Categories: Lightlife

8 Jul 2010, Comments (7)

Lightlife Smart Bacon

Author: Healthnuttxo

Are you a fan of…..bacon ? When I was younger, I never was much of a bacon eater, but I DID like turkey bacon. I remember always having it with french toast and maple syrup, or even on a BLT sandwich. Delicious!

However,  I don’t really eat meat anymore, so decided these would fit my craving for bacon.  I picked these up at the store with a coupon for a free product that I was sent from LightLife.

According to the website, “Whether nestled up against some scrambled eggs or topping off a burger, Smart Bacon® brings that hearty bacon taste into the veggie world. Plus, being low in saturated fat and naturally cholesterol-free, meat isn’t the only thing it’s missing.”
These are also vegan.

Each strip of Smart Bacon is a pale red/brown in color, thin, and about an inch wide, maybe 3 inches long. Each piece is only 20 calories each, and provides 2 grams of protein. I sprayed my pan with some non-stick cooking spray and cooked these strips over medium heat (and made french toast, on the side, of course!) until the edges got crispy. They didn’t really get ‘curly’ or ‘wavy’ like I remember bacon usually gets, but stayed rather flat. They did however get crispy edges, which I liked.

I took a bite, and was actually quite impressed! They actually really reminded me of turkey bacon! I felt like I was having a real treat on the side of my french toast and maple syrup, and my glass of orange juice- these Smart Bacon strips went just PERFECT! They were crispy, but still had a little bit of chew to them, and had a lot of flavor. They were, however, a bit on the salty side, but dunked in my maple syrup I certainly loved the salty sweet combination! 🙂

Overall, I give these Smart Bacon strips 4 1/2 stars. I can certainly see myself buying these in the future- they were enjoyable and tasted GOOD! I especially liked that each strip was only 20 calories- I could have FIVE Smart Bacon strips for only 100 calories, with 10 grams of protein! They are, however, a bit salty ( 140 mg per strip) but not too bad.

1 Smart Bacon strip is 20 calories, 1 gram of fat, 0 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fiber, and 2 grams of protein.

Water, soy protein isolate, wheat gluten, soybean oil, texured soy protein concentrate, textured wheat gluten, less than 2% of: natural smoke flavor, natural flavor (from vegetable sources), grill flavor (from sunflower oil), carageenan, evaporated cane juice, paprika oleoresin (for flavor and color), potassium chloride, sesame oil, fermented rice flour, tapioca dextrin, citric acid, salt.

27 Jan 2010, Comments (5)

Lightlife Smart Wings Honey BBQ

Author: Healthnuttxo

I feel this is an appropriate review, especially with football season coming to an end and the SUPERBOWL coming into play. Plus, who doesn’t like saucy, honey, barbe-quey anything ? 😀

And so, scanning the natural section at my local grocery store, I saw LightLife Smart Wings in Honey BBQ and Buffalo flavor. I’m a sweet kinda girl, not so much spicy, so I picked up the Honey BBQ flavor with the coupon LightLife sent me.

Each box of these veggie protein wings comes with 8 wings, or two servings. They are so cute too- shaped like actual chicken wings! But, no chicken here. These are totally vegetarian (they do contain egg white, however, for those of you who are vegan). I made these both ways as suggested, Microwave & in the frying pan. I suggest the Frying Pan, as LightLife does too. Done in the microwave, the veggie wing came out a bit chewier than when I used the frying pan to heat these babies up.

Now, onto the TASTE!
These are freakin’ delicious! They really are finger lickin’ good. They are covered in a sweet, barbeque sauce, which had hints of molasses, honey and a garlicy tomato flavor. I was literally licking the sauce off the packet it came in- so tasty! They were a wee bit salty, but still very good. Some of you may be worried about the texture– as veggie products can be chewy or..weird.. in texture. But not the case here- these wings do have a bite to them, but are chewy like a burger. Chewy in a good way if you will- they have the appropriate consistency.

I had these with some Annie’s Organic Macaroni & Cheese & broccoli (and some chocolate milk-not shown), and I was full all the way until snack time. They pack in protein and fiber, and are very satisfying. You could even have them as a snack with some raw veggies on the side, as they don’t need any extra dip. They are the 3 S’s- Sweet, Salty & Savory. And surprisingly-NO FAT!! (take THAT Pizza Hut!!) I give these 4 1/2 stars!

                                                            *I know your drooling… 🙂 !*

1 serving (4 wings) is 120 calories, 0 grams of fat, 16 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, and 13 grams of protein.

Wing: Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Wheat Fluten, Soy Protein Isolate, Egg White Powder, Less than 2% of: Cellulose Gum, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavor, Sea Salt, Onion Powder, Dried Garlic, Potato Starch, Sunflower Oil, Salt.

Honey BBQ Sauce- Tomato Puree (water, tomato paste), Molasses, Evaporated Cane Juice, Distilled Vinegar, Worcestershire Sauce (distilled vinegar, molasses, sea salt, sugar, spices, tamarind), Corn Starch, Honey, Sea Salt, Natural Flavor, Spices, Dried Garlic, Xanthan Gum, Dried Onioon.

22 Nov 2009, Comments (0)

Lightlife Smart Deli Roast Turkey

Author: Healthnuttxo

So with Thanksgiving (gobble gobble!) rounding the corner, i figured I would do a whole bunch of Thanksgiving-related posts.
Here we have a “turkey” to review. I consider myself a “somewhat” vegetarian. I really don’t eat meat or fish- only if I go to a party or some other celebration and I don’t want  to make a fuss. However, when i do eat meat, i don’t eat beef or porc products. So, Thanksgiving is pretty much the only time of year i eat Turkey. So, I was rather curious when I saw Smart Deli Roast Turkey in stores by me. It is a fat free lunch meat alternative,  made with veggie and soy protein. Normally I’m skeptical of these products- I’ve tried a “ground beef” version once and had a rather, icky, experience. Too gummy, weird taste, you get the deal. However, I thought I would give this “deli meat” a shot- I mean why not? I was craving some turkey, and Thanksgiving was still a few days away…

The Roast Turkey is cholesterol free, without MSG, nitrates, and other fillers in standard cold cuts. It was round in shape, sort of like bolongna cold cuts, and had a brown/tan color. It smelt mildy spicy/peppery as I opened the package. I took a bite and….to my surprise, it was good! “Yum” was actually the first word that popped into my head. It tasted like TURKEY! How they do this, I’ll never know, but it was certainly yummy. It wasn’t too salty either, and had a nice spiced flavor with some onion and garlic mixed in. The consistency was also the same as cold cuts, not gummy or chewy, but pretty much the same as a slice you’d get from the deli counter. I even fooled my mom with this product asking her if she liked “the new turkey flavor that the store carried”. She said it was good and she would like it with a slice of cheese on a sandwich- but she didn’t know it wasn’t Turkey!

Overall, I give this 4 stars. I had a serving after a rigorous kickboxing class and it held me over until lunch with the yummy protein it provided. I think it was good by itself, but would be awesome on a sandwich, on some crackers, or maybe even rolled up hot with some all natural gravy. Yum! I’m interested in trying more of the deli selections by LightLife since the Turkey flavor was a hit. Perhaps you can save a turkey this year ? 🙂

So bloggies- have you had any good or (gross!) experiences with “meat alternatives”? Any brands you reccommend/hate? Let me know here!

4 slices is 100 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber and 13 grams of protein. There are 300 mg (13%) per 4 slices, which isn’t too shabby, either.

WATER, WHEAT GLUTEN, SOYBEAN OIL, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, SOY SAUCE (WATER, SOYBEANS, WHEAT, SALT), NAVY BEAN FLOUR, LESS THAN 2% OF: TOFU POWDER (DEHULLED SOYBEANS, CALCIUM SULFATE), RICE BRAN, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, NATURAL FLAVOR (FROM PLANT SOURCES), SALT, CARRAGEENAN, WHEAT STARCH, CALCIUM LACTATE, ONION POWDER, GARLIC POWDER, SEA SALT, CITRIC ACID.

26 Sep 2009, Comments (6)

Lightlife Asian Teriyaki frozen entree

Author: Healthnuttxo

light

Let me start off by saying what drew me to this entree was the size. There were about 6 flavors of the Light Life line at my local grocery store in bright yellow boxes that were BIG! They were much longer, maybe even 1 1/2 – 2x the size of a lean cuisine. They promised “veggie goodness for you and the planet”. I just knew it was gonna be good!

I purchased the Light Life  Asian Teriyaki, which was “broccoli, edamame, fire-roasted pineapple & shiitake mushrooms with whole-grain brown rice”. Each entree had 2 servings of veggies and one serving of whole grains. It even comes with a sauce packet, so you don’t have to eat it with the sauce (although i think it would be bland without it…it would just be vegetables and rice. But if your watching sodium or whatever, you can surely season your own way!), and you can also control how much sauce you want ( i used the whole packet though, and i thought it covered everything quite nicely).
This meal was BIG, as i said. 11.75 oz to be exact. There were tons of veggies and a generous portion of brown rice. The veggies were a nice “fork sinking into” size too. No skimpy, mushy veggies in here! The broccoli and the edamame were the best in my opinion. Fresh and crisp, the broccoli soaked up the sauce and was really flavorful. Next, i liked the carrots and the mushrooms. The carrots were crisp as well, and the mushrooms were soft and tender. I didn’t really care for the pineapple or the peppers. The pineapple was okay, i would have preferred it to be sweeter and have more of a bite to it. The peppers were kind of bland too. 🙁 Moving on to the rice, it was excellent.  🙂 ! Cooked just the right way, it tasted like rice should. It was fluffy and soft, not dry or too sticky. Lastly, the sauce. It adds an extra 90 calories to the dish overall, but i think it was worth it. It was a sweetish soy sauce with a slight kick to it. I also tasted some ginger flavor. It was a wee bit salty, but all soy sauce typically is salty tasting.

I think this meal was quite good. it was very filling for all the volume it provided. I think it would be good for one of those days you eat crap alllll day and feel guilty, or when your in the mood for some asian cuisine without  having to order takeout and waste your money on something bad for you! It has loads of veggies, whole grain rice, is low in fat, and high in fiber. And, of course, preservatives and artificial crap isn’t in this baby!

i can’t wait to try the other varieties!

1 entree is 310 calories, 7 grams of fat, 51 carbohydrates, 7 grams f fiber, and 10 grams of protein. You also get 50% of your Vitamin A needs and 80% of your Vitamin C. Yay!

Entree-cooked whole grain brown rice, broccoli, edamame, fire roasted pineapple, carrots, red peppers, shiitake mushrooms.

Sauce- water, soy sauce (water, wheat, soybeans, salt), pineapple juice, canola oil, ginger puree, evaporated cane juice, corn starch, garlic puree, less than 2% sesame oil, yeast extract, xantham gum, caramel color, spices.

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