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Tag: frozen food (Page 2 of 9)

California Pizza Kitchen Sicilian and Margherita Pizzas review

November 1, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Surprisingly good

California Pizza Kitchen is both a pizzeria chain and a brand of premium frozen pizzas. They were famous back in the 90’s because of their unusual toppings, which has become far more common in the decades since. Their frozen offerings have changed over the decades, and lately they seem to specialize on thin crust pizzas. I prefer thick crust myself, but I decided to gave these a try last time they were on sale at Safeway ($5 each from $10 regular price – $8 at cheaper stores).

I was actually quite surprised with how much I liked the pizzas. They don’t tste like frozen pizzas at all. While the “crispy thin” crust was, indeed, crispy if cooked for the full time, it had a nice, chewy texture if lightly undercooked. It held the toppings well, without much spillage, and because it was so thin, it didn’t compete with the toppings. And the toppings were very good.

Each pizza realistically serves 2 people when accompanied by a salad (or if they aren’t too hungry).

Unfortunately, California Pizza Kitchen is manufactured by Nestlé – a company that I try to avoid whenever possible because it’s evil. Doubly unfortunately, I often forget what items are made by Nestlé and buy them anyway – this was the case here.

The Sicilian Recipe pizza has Italian sausage, spicy ham, Genoa salami, sweet basil, Mozzarella and Fontina cheeses and a spicy marinara sauce. It definitely had a kick – enough that it woke me up but didn’t turn me away from eating it. I can handle a little bit of spice, but I’m someone who orders her food “mild” at a restaurant.

The toppings are well balanced, complementing each other without interfering. It’s clear someone worked to make sure they all worked together in the right proportions. The sauce had a slight sweetness to it that worked very well to counter the spiciness – again, thought went into this. What the toppings lacked, however, was an element of crunch. This might be provided by the crispy crust – but I purposely undercooked it. I would have liked some added onions or peppers.



I liked the Margherita pizza even better. It has Roma tomatoes, Mozzarella and Fontina cheeses, olive oil and basil, and comes with an Italian herb sauce. The toppings were tasty and extremely well balanced. The sauce succeeded in not being too sweet, being subtle and not competing with the tomatoes while still providing some needed acidity. The tomatoes were bright and fresh tasting and the basil pesto was very tasty and used sparingly, which made it a welcome surprise when you took a bite with it. In all, I enjoyed this pizza very much.


Eggo Thick & Fluffy Waffles Review

October 29, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Great for the lazy ones

Toaster waffles are a quick and convenient breakfast food for those on the go – or too lazy to actually make breakfast. They are not particularly tasty, but they’re easy.

During a recent trip I stayed at a couple of hotels offering “made your own waffle” and was surprised at how much better those waffles are, despite being served with cheap toppings. Part of the reason is that those waffles are much thicker than the frozen waffles I’d been buying. The thickness allows for a crispy crust and a soft, chewy interior. Come Eggo Thick & Fluffy waffles.

These waffles are, of course, much smaller and not as thick as those you can make at hotel buffets – but they are significantly thicker than the regular ones. I’d say they’re just thick enough to give you a good waffle experience. Pour real maple syrup and whipped cream on top, and they’re just delicious. Adding sliced fruit makes them even better. If what you’re looking for is to make breakfast-dessert on a plate without actually cooking anything, these are probably the best base for it.

They are, of course, more expensive than regular waffles. A package of 12 was $5 on sale at Safeway ($8 regular)

Trader Joe’s Garlic Gondolas Review

October 27, 2026 / / 0 Comments

What you see is what you get

I picked these Garlic Gondolas last time I visited Trader Joe’s, as they somewhat reminded me of khachapuri, a tasty cheese bread from the Caucuses. These, however, eat more like cheese sticks from a pizzeria, though the bread is somewhat harder (though still doughy). They were, indeed, very garlicky, maybe not cheesy enough, but otherwise pretty generic.

The size is a little problematic. They are really too big for just one person, but it’s a bit awkward to share them. I think it’d be better if they had 4 mini-gondolas. Then again, I don’t eat much bread nowadays and these might be perfectly adequate in size for those who do.

In all, I wouldn’t buy them again but I was glad I tried them.

Artisan Bake at Home French Style Demi Baguette

October 11, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Great to keep in your freezer

I love French bread, baguettes included, but they are only good when they are fresh. After a day, they get hard and you have to toast them to enjoy them. This means they are not particularly suitable for breakfast, unless you want to go shopping before you have your morning coffee.

Now, back when I was a kid and there was a bakery every couple of blocks that made sense. Here in America, however, that’s more of a pain and this is where frozen bread comes in. You take it out of the freezer, bake it for 15 minutes, and you’re enjoying warm, tasty bread with your coffee.

I started buying La Brea Take-and-Bake demi baguettes last Christmas, when I bought myself the Bonne Maman advent calendar and I needed a medium for jam every morning. I loved it, but it’s a bit expensive. Come Amazon to compete with them. Amazon demi baguette are comparable in quality, but cheaper ($3 for 2 6-oz demi baguettes).

Rana Pulled Pork Ravioli is … interesting

June 27, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I love ravioli. It’s been my favorite pasta since I was a kid. Indeed, it was the only pasta I liked as a kid. This love comes from the fact that my grandparents used to make homemade ravioli, and they celebrated my first birthday with a raviolada, I love seeing the photos of my with a face full of sauce.

Short of having my grandmother make ravioli, I only had ravioli growing up when my father would buy the fresh pasta at a nearby pasta factory. But it was expensive. My parents were thrifty, so it was a special occurrence.

In the US (and in Argentina nowadays), you could get frozen ravioli for a reasonable price, so they were one of the first dishes I started “making” after I got married. I still always keep a bag of frozen ravioli in the fridge just in case.

With time, supermarkets started selling higher quality refrigerated ravioli, and recently Rana has moved into selling these “gourmet”-style ravioli, with unusual/special fillings. They were on sale this week ($5 for the 8 oz package, down from $8 regular price), so I grabbed a couple of bags.

I hadn’t had the pulled pork ravioli before and I was sort of puzzled by them – I still am. The pulled pork filling is very tasty, it has a strong, but balanced, BBQ pork flavor and stands well to the pasta. The flavor of fillings in ravioli often gets lost, but that is not the case here. Still, it was not clear to me why I was eating pulled pork inside a ravioli. The flavor/texture combination wasn’t really obvious and I’m still not sure that it worked. Again, it was tasty but it was weird.

I usually eat commercial ravioli with store-bought pasta sauce, but I didn’t think the flavor combinations would work here, so I tried these ravioli with butter – that worked well enough. I think brown butter and sage would work as well, though I was too lazy to make it last night. I did try it with some grated pecorino cheese, but the cheese does nothing here but confuse flavors – it’s definitely best left out. You do need butter or sauce as otherwise the ravioli get too sticky/gummy.

The other issue I have with these ravioli is the package size. The 8 oz package is supposed to offer two servings of one cup each. But unless you are serving them as an appetizer or along other dishes, or simply are not very hungry, a cup of ravioli is too little. Two cups, however, is too much unless you are actually very hungry. Now, the package might be perfect if you are making dinner for yourself and a young child, but that’s no longer my case. I wish they would increase the size to 12 oz, or perhaps decrease it to 6 oz. That said, $5 for a gourmet tasting meal is definitely not a bad price.

The ravioli themselves are pretty large – the kind you need to cut in two in order to fit into your mind. Obviously you can do this with a fork, but I personally prefer smaller ravioli.

I might buy these again to feed to my husband, who just loves pulled pork. But really, I wish Rana would just sell their pulled pork to eat in a sandwich, that feels more natural.

Celentano frozen ravioli review

April 19, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Pretty tasty

Frozen ravioli have long been a savior for busy moms – and just regular people. They are easy (though a bit bulky) to keep in the freezer, quick enough to make, and, combined with store-bought sauce, a super easy weeknight meal. I’m going through yet another cooking strike, so frozen ravioli have reappeared in our lives.

I’ve been buying Celentano frozen ravioli quite a bit lately because they are often on sale at Safeway ($4-5 for 20-24 oz, from a $8 purported regular price), and at that price they are cheaper than Safeway’s own brand. Safeway only carries the cheese, spinach & cheese and beef ravioli, so they are they only ones we tried.

They are pretty good, not dramatically different in taste than other brands. My daughters don’t like the spinach & cheese flavor, but they are happy enough with the cheese ones. These come in both regular and “mini” version, the latter are easier to eat. The regular sized ravioli are too large to eat with one bite, so you need to cut them in two, though you can accomplish this with a fork if you cook them past al dente (which I do). Like other raviolis, if you do this they tend to open in the boiling water and the filling comes out.

The beef ravioli have a subtle flavor, as is often the case in ravioli, but not really different than Safeway’s own brand. There is enough flavor to eat them with butter and cheese instead of sauce.

In all, if you are watching your pennies, there is no particular reason to not buy this brand versus other regular frozen ravioli brands – obviously they are not as good at Genova ravioli, my favorite brand, but they are about 1/3 the price.

Trader Joe’s Chicken Adobo is Really Bad

April 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Trader Joe’s frozen entrees vary in quality, but I don’t think any are as bad as its Chicken Adobo ($4.30). I’ve rarely had such a bad frozen meal.

It’s hard to know what to say about it beyond the fact that it doesn’t taste at all like chicken adobo. The chicken itself had no flavor, and I think it was probably cooked without seasonings by itself. The sauce was watery, and just not pleasant. The portion looked small, but it was so bad I couldn’t even finish it. In all, just a bad dish.

Amazon Grocery Mini Croissants Review

December 7, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Cheap and tasty, what more can you ask for?

I got these mini-croissants ($4 for 12) at Amazon to eat with the jams from my Bonne Maman Advent Calendar, and so far, so good. According to the reviews and the packaging the croissants are usually sold fresh, but mine came frozen. That was not a problem, 15 to 20 seconds in the microwave and they were fluffy and chewy again. This surprised me, and we’ll see whether the quality remains as the days go by (I’m keeping them in the freezer), but a day after, they still taste fresh. They have a very chewy interior, wonderful when warm, and a strong butter flavor – I didn’t bother adding butter to them as they really didn’t need it.

The croissants are pretty small, about the size of the blade of a butter knife, but they’re perfect for those of us watching our carbs. The third ingredient, after flour and water, is actual butter, so you’re eating the real thing here.

Update: The mini croissants survived for a week in the freezer – with us removing one or two a day from the plastic box they came in – without any issues. They did seem harder after they were frozen, so I started microwaving them for about 30 seconds. This made them a little too hot, but perfect by the time I had spread the jam and was ready to eat them. I love just how small they are, the perfect size for me.

Trader Joe’s Mini Chicken Tikka Samosas Review

June 27, 2025 / / 1 Comment

Perfectly nice snack suited for an air fryer

Before the invention of the air fryer, I would not have even bothered buying a frozen snack like this. I don’t like turning the oven if I don’t have to – toaster ovens annoy so much that I put mine away -, and I hate having to pan-fry anything that is store bought. If I can’t microwave it effectively – and microwaving something with pastry like this, will turn the pastry soggy -, I rather not eat it. The air-fryer has changed all that.

These snacks are small, and therefore perfect for an even small air fryer like mine – cook them for 10 minutes at 375F. They come out with a nice, think and crispy shell and a flavorful but not too spicy filling. There is a good ratio of filling to shell. The are pretty tasty by themselves but you can dip them on anything you want. I used honey mustard dressing, as I was going through a honey-mustard-on-everything phase.

I’d buy them again.

Trader Joe’s Brazilian Style Cheese Bread Review

June 21, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Better than chipá

Brazilian style cheese bread had a moment in the US, probably around the time Brazilian steak houses became popular in the country. Due to a very old prejudice, I missed that moment and visited my first Brazilian steak house only last year, when my daughter’s boyfriend mentioned he wanted steak for his birthday. While I didn’t write a review at the time, we very much enjoyed the experience, though my memories of the cheese bread are too vague to refer to it.

Meanwhile, chipá, Guaraní cheese bread, had been having its own moment in Argentina. I tried it at my lodge in the Iberá wetlands and was so unimpressed as not try it again. Judged by the Trader Joe’s version, I should have.

Chipá or Brazilian cheese bread (the Guaraní people live in a vast territory that includes all of Paraguay as well as parts of Bolivia, northeastern Argentina and southern Brazil) is made with tapioca flour, milk, egg and grated cheese and usually shaped as little rolls. Trader Joe’s sells its version frozen with instructions of baking them in the oven. I air fried them (for 7 minutes from frozen at 360F, without preheating) and they were perfect. They had a nice, crispy shell with bright, not-too-salty Parmesan, and a wonderful chewy, elastic interior with a subtle cheese flavor. They are naturally gluten free for those who care about that. I really think you need to eat them warm to enjoy, as the elasticity of the dough is the best part.

Not only did I enjoy these buns very much, but I learned something knew. I already knew that cassava, yuca and manioc were all different names for the same root. What I didn’t know was that tapioca was the name of the starch of said root – thus tapioca flour refers to cassava starch while cassava flour refers to the flour made from the whole root. If you make your own chipá, make sure you use tapioca flour. But given how good Trader Joe’s frozen Brazilian cheese bread is, you really don’t need to go through the trouble.

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