I’ve been a full vegetarian for over a year now, and for some reason Lightlife products haven’t really made it onto my radar. I’ve used their vegetarian pepperoni on my Save The Piggy pizza and pepperoni pizza, but that really had been the extent of their products. I should have tried more sooner, because the pepperoni was amazing (and far better than Yves, which I had to pick off my pizza!).
So…here is to buying a clue.
My local grocery store does Manager’s Specials on products when they come in a little banged up. A box of Lightlife’s Spicy Sweet & Sour Smart Cutlets fell into this category one day when I was perusing the Natural Foods and Vegetarian section at the grocery store. The only thing wrong with it was that the box was a bit crushed. The product was in perfect condition. But, as the manager of the store explained, people won’t buy something if the packaging is crushed, so they mark it down to sell it. Brilliant!
And sold this was. I brought it home and put it in my fridge to cook up sometime during the week.
These little cutlets are so easy to prepare. And all I did was steam up a bit of white rice to accompany it. It had been a long day at the office, so the thought of cooking something from scratch was daunting. I opened up my fridge and spotted the cutlets. So I put some rice in the steamer and while that cooked up, I looked at how to best prepare the cutlets. It gives a couple of options: microwave or stove top. Since I was feeling lazy, I simply put a cutlet on a plate with the sauce over it and heated it up in the microwave. It was quick and easy. And then I put down a serving of rice with it and had a dinner ready in quick order.
First bite…and I immediately noticed the kick of spice in the sauce. The texture was perfect. It didn’t taste rubbery or soft, despite being microwaved. The flavor was spot-on. A delicious blend of sweetness with the kick of Asian spice. It was like eating at a Chinese restaurant, but right out of my kitchen. There is certainly a nice blend of Asian influence in the sauce that accompanies the cutlet.
All this did was solidify my belief that Lightlife does, indeed, make fantastic products. This was just the right level of savory and spicy. And I enjoyed every bite of it, then mopped up the extra sauce with my rice.
Truly delicious down to the last bite.
The Celiathlete 