The Lazy Vegan

I’m beginning to think that I need to get my eyes checked.  Every snack I’ve bought over the last couple of weeks appears to be smaller.  Is this a sign of the bad economic times we’re in?  Shrinking food?

Case in point, Nature Valley bars.  A year ago, they seemed to be longer and thicker.  I could eat one bar and feel satisfied.  The bars are shorter and thinner now.  When I eat one, I’m already reaching for the second.

Though they are shrinking, they seem to have the same amount of sugar and sodium.  How the heck does that work?

It’s not just Nature Valley bars.  I’ve noticed it with others stuff.  I’m not sure if they don’t changed their packaging or they add something to the mix that fluffs up the weight and makes it appear to be the same size.  Either way, they price hasn’t come down and it makes me feel like I’ve been cheated.

I bought a bag of the Uncle Ben’s Garden Vegetable Ready Rice. It proclaims “with peas, carrots, and corn”.

I didn’t really read the nutritional facts until I got it home.  Woah! 830 milligrams of sodium per serving, two servings per bag.  That wasn’t going to do!  I had some rice already made, so I mixed the two together.  At least, that cut the sodium level down.

I’m glad that I made vegetables to go with it.  I think there were 5 carrot pieces, 4 peas, and about 8 corn kernels in my serving.  Uncle Ben’s garden must be really wimpy if this is all that it can produce.

It was a tasty bag of rice without a plasticky taste.  It cooked well.  But, it had way too much sodium and didn’t live up to the Garden Vegetable name.  More vegetables, Uncle Ben!

I noticed that Target had a few varieties of Uncle Ben’s Ready to Serve Rice Mixes.  I bought a couple to test them out.

The first one I made was the “Whole Grain Brown Rice”.  It has no fat and only 15 mg. of sodium.  It cooked well.  The rice had that steamed texture and wasn’t clumpy.

The only thing I didn’t like is it’s mixed with oil.  Why do people cook rice with oil?  It makes it, well, oily.  The first night I ate it that way.  The second night I mixed it with Kashi Original Pilaf.  That worked well.  The rice texture was no longer oily.

Target only has 3 varieties, but I see on the Uncle Ben’s website that they sell many different types like Garden Vegetable, Jasmine, and Basmati.  I will probably buy more, but it will be something that I’ll mix with something else.  The oily texture is a turn off.