Vegan 'chicken' marsala (Gardein)

Gardein Chick'n Marsala with a side of steamed broccoli rabe.

While I thoroughly enjoyed all the rich and wonderful food at the Foodbuzz festival (and the eating out that occurred after the weekend) I was careful to be conscious of how much fat I was ingesting.

Of course, I had to guess for many of the meals but I did a fair job - my stomach held up well for the weekend and it has only been in the last day or so it has started to rebel.

Sigh, the joys of having a stomach sensitive to high levels of fats...

When I spotted this at the store:

I knew that this chick'n masala would be a great way to kick off the next week of low-fat eating.

I was also curious to try out some of the Alexia food products after enjoying them out at the Foodbuzz festival. 

Alexia did hand out $1 off coupons and while I did have one in my pocket when I went in the store - I completely forgot to use it. 

So, while I am down $1 at least I get out of putting in a disclaimer - score!


The Gardein package contained two chick'n breasts with sauce. What I really liked was that each chick'n breast was individually sealed with its sauce packet.

And if you are like me and never read package directions - make sure to NOT put this in the freezer (like I did) because the cooking instructions assumed a refrigerated product not a rock hard frozen one.

Live and learn.

About five discs of the frozen potatoes equals one serving  so they went into the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes and came out creamy and warm.

The frozen chick'n patty took a while to cook - it being frozen and all - so I ended up with less sauce than I think is intended.

 
The texture was pretty darn good - I would not be fooled into thinking I was actually eating a chicken breast but it was pretty close.

I ended up drizzling some balsamic vinegar on top to make up for the lack of sauce.

So the fat gram total for my breakfast comes out to be:

Gardein Chick'n Marsala                        6g

One serving of Alexia mashed potatoes  6g

2 cups of steamed broccoli rabe            0g
 -------------------------------------------------------
Total:                                                   12g

Not too bad for a decent sized meal. 

I am shooting for around 20g of fat per day since this seems to be the fat level that calms my stomach.

Fun stuff, huh? 

But I figured if there are any readers who have a fat intolerant stomach like me - you might be interested in how I try to balance it so I can enjoy the occasional indulgent meal (or weekend).

I loved the Alexia mashed potatoes but they were almost too yummy - I think I would have an issue with portion control if I always had these in the freezer.

For the Gardein Chick'n masala - I am going to hold off on a definitive opinion until I try making it when it is unfrozen:-)

I hope everyone is having a nice relaxing weekend!