August Food Reviews

Hi Gang!

I hope everyone is having a good week. Today I am back with my August Food Reviews!

First up the Recipe Reviews!

Shepherd’s Pie

Once a week, my mom watches my daughter for me while I’m at work. I typically use the night that she is at my house late to make a slightly more elaborate dinner to show her my gratitude. So when I had been craving Shepherd’s Pie for days I decided to make it on a day that she would be staying for dinner.

It was kind of strange for me to want Shepherd’s Pie because I usually never want it and I’m good with eating it, maybe, once a year. This is mostly due to the fact that I find it to be a pretty bland meal. Some people make it literally with just potatoes, corn, and hamburger and it’s so basic and blah!!

So in an effort to avoid making any lousy, weak-tasting meal, I decided to google around for some Shepherd’s Pie recipes. After looking up a few, I decided to try Alton Brown’s recipe up on Food Network.com.This recipe calls for a lot of ingredients and seemed a bit labor intensive, but I’m willing to work harder for delicious food, so I made sure I had all ingredients on hand and got to work making this!

The only change I made to this recipe is that I substituted the ground lamb for just regular ground beef because 1. I had no idea if Market Basket carried lamb and didn’t feel like asking and 2. I’ve never had lamb, so why try it now!? I know that is the traditional way of making old school Irish Shepherd’s Pie, but since it’s 2019 I’m using beef!

This recipe did take a long time to make and I don’t think we ended up eating until around 7pm, but it was so worth it! It was definitely the best tasting Shepherd’s Pie I’ve ever had and my mom was raving about it, too. A lot of times I make a recipe and then think in my head while I’m eating how I should change this or that, but Alton Brown hit it out of the park with the mix of vegetables and seasonings and I don’t think any changes need to be made. I’ll never be making bland old Shepherd’s Pie again! This is comfort food at it’s best – I highly recommend this recipe!

And now a few pics!

Zucchini Boats

A throwback meal from my childhood! Since it’s zucchini season I found some on sale at the grocery store and decided to make an old favorite: zucchini boats!

I used this recipe from Taste of Home and this meal came out quite tasty! This dish was really flavorful and felt pretty healthy at the same time! The filling has a good mix of vegetables and the ketchup adds a sweet tomato flavor. The shredded cheese is the cherry on top and just completes the whole meal!

The only thing that I would change in this recipe would be to boil the zucchini pieces first for maybe 5-10 minutes before roasting in the oven with everything on top. This wasn’t in the directions (which I found kind of surprising) and the end result was that even though I kept them cooking in the oven 10 minutes longer than the recommended time, the zucchini was still a little al denté. It was totally fine to eat, but I would prefer for them to be cooked a little more and would boil first when making this next time!

Food Reviews!

Herr’s Grill Mates Smokehouse Maple Potato Chips

Ok hold the phone – these are SO good!!! I picked these up at Market Basket on a whim thinking they might be tasty because I like most maple flavored foods, but these really surpassed my expectations.

The combination of sweet maple mixed with salt, plus a little added heat from the smokehouse flavor and wow – you have a phenomenal chip! I don’t usually like anything spicy and these have a slight kick to them, but the mix of flavors just pops in your mouth and works!

What makes these chips even better is the delightful crunch that Herr’s ripple chips have. These are way better than most chip flavors that I’ve tried lately. I would put these up there with my favorite chips of all time along with Lay’s Dill Pickle and Ruffles All Dressed. A+++

If you like anything maple flavored or even just a sweet & salty combo, then definitely try these out!

New York Bakery Texas Toast Dip’n Sticks

Anyone who knows me fairly well knows that I looooove bread and especially garlic bread. I eat garlic bread pretty regularly because anytime that I make spaghetti, chicken parm, or any Italian meal, I have to have it. Therefore, I always have Texas Toast in my freezer!

I was shopping one day and I saw these Dip’n Sticks in the freezer case next to the Texas Toast and I decided to try these out. I absolutely love bread sticks from Domino’s or wherever – I mean, who doesn’t?! So I was hoping to avoid having to buy those ever again by New York Bakery coming through with a delicious frozen option available at all grocery stores.

Well unfortunately, I will still be buying Domino’s breadsticks because these were a big disappointment. First, I made them in the oven as per the directions and they came out sort of burnt on the bottom and were not evenly cooked. Second, while the butter flavor was substantial, the garlic flavor was a little on the light side and I felt personally could have been amped up a bit. My biggest problem, however, is that I was really missing cheese on these breadsticks. Which was strange because I dislike the Texas Toast with cheese on it – it’s overkill, but these breadsticks needed it. I did do some garlic bread research after the fact and saw that New York Bakery does make these sticks with cheese on them, so perhaps those are better!

The biggest letdown of all though, had to be this sorry excuse for marinara dipping sauce. Yuck! It was so watery and bland. I might as well have just opened up a can of generic tomato sauce from my lazy susan. Two thumbs way down.

So overall these aren’t great-  but I could see them being tasty if you came home with a good buzz one night and wanted something greasy – these would work in a pinch and would probably taste amazing. OR I think these could pass at a spaghetti supper but I would just toss the marinara sauce and serve the sticks. But I’ll definitely just be going back to traditional Texas Toast!

Lays Deep Dish Pizza Potato Chips

Lays recently brought back three chip flavors as part of their Operation Smile campaign: Deep Dish Pizza, Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers, & Fried Pickles with Ranch. I really want to try the fried pickles flavor, but I haven’t been able to track it down. I found the pizza and jalapeño poppers ones right away, and since I usually hate spicy food I decided to not even bother with trying those and settled for just buying the pizza chips.

Upon opening the bag I was immediately hit with a pizza aroma or rather a pizza heavily seasoned with paprika! One chip in and I was pretty much sold on these. I love deep dish pizza and these really do taste very, very close to that.

The picture on the chip bag is a deep dish pizza topped with chunky tomatoes, cheese, and basil. Although I didn’t taste any basil in these chips, I do taste cheese, tomatoes, and somehow crust very clearly. The other recognizable flavors are garlic and paprika which really help to round out the chip and provide an authentic pizza taste. I did really like these chips but I probably won’t purchase again because if I want pizza then I just eat pizza and not chips! I eat chips for the ultimate salt effect so I’ll go back to my usual favorites, but these are definitely worth trying and are interesting for sure!~

Have you tried any of the new chip flavors?!

Planters Cheez Balls

Lastly, did you guys all hear that Cheez Balls are back FOR GOOD??!?!?! I’m SO happy and grateful that there are tons of other crazed snack fans like myself who lobbied and convinced Mr. Peanut that Cheez Balls are a quality item that deserve a place permanently on store shelves! Power to the People!!!

Yesterday, there was even a Cheez Balls food truck in NYC which I was sooo jealous about since I’m not in NYC, but also I was little dismayed about because 1. NYC already has everything do they really need a Cheez Balls food truck?! I think not. And 2. I doubt very much that most New Yorkers would even appreciate such a glorious food truck as I would, they are all probably annoyed by it.

But anyway, I happened to post about the food truck on Instagram and I got alerted by an old friend that they had found Cheez Balls at a local grocery store! I quickly picked some up on my way home to try right away. I had read a few mixed reviews from people online as to whether or not the new Planters Cheez Balls are the same as the originals or if they had changed the recipe and I was eager to try them myself.

And the verdict is: These are still REALLY good! I would say that I am not fully convinced that these are actually the same recipe as the original ones from years back, but they are still delicious. I feel like they used to be maybe a tad more buttery and not SO cheesy.

I actually have a bag of Utz Cheese Balls in my house currently because I hadn’t been able to track down the Planters ones. So I did a little taste and size comparison.

The size comparison is crazy with the Utz balls being way smaller! And also look at this difference in cheese coating! Planters is much more substantially coated in a glorious cheese bath. I actually don’t recall the Planters ones being quite SO NEON orange but maybe they always were?!

Also, the Utz ones do taste mostly like butter – my mother actually proclaimed them to be “Butter Balls” since she said they taste “nothing like a cheese ball.” lol

I’ve already eaten nearly half a can of the Planters ones so suffice it to say that I’m most happy that Cheez Balls are back and encourage you to pick them up and decide whether or not you think the recipe has changed!

I hope you have a great day!

xo

Holly