Double Review Day! Whole Foods frozen vegan lasagna and Trader Joe's frozen Bird's Nests

So, I have some good news and bad news.

Let's start with the good news! Today I'm doing a double review today due to my (yet again) long absence.

The bad news. The photo quality is going to be a bit lower here for a while. My external hard drive is dead, and boy did it die at the WORST moment. Not only are 4+ years worth of my photos gone, but now my current computer is completely full to the brim and I have no where to put any of my pictures. So using my nice camera, which produces big files, is just not possible. So for now you'll have to put up with sad little cell phone pictures.

Today I'm reviewing two frozen dishes (I needed to clear space from my freezer SO badly you guys - it was as backed up as my laptop) - the vegan lasagna from Whole Foods and the Bird's Nests from Trader Joe's.

First, to the lasagna.

So as I said before, I bought this from Whole Foods. I believe it's in their frozen entree section? They have other vegan options as well, like chick'n nuggets and such.

So, once you open the package you're greeted with this sight:

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was expecting. It reminded me of my old days of Lean Cuisine (which, p.s., can some beautiful vegan person create a vegan version of Lean Cuisine but with less sodium?), which could be a hit or miss experience.

Now, this DOES take a little bit of time to cook, so go do something while you wait. (I played Pokemon because ADULTHOOD.)

I added some stuff to mine because I guess I'm not a purist. I added some shredded Teese Vegan Mozzarella (which you can also find at Whole Foods) and some of my homemade almond Parmesan. (I feel like I link to that recipe a LOT.)

To give you a size comparison, here's my hand. I have tiny baby hands. So for that many calories (I believe it's like 440?) I kinda feel like I was getting ripped off. But then again, I have to remember that it's pasta and blah blah blah. Whatever. It looks like a snack from this distance.

So, what's the actual verdict?

Two thumbs down! There's not enough filling between each layer (seriously, it felt like I was eating pasta between pasta and that there was no vegan ricotta in there), and everything is bland. And it's so misleading and annoying because it SMELLS awesome when you take it out of the oven. BUT THOSE NICE SMELLS ARE LIES. Lies I tell you!

But, that's not all I'm reviewing today.

I dunno what it's like where y'all live, but here the Trader Joe's is relatively close to Whole Foods (like about five minutes away?) so I tend to hit them both up at once when I DO make the trek.

For dinner, I made these. I'll admit now that I was REALLY hopeful for these. That lasagna failure had made me sad and I wanted something awesome to eat that wasn't a waste of calories.

Well, still can't promise that. These are still high in calories (probably like 800 something for the whole package WHOOPSIE DOOPSIE), so that's uhhhh saying something.

Okay, this is looking hopeful. Don't get too excited Kate, you were burned before with this. JUST TODAY IN FACT.

But look at how cute and wittle and adorable they are. (And each one is about the size of my palm, which makes this a bit more filling than the previous dish.) And hey, it cooks a LOT faster!

And look at dat sauce.

And look at me being an awful person and eating on my couch (whoops). This is just a whoops-filled entry. A day of whoops.

However... these were AMAZING. HALLELU, they made up for the crappy lasagna! They not only smell DIVINE but they're so light and fluffy! The sauce that comes with it is PERFECT (usually they're waaaaaay too high in sodium but this was great!) and each bite of carrot, kale, and onion flows so well together. I was incredibly impressed and I honestly was hesitant to even share a bite with Eric before I scarfed these all down in about a minute.

Small miracles, am I right?

Oh, and just to give you an idea of what I've been doing with my life lately, I'm making curtains for the house at the moment! I bought some fabric yesterday.

This is what I'm using for my little craft room. (I also bought some fabrics for my bedroom and the basement.)

Naturally my little turdling Catsby wanted to help as well. By getting in my way. The whole time. (Although to give him a little credit, I was already a bit distracted from trying to teach myself how to use this new handheld sewing machine AND a three hour made-for-TV movie I was watching on Netflix. Soooooooooo.)

As a result of those distractions I only finished one panel ahahahaha. But I'm going to work on the other one as soon as I hit publish on this entry, so go productivity! Whoooooooo!

Hope you guys are doing well! If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, feel free to comment here or send me an email (address is on the left)!

xo, Kate