A Mayan harvest adventure

It’s a new year and time to tune up my eating habits. My goal this year is to try one new food each week. When I saw this Kashi(R) frozen meal in the supermarket, it reminded me of sesame chicken from my favorite Chinese restaurant. Okay, so the sesame chicken isn’t the healthiest thing, but is sure tastes good. I ruined my taste for Chinese food once I learned that 1 cup of Chinese food has at least 30 grams of fat! And we’re not talking about the good fat either.

I didn’t read the ingredients of the Kashi(R) Mayan Harvest Bake until I got home. Here’s a summary of them:

• amaranth polenta – what the heck is that? I think I remember reading that this is a very healthy grain
• ancho chili – no clue what this is
• plantains – at least I know these are sort of like bananas
• black beans – an old favorite
• sweet potato – one of those foods that I can take or leave, I try to ‘take’ because it’s so healthy for you.
• sesame seeds – but alas, no crunchy chicken. I guess that lump on the package cover is a plantain or a sweet potato
• pepitas – aka pumpkin seeds.  It sounds so much healthier to say pepita rather than pumpkin, doesn’t it?

Surprisingly, you have to heat it for 8 minutes in the microwave – it seems to me that it should take less time to cook since it’s just mushy vegetables and grains, which are a lot less dense than meat.

At the first few bites, I wasn’t sure about this. All the healthy ingredients or not, mmmm. But, then it grew on me. I love this meal! It’s different and it’s filling. A few hours after eating this, I’m still full and don’t have to test my willpower against potato chips or cookies.

So, my lessons learned from this gastronomic adventure:

1.   Don’t be afraid to try something compeletely new.

2.   Give new foods a chance, even if the first bite doesn’t taste good, keep eating.

3.   Stop obsessing about Chinese food. That is off the table for now, unless it’s steamed chicken and broccoli.

Now you may be wondering what Kashi(R) food has to do with technology, marketing or life (my blog theme). Well, in my quest to be more goal oriented in my life this year, I am writing things down to be accountable. Since one of my goals is to continue to eat healthy, this fits right in.

Photo is thanks to Kashi(R).