GOPICNIC Update

My replacement meal from gopicnic arrived this afternoon, right in time for lunch! (To read the original story, go here.) It was very fortuitous, because I was just starting to wonder what I was going to eat...

They sent the meal FedEx, and when I opened the box, I found this stuffed in there with my meal box:

The funny thing is that the ice pack was warm, and the chocolate piece was melted... Oh well!

I put the completely melted, gooey chocolate (still in the tiny package) in the freezer to re-solidify it. After a few minutes, I took it out to eat it:

It tasted great... even though I had to cool it back into a solid.

Well, they TRIED to get an unmelted, yummy chocolate to me, but Chicago to Louisiana in the summer heat was too much even for FedEx with an ice-pack in the box. They get an A for effort!

I got a free replacement meal and a nice reusable gel-pack out of the deal, I guess. The chocolate in the replacement meal tasted great after being chilled.

My recommendation is to avoid chocolate-containing gopicnic meals while the weather is very hot, unless you live near Chicago or in a milder climate. If you're just dying for one of the chocolates this summer and (before opening the chocolate bag) feel that the chocolate is irregularly shaped, I recommend that you (without opening the bag) intentionally melting the chocolate again, then put it (still in the bag) into the fridge or freezer to get it solid again. If you do this and the chocolate isn't too dry, it will probably be great.

At any rate, I still highly recommend gopicnic meals. They're all-natural and quite yummy.

Friday, 7/20/12

Much better food day...

Breakfast

egg, light wheat toast with grape jelly, tomato and cucumber salad with light balsamic vinaigrette

Lunch

My replacement meal from gopicnic arrived! (This is an old picture...See go picnic update)

Snacks

Nature Valley granola bar with cranberries, honey, and pomegranate

Pepperidge Farm cinnamon bread toast with Laughing Cow light cream cheese and a sliced date

left-over frozen vegetable, thin-crust pizza

Dinner

bad picture...good dinner! Pork tenderloin with apricot sauce, green beans, and spicy red sauce on linguini with  parmesan cheese

Thursday, 7/20/12

This was a really cool day because I got to see a fantastic movie: Beasts of the Southern Wild, which was filmed in South Louisiana and contains wonderful, honest performances by previously non-professional actors, who were "found" among South Louisiana locals. On the other hand, it was a terrible food day... Because of bad weather and a full schedule, I ended up eating more and less healthy.

Breakfast

on-the-go cheese "hotdog" - string cheese in a piece of light wheat bread

Lunch

Inga's (AWESOME local sandwich joint!) steak sandwich, fulling dressed on wheat bread with Sun Chips

Early dinner

McDonald's french fries

McDonald's grilled chicken sandwich (I didn't eat the whole thing.)

Movie snack

Popcorn (shared this giant thing with a hungry friend)

Late meal

Plucker's fried pickles - I only ate three. (These are the BEST fried food in the world, and this place makes the best.)

Plucker's "medium" spicy wings with a side salad and blue cheese dressing

Quick snack tip: Pizza

A good frozen pizza, especially one that is light on meat or vegetarian and thin crust, makes a great snack if the portion is controlled. (This also works for left-over delivered or homemade pizza.)

After eating a single portion (or sharing) a pizza, wrap the remaining pizza pieces in foil individually and store in a zip-close bag in the fridge.

Another day, reheat the pizza slice in a toaster oven on the foil, if you have one. Other reheating methods work, but not as well...

Left-over pizza also makes a great bento / lunch box item.

Wednesday, 7/18/12

Good day today. I got to work out and swim. Dinner was definitely the biggest meal of the day.
Here's what I ate:

Breakfast

Light wheat bread, egg, and a slice of pepper-jack cheese

Lunch

banana and string cheese

Market Pantry thin crust frozen vegetable supreme pizza slices

 
Dinner

pinot grigio

CPK's baja chicken spring rolls with guacamole

CPK's half-order of BBQ chicken chopped salad with avocado

Tuesday, 7/17/12

Today was a somewhat lazy day. I need to go to bed earlier!
Here's what I ate:

Breakfast

scrambled egg with diced tomatoes, wheat french bread toast with blackberry jam, and OJ

Lunch

Lean Cuisine lasagna with meat sauce meal with canned peas

TGI Friday's frozen cheddar stuffed jalapeno poppers

Snacks

banana

Nature's Own thin sliced cinnamon raisin bagel with Laughing Cow cream cheese and Louisiana raspberry pepper jelly

string cheese

Dinner

baked tilapia with dill and lemon juice, baby lima beans, and a small baked potato with light sour cream

Dessert

two gianormous Nestle Tollhouse cookies

Review: GOPICNIC meals - tuna + crackers

I recently discovered a food product that I love. The concept of gopicnic meals is to provide a conveniently boxed, ready-to-eat, healthy meal that doesn't require any refrigeration. The food included is all-natural and gluten-free, and many of the meals are also Kosher and Vegan/Vegetarian. Besides the food itself, the packaging concept should appeal to consumers, especially Bento fans like me. (Bento is Japanese visually appealing boxed-lunch, but more on that another time...)

The food, especially the fruit and nut mix, was pretty tasty. But the thing I liked the most about this product was the cool folding spork! Here's a closer look:

The box itself is also cool. It acts as a tray for your meal and even sports a Sudoku puzzle in the bottom, for your lunch-time entertainment.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with this particular meal. Because of the extreme heat of summer, the chocolate melted sometime during the shipping process and then later solidified again. Because I was doing this review, I contacted gopicnic about it. At first they just said that this issue shouldn't effect the taste of the chocolate, which would be true if it had been less extreme. But then I showed them this picture and explained that it had completely dried out, become powdery, and crumbled at the touch:

The happy ending is that they were very nice and are sending me a replacement meal. However, until they figure out a cooler way to ship their products, I would recommend only buying the meals that do not contain chocolate until the weather becomes more temperate. Once the heat issue is solved, the chocolate will be great, and beyond this small issue, I highly recommend these meals. I've tried three so far, and have enjoyed all of them. I look forward to getting my replacement meal.

Monday, 7/16/12

I kinda blew it a bit at dinner because of the rather unhealthy (not worth it) appetizer, but at least I swam for an hour! Here's what I ate:

Breakfast

scrambled egg, Quaker Oats instant cheese grits, and mixed greens with lemon juice and olive oil (Salad for breakfast might surprise some people, but it's very refreshing and is a nice, light compliment to heavy breakfast food.)

Lunch

gopicnic tuna + crackers meal (included lemon pepper tuna spread, Crunchmaster multi-seed crackers, Sweet Perry Orchards trek trio fruit & nut mix, Sweet Perry Orchards unsweetened applesauce, and I did not eat the chocolate square)

Snack

spicy red potato hash with left-over fajita veggies and tomatoes, left-over turkey patties, light sour cream, topped with flat-leaf Italian parsley

Dinner

Shared this with someone! This was the less interesting and appealing food of the day, and I snarfed it down anyway... This is the very hearty appetizer El Guapo at Plucker's (includes fried tortilla chips, melted cheese and beef chili mixture topped with sour cream, tomatoes, guacamole, and jalapenos...It doesn't taste bad, but I don't recommend it.)

Plucker's naked boneless chicken "wings"(actually grilled breast tenders) tossed in spicy and sweet Hallelujah sauce with ranch dressing. I didn't eat any of the ranch dressing and only ate two of the tenders. I'm definitely getting this again...much healthier than wings.

Plucker's rather large side salad with iceberg lettuce, red cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, hard-boiled egg and cheese with blue cheese dressing

Sweet and Spicy Turkey Mini-Patties

These little burgers have a spicy Asian flare. They are small and easy to portion thoughtfully. The secret to this yummy entree is in the apples...yes, apples. Besides adding fiber and a slightly sweet favor dimension, grated apples keep the turkey meat nice and moist. I imagine you could successfully use pears instead of apples if that's what you have.

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground turkey
2 apples (green work well), peeled
1 tbsp fresh ginger paste (I found this at Whole Foods)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Sriracha hot chili sauce (Very, very spicy...adjust to taste)


Grate the peeled apples and mix together with the rest of the ingredients. You do not need egg or any other binder for this recipe... save the calories.

Using a small container of cold water to wet your hands, roll the mixture into small balls. (The water will help keep the stuff from sticking to your fingers!)

Using no oil or anything additional thing, place a few balls at a time in a non-stick frying pan. Flatten the balls into patties with a cooking spatula. (It's easier if you wet the spatula with the water before touching the meat...just like you did with your hands while rolling.)

Turn on the heat and cover the pan with a see-through cover to steam the top of the patties while the bottoms caramelize.

When the tops are no longer pink, uncover the patties and flip. You may need to flip them again to evenly brown them.

When patties are brown, remove them from the pan. Place them on paper towels to drain in a dish or plate that you can keep covered to retain the moisture and heat. (I used a tortilla warmer, which worked perfectly.)

After cooking each batch of patties, you will need to quickly rinse out the blackened Sriracha crud that forms in the pan. (It should come off easily with just cold water and a little finger-work.) Be careful not to burn yourself doing this! Skipping this pan-rinsing step could cause your remaining patties to have a burned flavor.

The recipe should make about 25 small patties. Keep them warm in your covered dish. Murphy's Law dictated that I cooked these far ahead of the time we actually ate them...by at least an hour. Before serving, I microwaved them for a few seconds in the tortilla dish, and they were still perfect and moist. Yay apples!