Rao's: Best Marinara Sauce I've Tried

I bought my first bottle of Rao's Marinara from Whole Foods when we were poor first marrieds. At ten bucks a bottle, it was definitely the "special occasion" sauce. I think I was most intrigued by the price. Marinara sauce that costs that much has to be good. It was. It is the best. I've tried lots of different sauces, and this one is my favorite and has the purest ingredients.

I like pasta, and this sauce is great for those nights that you just don't want to make your own. No fillers, no paste, just good stuff.

Here are the ingredients:
Imported Italian tomatoes, Italian olive oil, sweet onions, fresh basil, fresh garlic, crushed black pepper, salt and fresh oregano.

This one is pricey, but very tasty and with $1 for pasta, I figure I am feeding my family for $6 (we can get about two meals worth). Not too bad. Cheaper than Del Taco anyway.

The Arrabiata sauce is also great. Too hot for the kids, but I love it. I've seen it on sale on occasion at Whole Foods (used to be Wild Oats around here.)

Coconut Curry in a Hurry

I just tried another simmer sauce by Seeds of Change. Wow. It is so good. It is the Korma coconut curry sauce. I sauteed some chicken, cut up some veggies and mushrooms and poured the sauce over. I cooked brown rice in the rice cooker to go with it. Very easy, very good.

And right now it is on sale at the Good Earth for $2.65/bottle. Go get some if I haven't cleared them all out!

We ate at a Thai restaurant last week, and this was almost as good. Ingredients aren't quite as good as the Jalfrezi sauce. But it is really tasty. It isn't very spicy, so add some red pepper flakes if you want to make it a little hotter.

Here is what is in it:

Water, heavy cream* (milk*), coconut*, onions*, evaporated cane sugar*, tapioca starch*, sunflower oil*, sea salt, lemon juice*, garlic*, cilantro*, ginger*, turmeric*, coriander*, cumin*, cayenne pepper*, paprika*, cardamon*, cinnamon*

140 calories per serving. With 1/2 cup cooked brown rice, 1/2 chicken breast, and veggies, mine was about 370 calories.

It is possible! Non perishable HEALTHY fruit snacks

My husband likes to order new and interesting healthy stuff online. And a few months ago, he came home with something to add to our food storage that he tried at his sister's recommendation. Freeze dried fruit. It didn't last because we ate all of it within a couple of weeks. It was so delicious. This dried fruit is crunchy and sweet, and 100% fruit. You can rehydrate if you want for cooking.

The freeze dried process removes 97% of the moisture with a vacuum and a very low temperature. It is shelf stable for up to 15 years. I like that better than canning because it doesn't have to be packed in syrup, it is lightweight, and doesn't have to be refrigerated like our frozen foods.

My kids love it! We felt it was a perfect replacement for sugary, artificial fruit snacks. They are already diced and ready to go. It was really good in yogurt. I've been buying freeze dried apple slices for the kids lunches from Costco, but they were getting so expensive. These come in big cans and are much cheaper per oz.

We mainly eat fresh fruit, but we are trying to build our food storage with healthy non-perishable foods that we'll actually want to eat. I think these are the perfect solution.

Here is a link for the peaches. Those were my favorite. We bought raspberries, blueberries, peaches, strawberries and apples. Yum!

http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/freezedriedpeacheslargecan.aspx