Product Reviews: Amy’s (Non-Dairy) Baked Ziti Bowl and Whole Kitchen

After my hopscotching my way down the lane of temptation to gooey Cheeseland (as opposed to Candyland), I’ve been keeping my eyes out for easy-to-make and cheaper-than-take-out Italian-style vegan meals to help me get back on track. I found two such items in the frozen foods section of Whole Foods during my semi-weekly trip last Tuesday.

Amy's (Non Dairy) Baked Ziti Bowl

I just love ziti. Besides Alfredo on any kind of pasta , Baked Zita is my favorite. O.K. we’ll call it my favorite of the red sauce pasta dishes, to be followed by Eggplant Parmesan, Spaghetti the way my mother used to makeit even if I do have to substitute meatless crumbles now. So, when I found Amy’s Baked Ziti in a vegan version, I was excited. I wish more of her items were vegan or that Whole Foods carried more of the vegan options.

I really should have taken a good look at the photo on the box so I would have been less surprised by the amount of peas in the dish. I’m not a fan of peas as a rule. I only like them as a dehydrated snack. They were very hard to eat around. However, that’s my only real complaint, considering this is a t.v. dinner with faux cheese and no gluten pasta. The cheese really melted well — better than her non-dairy pizzas — and the portion is just right for a full meal. Someone who isn’t supposed to restrict their meal sizes could probably add a side salad or a side vegetable or a fruit for “dessert”. I will most likely stock my fridge with this again when I don’t have the time or gumption to make a whole big batch of my own secret recipe.

Whole Kitchen Vegan Meatballs

Now, I have to admit I was particularly excited about the discovery of Whole Food’s own frozen foods brand Whole Kitchen. Well, O.K. I was really more excited about the fact that they had boxed up their Vegan Meatballs so there would be no more lurking in the deli section, hovering over the prepared foods, hoping beyond hope that this week someone back there had thought to mix together some meatless meatballs for those of us who are vegetarian Italian food lovers. One time two years ago, I happened upon one container in the deli of Whole Foods “Meatless Meatballs” and I thought they were the best vegetarian substitute I’d ever tasted and to the agony of my mother and my co-workers, I have been bemoaning for two years that I have gone faithfully every week looking for them, never to see such things again.

But there they were in the freezer section.

So, I dressed them up in a Tomato & Basil Marinara Sauce that I found freshly made in the deli section (of course) and cooked them through. I placed two slices of rice “Mozarella” cheese on an open whole wheat “hoagie” and spooned the hot, sauce-soaked meatless meatballs onto the cheese and bread and placed the open sandwhich into the microwave for 45 seconds so the cheese would melt a little and the bread would be soft and warm.

It was heaven! Better than Subway or any sandwhich shop I can remember. Next time I’m going to try those vegan meatballs with Spaghetti or maybe some Baked Ziti. I wonder how they go with Alfredo — I have an “Alfredo” Sauce recipe made with tofu that’s supposed to be to-die-for…