As most of you probably know, I try to eat unprocessed, fresh, whole foods whenever I can, however sometimes I need a quick meal that’s ready in a matter of minutes.

That’s where Amy’s comes in! I’ve always been a fan of Amy’s products because they offer vegetarian meals that are made with organic ingredients and healthier than most packaged meals you’ll find at the grocery store. Another great thing about Amy’s products is that they accommodate different needs/special diets by offering options that are diary free, gluten free, lactose free, corn free, soy free, tree-nut free, vegan, no cholesterol, low-fat, or kosher – you just have to read the package to make sure the item you are buying matches your needs!

Some of my favorite Amy’s products include:

• California Veggie Burger
• Texas Veggie Burger
• Brown Rice and Vegetable Bowl (Light in Sodium)
• Matar Paneer (Light in Sodium)
• Matar Paneer Tofu
• Palak Paneer
• Black Bean Soup
• Lentil Vegetable Soup (Light in Sodium)
• Thai Coconut Soup

Earlier this year Amy’s introduced a new line called Light & Lean with four frozen meals (Black Bean and Cheese Enchilada, Soft Taco Fiesta, Spinach Lasagna, Pasta and Veggies), each containing less than 300 calories and 5g fat. Just this fall, Amy’s expanded the Light & Lean product line up to include five new frozen meals:

Light & Lean 3 Cheese Penne Bowl (270 calories)
Unpretentious and delicious, this is a comfortingly familiar bowl of pasta. Penne is cooked with organic marinara, extra virgin olive oil and a trio of creamy mozzarella, earthy Fontina and savory Parmesan.

Light & Lean Bean & Cheese Burrito (280 calories)
We are thrilled to announce a light and lean version of our popular Bean & Cheese Burrito.

Light & Lean Roasted Polenta (140 calories)
Sweet yellow cornmeal polenta is topped by an organic summer stew of squash, sun-ripened tomatoes, mushrooms and a side of fragrant slow-cooked chard.

Light & Lean Spaghetti Italiano Bowl (240 calories)
Organic semolina spaghetti, meatless meatballs made of of lentils, quinoa and tofu, topped with a sauce of simmered organic vegetables, roasted garlic and seasonings and a side of broccoli florets.

Light & Lean Sweet & Sour Bowl (250 calories)
Organic rice noodles with organic tofu and diced vegetables. Tamari soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and garlic are slowly simmered to form a flavorful sauce.

Amy’s offered to send me the new Light & Lean meals to try out and I took them up on the offer. Just an FYI – I only accept products for review that I would actually spend my own money on and I’m always completely honest in my reviews.

I’ll start with one of my favorites, the Roasted Polenta with Swiss Chard. This one is really low in calories so it works well paired with a lean protein for a full meal, but I loved the flavor. The polenta was creamy and topped by a tomato based summer stew of squash, sun-ripened tomatoes and mushrooms. The chard was flavorful as well. I was a big fan.

Next up, the 3 Cheese Penne Marinara. I actually didn’t get to taste this one because I let my friend Laurel have it for dinner last week when she came over after a long day of work. I topped it with some steamed broccoli so she’d get a serving of green veggies in and she chowed down. She said the pasta was hearty and cooked perfectly – especially for microwaved pasta. She also mentioned that the sauce was a standard tomato sauce but quite yummy and three cheeses added a nice flavor profile to the pasta.

The next meals, Sweet and Sour Asian Noodle and Spaghetti Italiano, probably wouldn’t be my first choice when buying a frozen meal at the store because I’m not a huge pasta fan, but I tried them both for lunch over the course of the past month.

I liked the sweet and sour noodles better than the spaghetti, but that’s no surprise because I love Asian food and Italian food is probably my least favorite cuisine <– I know some people are gasping right now, but it’s true. Also, the portion size seemed larger for the sweet and sour noodles and I really liked the flavor – soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and garlic are always winners!

The spaghetti was probably my least favorite (as I mentioned before I’m not a huge pasta fan.) Although, I will admit that I was surprised at how much I liked the veggie meatballs. They’re made of lentils, quinoa, tofu and spices and have a nice texture and flavor. I also liked that there were veggies included in this pasta dish, unlike the 3 Cheese Penne. If you’re a spaghetti fan looking for a light meal you’d probably like this one – it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Overall, I enjoyed trying out the new Light & Lean varieties and I will most likely be purchasing the roasted polenta and swiss chard and black bean and cheese enchilada (which I reviewed before) in the future. To be completely honest, I still LOVE my Amy’s Brown Rice and Vegetable Bowl and Matar Paneer meals best! They’re both pretty low in calories – the Matar Paneer has 370 and the Brown Rice Bowl has only 260 and they’re both offered in “Light and Sodium.” Their fat content is a little bit higher than the meals I featured today, but they’re still pretty Light & Lean for a frozen meal to me!

What’s your favorite Amy’s product? Have you tried any of the Light & Lean varieties?

Morning friends. I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. Mine was nice and relaxing.

Part of the relaxation included getting a manicure and pedicure. My quest to move towards more natural beauty products led me to a new-to-me salon called Atir Natural Nail Care Clinic.

Nail polish is known to be full of chemicals and not so great for your body or the environment, however I don’t want to give up wearing polish completely because it’s quite lovely and makes me feel girly/pretty. For me, painting my nails will continue to something I do, however it will be in moderation (just like most other fun things in life). With all that said, I was super excited to try Atir.

Overall, I had a great experience at Atir. Here’s why…

• They’re geared toward your natural nails (I’m not even sure they offer acrylics.)
• My technician explained each step of the manicure and why it’s important.
• Everyone that works there is super friendly.
• The place was very clean.
• They use Essie and Zoya nail polishes – both are formulated for natural nails and free of toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and formaldehyde, which are all known carcinogenic ingredients.
• My first manicure was free!

All that, plus my nails look fab!

Both my fingers and toes have Zoya’s Jana from the 2011 Smoke collection, which I am in love with for the fall.

My experience at Atir was wonderful and although they are a more pricey than your typical nail salon, it’s definitely worth it to me. I think the real testament will be how long the polish lasts. It’s supposed to last two weeks if I keep reapplying a top coat. We shall see…

In my search for more natural beauty products I also stumbled upon another brand of nail polish at a local health food store here in Richmond. It’s called PeaceKeepers.

PeaceKeeper nail paints are made without Toluene, Formaldehyde, Acetone, Phthalates, Parabens, or FD&C/Lake Coloring. And, PeaceKeeper does absolutely no animal testing! PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics is also the first cosmetics line to give all of its after-tax, distributable profits to women’s health advocacy and urgent human rights issues. Overall, it seems to be one the better nail “natural” nail polishes on the market.

This color is Paint Me VaVaVoom, a rich shiny hot pink shade that’s made with natural, nail-nurturing ingredients like amino acids, Vitamins A & E and seaweed. It’s also vegan.

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Have you ever used natural nail polish and what’s your favorite color to paint your nails? I’m typically drawn to a bright color on my toes (most often hot pink) and something more neutral on my fingers, but sometimes I totally switch things up and go bright on my fingers.

Happy “Back to School” day! Today’s Isaac’s first day back.

Isaac was out of town this weekend and his sis, Sydney stayed the night with me last night. We woke up to a wet and rainy Sunday. Kind of ruined plans to walk to Lamplighter for breakfast but we still made it there…

Non-fat cappuccino for me.

I’m a sucker for steamed milk art.

Black coffee for Syd.

For breakfast, I contemplated getting one of their egg sandwiches but remembered how good their fruit and yogurt parfait was last time and changed my mind at the last minute…

It was just as lovely as I remembered it. While the yogurt, strawberries and bananas are all delicious, the granola is simply amazing!! I’m pretty certain that it’s the toasted coconut that makes it so phenomenal. <– I need their recipe.

Sydney went home a little after breakfast and I hung around the house. It was quite a lazy Sunday, but also productive. I worked on my panel presentation a.k.a practiced speaking into a mirror, cleaned a little and even finished a book.

The book, Ravenous by Dayna Macy is one I’ve been reading for a while now. It’s not a hard read – I just haven’t had a ton of time for reading lately.

Ravenous is a memoir where Macy works at transforming her complicated relationship with food. She embarks on a year-long journey to uncover the origins of her food obsessions. From her childhood home in upstate New York, and back up the California coast, Macy travels across the country, meeting with farmers, food artisans, butchers, a Zen chef, a forager, a chocolatier, and others—to understand where her meals come from, why she craves certain foods, and what food means to her. She looks at how nostalgia is deeply embedded in food, and how the powerful forces of family and tradition shape our food choices.

Each chapter she shares a different exploration story and ends with a recipe. Overall, I really enjoyed each of her stories, which are very personal and captivating. I would recommend the book to anyone who struggles with their relationship with food. It’s not a self-help book, but rather a descriptive look at Macy’s journey. Witt that said, many parts of the book touched me. Here are a couple of my favorite passages:

“It’s a revelation to me that a 120-pound person and a 300-pound person can be similarity sad about their bodies. The thinner person may look like her act is more together, but pain is pain. Regardless of the number on the scale, few of us are truly happy and at home in the skin we’re in.

In our culture, the number on the scale enforces a cruel hierarchy. Weight separates the worthy from the unworthy. But the truth is, it’s difficult to be in a body, period. Witnessing this in myself and in others, I’ve begun to see through the delusion so many of us share – that when we reach a particular weight, we will automatically be happy.”

- LOVE this quote because it’s so true. You don’t have to be overweight to be unhappy or self conscious about your body.

“…there is also a crisis of desire – where you’re always hungry, whether it’s for food, or things, or attention, or admiration. There’s no end to waiting more – until you recognize the abundance you already have. My search for balance extends beyond food. It extends to all that I attach to and all I consume. I have to say “no” to some things so I can say “yes” to others. Each decision to consume is a choice to spend my time, energy, and attention. Maybe one key to being happier is not having more, but needing less.“

- This one made me think about my life and what things I put my time and energy into. It’s time to prioritize.

And at this moment I think I ned to get off the computer and hang with my two couch buddies. Have a good night!

It seems like I’ve been on seafood overload lately. From Isaac’s miso salmon, the wasabi seaweed snacks I just bought and Boston’s endless options of delicious creations from the sea. I’m okay with that though… especially since being in Boston means it’s super fresh.

Last night my co-worker and I were tired from working the booth all day so for dinner we just hopped over to a nearby restaurant, the Legal Test Kitchen (LTK).

LTK is a sister restaurant to Legal Harborside, the restaurant I went to on Monday night. The LTK is a bit more casual and the menu, while still focused on seafood, is completely different. Apparently LTK is where they test new dishes for their menu at the Legal restaurants.

There were a ton of great options on the menu! I went traditional and ordered a bowl of calm chowder. Legal’s chowder is famous and has been served at every Presidential inauguration since 1981 so it only made sense to try it.

Plus, you gotta have a bowl of chowda’ at least once while in Boston!

And for my entrée I took the server’s advice and ordered the Hoisin Glazed Salmon, which was served with a house made hoisin sauce and vegetable pad thai with crushed peanuts.

Sooo good! Probably even better than my salad at the actual Legal restaurant. The salmon was cooked perfectly and I loved the Asian flavor profile!

Today we had a morning meeting, exhibit hall hours in the afternoon and then headed to the airport to fly home. We had a couple hours to kill in the airport and it was dinner time so we decided to grab a bite to eat. As it turns out, the only sit-down restaurant on our terminal was Legal Sea Foods so we had it again! This time I was going to have a shrimp salad but the daily special was a grilled salmon, avocado and roasted red pepper salad. I heard the word avocado and couldn’t resist.

Everything I ate at the Legal restaurants was delicious, but I basically lived on it for the past three days so next time I visit Boston I definitely need to try something different! And I’m pretty certain I won’t be having fish for a few days. I’ve had my fill for a while.

On a completely different note, I want to start a series here on EBF about products for the body/home that are natural, eco-friendly and/or organic. I’ve been working towards a transition from chemical laden products to more natural, organic products for about a year now and I’ve found quite a few products that I love as well as some I don’t. Overall, I think it would be fun addition to the blog every once in a while so hopefully this can turn into a regular series.

To start the series I have to get something off my chest –> I feel totally duped by Aveeno Active Naturals!!!

Their ads, packaging and price made me think that I was buying something natural, with less harmful chemicals than other mainstream brands. I’ve been using their products for several years… and not just the face wash. I’ve bought and used the facial moisturizer, the shampoo and conditioner, the body lotion and even the lip balm. They had me hook, line and sinker!

As a marketer I should have known not to be so trusting but imagine my disappointment when I randomly took a look at the ingredient list of my facial cleanser one day and realized Aveeno isn’t really living up to its name or image.

Here’s the ingredient list: Water, Glycerin, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Decyl Glucoside, PPG-2 Hydroxyethyl Cocamide, PEG-16 Soy Sterol, Polysorbate 20, Disodium Lauroamphodiacetate, Phenoxyethanol, Butylene Glycol, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Coco PG-Dimonium Chloride Phosphate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Methylparaben, Xanthan Gum, Propylparaben, Ethylparaben, Chrysanthemum Parthenium (Feverfew) Extract, Sodium Cocoyl Amino Acids, Sarcosine, Potassium Aspartate, Magnesium Aspartate, May Also Contain: Citric Acid, Sodium Hydroxide.

I can tell just by looking at the list that there are a lot of chemicals but it’s hard to know why exactly these chemicals aren’t good for my body so I researched the cleanser on Skin Deep, the Environmental Working Groups Cosmetics Database. I found out that the Aveeno foaming cleanser has a moderate rating of 4 which isn’t horrible, but it’s not too good either. The high concern areas are endocrine disruption, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive, irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), contamination concerns and occupational hazards. Not so natural after all!

I don’t want this whole bottle to go to the waste so I’m going to finish using it, but I’m already on the market for a natural cleanser that works just as well, if not better. I’ll be sure to let you all know when I’ve found the one.

Is this series something that would interest you? Have you ever felt duped by a company or product?

Given the number of times I’ve mentioned Tosca Reno and her books, you’re bound to know that I have a mini crush on her. She’s a normal woman who was unhappy with her weight and decided to do something about it! Since losing the weight and getting into the best shape of her life, she’s been dedicated to living a healthy lifestyle and helping others, particularly women, learn how to eat clean and get into shape. This is something I truly admire and is the main reason I started Eating Bird Food – to share my story and help motivate others!

Back to Tosca. Her original book, The Eat Clean Diet, and the next release, The Eat Clean Diet Recharged are both great starting points if you’re looking for a basic program to help with losing weight and getting into shape. (Both are listed in the EBF Amazon Store).

The Eat Clean principles are pretty simple and require small changes that are meant to be embedded into your lifestyle rather than temporary. They include things like drinking lots of water, eating breakfast everyday, cutting out processed foods, eating 6 small meals comprised of a lean protein and complex carb, lots of fresh veggies/fruit and proper portion sizes. I’m a huge fan of the guidelines and try to follow them whenever possible.

Recently I was sent Tosca’s latest book to review, The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook 2. It features over 150 new recipes and includes topics such as:

• A “How-To” for fish: Shopping, Choosing, Cooking a fish
• Vegetarian Done Right: “How-To be a healthy vegetarian” and ensure you get enough of the right kind of foods in the best combinations to get the most nutrients, avoiding the risks
• Summer Menus
• Grilling Recipes
• Tips for Your Best Beach Body
• One-Dish & Easy Meals
• Lunch outside the lunchbox
• Family Staples Made Lean: Chicken Fingers, Pasta, Pizza, Hot dogs, Desserts, Drinks & More
• Do It Yourself Sauces, Spreads & Salsas: BBQ and Cocktail Sauce, Pesto, Salad Dressing, Hummus, Croutons and more
• Every type of food made “clean” from Mexican food to Italian or even American

The photos in the book are beautiful! This is a big plus for me because I’m a visual person and hate cookbooks with no photos. Even if my rendition of the dish never looks like the photo, I still want to have one.

While browsing through the cookbook, I found a ton of new recipes I’m excited to try out! So excited in fact, I got started this past weekend by making the Cherry Protein Pop ‘Ems. I’m always looking for protein filled snacks that are a little on the sweet side and these sounded perfect.

Print Recipe

Nutritional value per serving: Calories 103 | Calories from Fat: 27 | Protein 5g | Carbs 14g | Total Fat 3g | Sat Fat 1g | Fiber 2g | Sodium 25mg

I followed the recipe almost exactly but subbed a few ingredients based on what I had in the pantry. For instance, I used natural peanut butter instead of cashew butter. I couldn’t find unsweetened cherries so juice sweetened and cut the amount of honey down a bit. I also used vanilla protein powder instead of natural flavored.

These little pop’ems turned out great. I loved the tiny bits of crunch from the millet and chia seeds and the chewy sweetness of the dried cherries. Isaac and I polished them off in only a few short days. I already need to make another batch!

Speaking of batches. I received two copies of the Eat Clean Clean Diet Cookbook 2 and you have a chance to win one of them! Simply leave a comment telling me the one thing you do/should do to eat cleaner. You can get an additional entry by:

• Becoming a fan of Eating Bird Food on Facebook and leaving a comment on this post to let me know you’ve done so.
• Tweeting “I want to win @toscareno’s Eat Clean Diet Cookbook 2 from @eatingbirdfood http://bit.ly/j34Jel” and leaving a comment on this post to let me know you’ve done so.

The giveaway will end this Friday, June 17 and I’ll announce the winner over the weekend. Happy Tuesday!