Soy Boy Ravioli

Today's lunchbox contains a storebought vegan item that I've been wanting to try for quite a while, but I just never was able to locate it at any store. Well, that changed a couple of weeks ago when I was browsing through the freezer section at The Health Barn, one of our local health food stores. I have discovered several different vegan items there that I NEVER thought I could find around here, and that day was no exception. My jaw dropped open when I spotted Soy Boy Ravioli sitting there in the freezer. I was already aware of their products from their advertising in Satya magazine, but I had never seen any of their products in stores. The Health Barn has quickly become my favorite place to shop because they have so many of the hard-to-find vegan items that no one else seems to want to carry. I even made it a point when I was there to compliment the guy who is the grocery buyer and tell him what an awesome job I think he does and how much I appreciate being able to come in there and buy ready-made vegan food items.

The Soy Boy Ravioli is just stuffed with a tofu mixture that's spiced up with some herbs & garlic and such. Pretty standard stuff, like a tofu ricotta. It's good, but I must admit that I like the Spinach Ricotta that SusanV uses in her lasagna recipe better. I guess that's a clue that I need to make my own dang Ravioli sometime and stuff it with exactly what I like huh? I've never made Ravioli before, but it seems like it would be fun. But, the Soy Boy product is good, and VERY convenient since all I had to do was just boil some water and plop the Raviolis in and let them cook for a few minutes. For the sauce, which is NOT radioactive despite how it looks in the picture, I just stirred in some storebought Spaghetti Sauce. I honestly can't even remember what the brand was right now. I'm not really picky about pasta sauce because I pretty much like them all. I usually just grab whatever happens to be on sale and give the ingredients list a quick scan to make sure there's no cheese or anything else in it that would spoil the vegan vibe. I'll definitely buy this Soy Boy Ravioli again, because it IS good. Making my own might be a little better, but it would also be more work. So I guess there's a trade-off there somewhere. In a nutshell, the Soy Boy Ravioli is a tasty and very convenient pre-made vegan product. I'm glad that I found it and I will buy it again.

To go along with the Ravioli, I brought another Spinach Salad. I liked the fresh squeezed Lemon Juice & Olive Oil that I had on my salad yesterday, so I brought that again too. And for dessert, I just threw together my own little homemade trail-mix combination there of raw Sunflower Seeds, raw Almonds, raw Cashews and Raisins. Mmmmm... Very good. I could eat a 5 pound sack of this stuff.

I'm also happy to report that I have been getting in my lunchtime walks like I promised, so hopefully the exercise thing is back on track after that wretched cold snap. I went out and ate dinner last night with my parents to celebrate my mom's birthday and we went to our favorite Mexican place. I normally blow my diet all to pieces when I eat there, which is why it's been a looooong time since I went there. But I was actually pretty good last night. I tried something new and got the manager over there (I kinda' know him) and asked him what they fried the mushrooms in when they grill them. He said they used vegetable oil. I asked him if they put any lard in there or any butter, and he said that they did not, it was just mushrooms & onions grilled with some vegetable oil. So I ended up getting 3 soft tacos with grilled mushrooms & onions on them (instead of meat) and lettuce & tomato. I poured a little salsa on them too and I was good to go. I think they think that I am LOCO, but they made it and it was delicious. Mushrooms have so much more taste than meat. I also only consumed one and a half margaritas (7 oz. size) instead of my normal 20 (just joking, but I normally did drink a lot more margaritas than that and they have SO many calories). So yeah, I blew my diet a little bit last night by going there, but it was a special occasion and I did a lot better than I normally do when I eat there. It was worth it and I'll probably still lose some weight this week. I don't think one little splurge will ruin anything.

So I guess that does it for Thursday's lunchbox. Definitely try the Soy Boy Ravioli if you find it where you live, and you like Ravioli. It's yummy.

Thanks for reading my blog today. See everybody on Friday!