cupcakes.

And it does make a lot. I ate this for 1 dinner and 2 lunches, feeling satisfied each meal.

You can also make several variations of those. You can make it "traditional" by using pasta sauce instead of salsa. Add more veggies or don't add veggies at all. Cutting carbs, don't add the pasta. Yada yada yada, on it goes.

You can also take just the salsa chicken and make it into loaded nachos by cutting the chicken up into smaller pieces and serving it over nachos with whatever other regular nacho additions you want. This is actually a great idea I may have to make at some point. Hmmm....

Review - Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cups

I had heard about the Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cups a month or two ago but forgot all about them. Until today when I finally found them, that is. I was surprised to see them at the Circle K by work. I greedily grabbed 2 packs, wanting to eat them right away in the morning but knowing I should wait. Will power at it's finest!

Once I finally had the chance to gobble them up, it was perfect. First, to describe the look. They are obviously intended to mirror Reese's Peanut Butter Cups:

• two to a pack
• surrounded in small cardboard to protect the cups
• the cups themselves are bite-size
• they have ridges
• same look and feel

Yet there are a few differences:

• square cups instead of circular
• no pesky paper wrapper that usually removes a chunk of the bottom layer of chocolate
• one downside is that they aren't as thick as Reese's Cups

 

Biting into them, they are delicious! The center is softer with the grit, yet you do have a slight crunch from time to time. It's unlike biting into a Butterfinger Bar which is all crunch, these have just a tiny crunch amid the smooth peanut butter center. I am surprised that the color of the center matches that of the Butterfinger Bar. Looking at the ingredients, I guess it's the annatto paprika extract color since there aren't any food colors used. It also obviously tasted like a Butterfinger Bar!

I hope these stay around, wouldn't mind seeing them become as popular as Reese's Cups. Only time will tell!

Nibble Boxes: Graze Box #2

Received my second Graze box in the mail the other day. Been way too busy to even dive into it so I'm excited to snack on the goodies. As with the lost box, I got a small packet with notes about what the company does for charity and it included a few "friend invites". So if anyone is interested in joining, let me know as I've got a few to give out.

A very good variety this box. My first "flapjacks" from them, I am intrigued to see what the consistency is (looks like a soft granola bar). The last "dip & dippers" I got from Graze was not that great yet it was due to me not liking the sauce itself. This one I'm very excited to try and predict I'll love this one. Then rounding out the order are 2 "healthy treats" which are mainly fruit based.

My Thai (sweet chili sauce with baked soy bites)

Ok, this was amazing! The sauce is very viscous so the soy bites get covered in it when you dip them. The dip was very, very good! It was a normal sweet chili sauce so there wasn't a big surprise to me. Had the touch of sweet taste with the slight burn aftertaste. The dippers themselves go very well with this as they aren't too powerful of a taste to distract you from the dip. I can see myself eating those dippers plain as a normal snack. The only problem I had was that half of the dippers broke apart in shipping, so I had small bits left over that were difficult to get the dip. After eating all the pieces I could easily dip, I just tipped the leftover dipper crumbs into the remaining dip and ate it with a spoon. It would be awesome to get a box comprised of 4 of these, they were THAT tasty!

Scrumptious Blueberry Swirl (blueberry yogurt raisins, raspberry infused cranberries, and blackcurrants)

An interesting mix and it is indeed scrumptious! The blueberry yogurt raisins have a nice blueberry flavor, yet they're not strong in raisin taste or texture. I actually had to bite one in half to see if it actually had raisins as all I tasted were the blueberry and vanilla yogurt. Which isn't a bad thing, just something I found interesting. The "raspberry infused cranberries" are great yet I am a bit confused as to where the raspberry is since the ingredient list says "elderberry juice concentrate" with no mention of raspberry. Guess people wouldn't be excited to try it if was called "elderberry infused cranberries," huh? Still tastes great even if it wasn't really raspberry infused. Only problem I had with this mix is the blackcurrants were a bit bitter compared to the other 2 items. If you eat a handful, you KNOW when you're chomping on a blackcurrant. Not that it's really a bad thing, I just don't feel it really meshes well with the mix. It could also be my batch had a strong dose of the lemon juice concentrate they were soaked in. 

Fruit & Seed Flapjack (rustic rolled oat flapjack with mixed seeds and dried fruits)

This was nice and soft, a bit springy to the touch. It definitely leaves you with a satisfied feeling, likely due to the oats. It had a big buttery flavor yet looking at the ingredients it's margarine instead. Guessing margarine was used instead of butter to make it vegan. I honestly felt the butter taste was a bit too strong for my liking, but I do have peculiar tastes so I don't think anyone else would notice. The mixed fruit and seed content was nice and eclectic, comprised of apricots, dates, currants, raisins, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds. I'm excited to get some of the other flapjacks, especially since I considered this to be most "simple" of the flavors. 

Eleanor's Apple Crumble (apple, raisins, cinnamon honey almonds)

I'm surprised by how great this! I was expecting a normal mix, something I've had hundreds of times yet this one actually surprised me. The raisins aren't the normal raisins everyone is used to, I'm guessing these are golden raisins as they are plumper and more moist than normal dark raisins. I was expecting the apple pieces to be like the chips, where they are hard and crispy. Nope, these are soft and moist so they work well with the raisins. The cinnamon honey almonds aren't anything new but the cinnamon is powerful here. Usually when you get these types of almonds the shell is more honey tasting than cinnamon, yet these are a good mix. This mix is pretty much the perfect thing for me to eat before drinking the Trader Joe's Vanilla & Cinnamon Black Tea that's waiting to be drunk.

Recipe: Dismembered Gingerbread Man Cheesecake

I found a recipe which describes how to create a Gingerbread House Demolition Cheesecake. I decided to try my hand at it with a different type of cheesecake, using the basis of the recipe as a starting point. Instead of using a gingerbread house, I bought a large gingerbread man at the store to decorate.

I forgot to take a "before" but remembered to take a dismembered picture.

After letting him live for a night, with a heavy heart, I dismembered him into small pieces. Then I ground it up in a small Cuisinart food processor, edible decorations and all. You want it to be finely chopped to get rid of all the candy chunks. Sadly I don't have a normal size food processor so the one I had was lacking in power. While it had no problem grinding up the gingerbread and the peppermint candies, the jelly candies were too tiny for my already small blades. It thinned them out a bit forcing me to take a pair of scissors and cut them up into small pieces. I think if they had been normal sized jelly candies (such as Chuckles) then the food processor would have had an easier time taking care of them. Not sure if a normal food processor would have the might to take care of them.

Candies and all!

To make the crust, I took about a cup and a half of the crumbs/powder and mixed that with a third cup of melted butter. When I make cheesecakes, I only coat the bottom of the pan and leave the sides bare. If you want to coat the sides, I'd likely increase it to 2 and a quarter cups of the crumbs and half a cup of melted butter.

You can see the tiny bits of peppermints and jellies.

Then I decided to spruce up the crust a bit more. I used Trader Joe's Cinnamon & Sugar Grinder to coat the crust with some extra spices. Then I made a small bit of glaze icing and drizzled that over the bottom. I baked it at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Take it out and let it cool.

Mmmm!

As for the cheesecake, I decide to whip together a vanilla spice cheesecake to complement the gingerbread crust:
Three 8 oz cream cheese packages, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 scant tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 eggs, room temperature, lightly beat

Mix the cream cheese until it is smooth, then mix in the sugar. I actually had some homemade vanilla sugar laying around so I used that for an extra taste. Once the sugar is blended completely with the cream cheese, I mixed in the pumpkin pie spice. Honestly, only reason I used pumpkin pie spice is because I homemade a cup of it and had a bit leftover and figured it would work here. Then mix in the vanilla extra. I also homemade my own vanilla extract which is why I have no problem using a large amount, if a tablespoon is too much you can use 2 teaspoons of it. Finally slowly mix in the eggs. It's important to not incorporate too much air into the mixture so mix on slow until well blended. If you mix on high then the cheesecake will come out too puffed up with air, almost doubled in size. If you feel the mixture is too thick, you can always add in a splash of milk to thin it out a bit.

Pour the mixture over the cooled gingerbread crust and you're ready to bake. You can bake it in a water bath (wrap you pan in foil and submerge in an inch of boiling water while you bake), place it on a baking sheet, straight on the rack, use bake even strips, wrap a damp dish towel around it, etc. Normally I'd bake in a water bath but today I just went with it on a baking sheet. Bake for about 35 minutes or until there is only an inch of jiggle in the middle. Don't bake until it is completely set as that is too long, the cheesecake will continue to set after you've pulled it out of the oven so you want it to be still firm but jiggly in the center.

I stupidly forgot to take an after picture. I planned to take a picture of a slice yet it was gone before I really could. Guess that's good, huh?

After I let it cool, time to decorate! There are many different ways to decorate:
- Sprinkled some of the remaining gingerbread crumbs (this is what I did)
-Dress it like a gingerbread man with more jelly candies and icing
-Whipped cream
-Thin coating of vanilla pudding

Nibble Boxes: Nibblr Box #1

Yesterday I got my first Nibblr box in the mail. I actually got an email the night before letting me know to expect it in the mail, which was pretty helpful. Whereas Graze is a square, this is a rectangle with a much more decorative box. Yet unlike Graze's recyclable/compostable/whatever box, this box doesn't appear to be. Yet graphically it is far superior!

As with the Graze box, this came with an insert. Again, graphically this insert is much better. In fact, it's a fold-out poster of "Life's Too Short to Be Hangry" by Dana Tanamachi with a bio of the artist. One thing that I appreciate about this insert is that it has a handwritten note!

The snacks themselves are just like Graze, individual packs that contain the name as well as nutrition info on the box. There is a "use by" date for each snack as well as weight. Same with Graze, the weight varies from 0.95 oz/27 grams to 1.45 oz/41 grams (and as with Graze, the heaviest item is the more "junky" item).

Sesa-Me & You (sesame honey almond)
Very tasty! It's similar to other honey glazed nuts. It's simply almonds with a hardened honey glaze then rolled in sesame seed bits. The only thing I wasn't too thrilled about was the fact that sugar was the #1 ingredient. I expected almonds (or honey) but it's sugar. Other than that, it definitely a great snack!

Ale House Blend (brazilian steakhouse peanut crackers, corn nuts, and mini pretzel)
It's been a very long time since I had any corn nuts. I'm not the biggest fan of them but they're not bad. They do work in this mix, a perfect fit! The mini pretzels were slightly salted and, well, they're mini pretzels. Not much else to report. The "brazilian steakhouse peanut crackers" were peanuts encased in a spicy cracker shell. So you had the very slight hint of strong spices to mix with all the salt. Obviously being "ale house" I expected it to be salted (since the whole purpose is to get you to buy more drinks) and the name was exact. It wasn't too salty but it was salty enough to make me thirsty.

My Ipanema Love (banana chips, currants, brazil nuts)
From Wikipedia, "Ipanema is a neighborhood located in the South Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil." I've heard the name before but honestly didn't know much about it. Now I know! As for the mix itself, it's WYSYG (what you see is what you get). No extra spices or anything, just a simple fruit and nut mix. It went together pretty well, but I was disappointed to only have 1.75 brazil nuts (yeah, one of them had a quarter missing off of it). So besides getting fewer nuts than I wanted, I enjoyed it.

PB Graham (peanuts, peanut wafer, graham cookies)
Lot of peanut flavor here! The peanut portion is the majority of the mix which is expected, but the peanuts are unroasted and unsalted. The graham cookies matched well here. The peanut wafer is basically a disc of sugary peanut butter (think those peanut butter chips used in cookies melted into a disc). Obviously that was the most delicious part of the mix! Overall I think it would have been better if the peanuts were roasted and salted. I can also see using this mixture in chocolate for "peanut butter chocolate bark". Hmmm...may have to whip up a recipe for that!

Nibble Boxes: Graze Box #1

The other week I decided to join a subscription program called Graze, which mails you a box of 4 "healthy" snacks. Obviously they're not tasteless healthy, but instead healthier snacks which taste great. These types of boxes are called nibble boxes.

With Graze, there are 100 different types of snacks they have to get. You don't explicitly choose what you're going to get but you can rate the various snacks available on a 4 option scale of "do not send" up to "I want this snack more frequently". Almost all the snacks to choose from sounded delicious but I knew I wanted to try new items so I selected about a fifth of the options as "do not send". You can always change how you rate the items, in fact they encourage you to always update based on what you like and don't like from what you try.

I got my first box this week, so it took them only a week to get it to me. It's a nice size box 9.5 inches by 6.5 inches so it could fit in your mailbox. All the snacks are in a plastic container so if it doesn't fit in the mailbox it will still be protected. In it is a welcome note introducing me to the company and some other notes. On the back of the note is the nutrition facts for the 4 snacks in the box which also includes weight and "best by" dates. They're 28 grams (0.99oz) up to 41 grams (1.4oz). The "best by" range is pretty good, going from 4 weeks all the way up to 20 weeks. Not that I honestly expect any of these to last that long!

Chili and Lime Pistachios
It didn't look like a lot but about halfway through I realized it was actually quite filling, which surprised me. The pistachios tasted like the name suggests with hints of lime and chili. The chili isn't too overpowering but you can still feel the slight tingle of chili on the tip of the tongue, while the hint of lime is soothing. This was a very well done combination!

Brooklyn Bites (poppyseed pretzels, cheese cashews, roasted pumpkin seeds)
I tried this one-by-one so I could get an accurate taste of each piece. The poppyseed pretzels were ok but nothing outstanding. I honestly found they lacked taste since majority of the poppyseeds were scraped off in the container due to friction. I still enjoyed them, just not as much as I hoped. The cheese cashews, though, were fantastic! It has a cheesy rub on it that isn't too powerful but still has an adequate cheese taste. The roasted pumpkin seeds actually picked up the flavor of the cheese rub and also were attached to a few of the rubbed off poppyseeds giving them an extra "oomph" taste.

Smoky Gazpacho with Wholemeal Crisp Bread Slices
I've never had gazpacho before so I was hesitant about this one. It was...ok. It had a smoky flavor for sure, and I couldn't exactly comprehend the taste of the gazpacho. Tomato of course with strong onion and a hint of garlic. I don't know if I'd want this again. Not that was bad, just not as tasty as I want. Maybe I just need to get used to it.



Florentine (Belgian dark chocolate, cranberries, pumpkin seeds)
This is likely one that should have been "too normal" for me to get, but I did salivate at thinking of this combo. Well this was quite amazing! Obviously looking at the ingredients it's not hard to tell why. Chocolate, cranberries, and pumpkin seeds? Delicious! The chocolate discs were nice size and perfect for scooping up some cranberries and pumpkin seeds. I'm glad this one was the heaviest of the bunch.

Overall I thought this was a good introduction to nibble boxes. Had an eclectic mix of snacks including things I had never tried before. I also signed up for Nibblr which is almost the exact same thing, I should get that box at some point soon. I actually signed up there before I signed up for Graze, so I'm surprised I don't have it yet. Once I get that I'll make a post, then in 2 weeks once I get my next Graze box I'll make a post for that.

Quick Tasty Food: Naan Pizza

I love naan and find it very versatile. My favorite use is to make pizza with it. One single leaf of naan is perfect for a personal pizza and you can top it with anything a normal pizza has. And naan is much healthier than normal dough and (in my opinion) better quality.

Tonight, for example, I made a BBQ Chicken Naan Pizza. The other day I got a rotisserie chicken to eat throughout the week ($6 is a great deal for all the meat you can get off it, just takes patience to rip it to pieces). Take some chicken, mix it with a bit of sauce (tonight I went with a variety of Sriracha, Sweet BBQ, and Light Blue Cheese Dressing). Chop up some veggies that work with the type you're going with (red onions and celery go perfect with BBQ Chicken). Sprinkle a bit of cheese (Italian Five Cheese was great but I used it up on my last naan pizza, so today I went with slices of Swiss that I chopped up to resemble shredded cheese). Bake it at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until it's as done as you want (I like it crispy but soft). Voila, you have a naan pizza!

Other varieties:
- Reddit user gamergrl1018 suggested a Martguerita naan pizza with olive oil, garlic, thyme, fresh basil, tomato, and mozzarella
- Cincinnati Chili with oyster crackers and cheddar cheese; can add in onions and beans or chopped up hot dogs
- Hawaiian with pineapple chunks and capicola ham/Canadian bacon; can add on onions