Please subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
Follow our Journey:
YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | TWITTER
NOTE: This post is NOT sponsored or endorsed by Trader Joe’s. We paid for the products we tested out and are providing our honest opinions on it!
We try to stick to a whole food, plant-based diet as much as possible, which means we make 99% of the meals we consume at home from scratch. However, we both have full-time jobs and busy schedules, so it is helpful to have an easy “backup plan” waiting for us in the freezer!
When we check out any freezer meal, the first thing we look at is the ingredient list and nutrition panel. Most of them do not pass, but we were pleasantly surprised with these Trader Joe’s Riced Cauliflower Bowls! It will be nearly impossible to find a 100% “compliant” freezer meal, so just know that you’ll have to make a few compromises. For example, we try to avoid oil as much as possible, and these do contain a bit of oil in the sauce and marinated chickpeas. There is also some added salt, which we normally avoid.
You can eat the entire bowl for 280 calories, which is pretty low for a freezer meal. We don’t count calories, so we aren’t too focused on that aspect, but we do try to stick to a “1-to-1” ratio of sodium to calories – meaning if something has 280 calories, we don’t want to see the sodium much higher than 280 mg. The Trader Joe’s bowls have 370 mg of sodium, which is much lower than most freezer meal options out there!
When it comes to taste, we were pleasantly surprised. This was actually one of our first experiences eating tofu, and after we ate these bowls we decided to start experimenting with our own tofu recipes. The tahini sauce adds a really nice flavor to the bowls. Check out our review video to watch us try these out!
We have started using these as our regular “emergency” backup meal. Jessica keeps a few in the freezer at her office in case lunch plans change or she gets stuck working late and needs a quick dinner. We plan out our meals in advance on a handy calendar, but sometimes there is a day or two each month that we need to fill, so these bowls are perfect for that!
The cost is pretty reasonable at $2.99 per bowl.
Since we first tried these, we started developing our tofu bowl recipe, so look for that to come out later on. Let us know if you have tried these and what you think of them if so!
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.