ABSTRACT: Amy's Organic Chili Medium With Vegetables and Amy's Organic Refried Beans are great food choices for a Mexican feast and they are made of all natural and organic ingredients
CONTENT: I happen to have a wonderful and delightful small market near me that has been there for quite a long time, and have to admit it was only fairly recently that I reintroduced myself to this store. It happened on a day when I was a bit rushed and didn't quite feel like going to the larger supermarket and I only needed a few things. So being that this store was on my way home, I decided to stop in. This store which is a true blue mom and pop type store has outside stands where they sell fresh fruits and vegetables, and inside the store, which is not much larger than my living room, sells a whole array of other food products.
Well as I mentioned, it had been quite awhile since I had even bothered to shop in this store, so I was in for a real pleasant surprise. The one thing I was to discover, and make me fall in love with this store, is that they happen to have a lot of organic type foods and amazingly not overpriced the way some stores will charge for anything labeled "organic". It was here that I happen to come across a fair amount of the Amy's brand of canned foods, a company that I quite frankly had never heard of before, but being rather adventurous I decided to try some. At this particular time, I picked a can of Amy's Organic Medium Hot Chili with Vegetables and a can of Amy's Vegetarian Organic Traditional Refried Beans as they sounded great. I mean, who doesn't love a good piping hot bowl of chili especially on a cold winter night?
In the past, I've made my own yummy tasting chili, but since I live alone now, sometimes it just doesn't pay for me to make large quantities of something like chili and yes, frankly while I still prefer cooking everything from scratch, now and then I've gotten a bit lazy about cooking and might reach for a processed type food product.
As it turned out however, I wasn't to use those cans of chili or refried beans for quite some time to come, not until just recently, and it was by no means a cold winter night, but a April spring evening. Just a week ago, the temperature here in the NYC area had soared to 92º, but then a few days later the temperature kept falling until it had plunged by some 30º and what can I say? It was as if those two cans were "calling" to me. Naturally, since these are canned foods, all one has to do is simply open the cans and heat up, but before I did, I cooked up some rice to accompany my little Mexican feast.
Here are the specific nutrition facts for each product:
Amy's Organic Medium Chili With Vegetables
Ingredients: (Vegan) Organic Red Beans, Filtered Water, Organic Onions, Organic Bell Peppers, Organic Potatoes, Organic Carrots, Organic Corn, Organic Rice Flour, Organic High Oleic Safflower and/or Sunflower Oil, Organic Jalapeno Peppers, Spices, Organic Garlic, Sea Salt
Nutrition Facts: Serving Size 1 Cup-190 Calories. Total Fat 6g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium: 590mg, Carbohydrates 29mg, Fiber 8mg, Sugars 6mg, Protein 7g
Amy's Vegetarian Organic Refried Beans (Traditional)
Ingredients: (Vegan) Organic Pinto Beans, Filtered Water, Organic Onions, Organic High Oleic Safflower and/orSunflower Oil, Sea Salt, Organic, Garlic, Organic Spices.
Nutrition Facts: Serving Size 1/2 cup-140 Calories. Total Fat 3g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 390mg, Carbohydrates 22g, Fiber 6g, Sugars 1g, Proteins 7g
As you can see, these two products are a vegetarian/vegans dream and what also makes these two products even more special is the fact that they are all organic. There are no added chemicals or preservatives for those wishing to eat a healthier processed food product.
Now for my opinion of the taste of both. Despite Amy's Organic Chili being labeled "Medium", I found it to have a good, spicy kick to it due to the Jalapeño Peppers, yet was not unbearably hot. In other words, I didn't need glasses and glasses of water to cool me down while eating it. Besides the beans, I could actually see the finely chopped bell peppers, potatoes, carrots and corn. The consistency of the chili was good and thick and rich and was to make for a great hearty meal. To give it a little extra touch to it, I decided to grate some Cheddar Cheese over it.
Since I have done Mexican cooking, I'm no stranger to making my own refried beans, but what could be easier than simply opening a can, such as Amy's Organic Refried Beans and heating it up? I also found it delightfully tasty and also liked the fact that it too uses all organic and natural ingredients. The consistency of the refried beans was thick and pasty, the way refried beans are supposed to be.
Then, I have to admit, I got curious. As you can guess, Amy's Kitchen does have a website and I would sure love to try their other products. You can't believe the variety of foods that they have, from 21 types of frozen pizza, either a full pizza pie or single serve varieties; a good variety of enchiladas, macaroni and cheese, lasagna, Indian type frozen foods, breakfast foods, veggie burgers, whole meal entrees, Asian meals, even snacks and cakes, and yes all are made with only natural and organic ingredients. Just looking at the vast variety of foods Amy's Kitchen sells is enough to make one mouth drool and I wish could find a store that sold more of Amy's food products, but alas, since that shop that sold the Chili and Refried Beans doesn't have a freezer section, it looks like I'm out of luck in trying any of the frozen foods. I even looked at the store locater hoping to find a supermarket near me that sold Amy's Kitchen foods, and discovered that there aren't. Yes, one can order directly from the Amy's Kitchen, but one can only buy in quantity of one product, in other words, you can't order just one of each item to give you a variety of choices. To give an example of what I mean, if you wanted to order Amy's Kitchen 3 Cheese Pizza with Cornmeal Crust, you would have to order an 8-pack in which goes for $65.36 which would be a bit pricey for me.
If you are fortunate enough to have a store near you that sells some of Amy's Kitchen food products, and you might be luckier in finding their canned foods, I would highly recommend the Amy's Organic Medium Chili With Vegetables and Vegetarian Organic Refried Beans (Traditional) for that evening you wish to have a Mexican feast and like the idea of eating a processed food that is completely natural and organic. My rating for both? While in my opinion, nothing beats completely homemade foods, I would rate both products a five out of five, that's how good it is.
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