Good Food Made Simple Brunch: Thoughts on Reading Labels and Knowing What is In Your Food
As I mentioned in Friday’s post, I attended a blogger brunch at Stir (Barbara Lynch’s beautiful test kitchen and food library) sponsored by Good Food Made Simple on Friday morning. The company was launching part of their new healthy, flash-frozen product line and we were lucky to be among the first people to try it and offer feedback. Since I love food, meeting new people and trying new things, I was 100% in.
[yup, a library filled with ALL f0od-related books, how cool?]
When we first arrived, we were seated around the cozy countertop with place settings, including pencils and paper to take notes. Hey, when you’re serving a group of food and mommy bloggers, you best be prepared! While we waited for the rest of the group to arrive, I’m pretty sure I downed at least 5 cups of coffee…oops!
Once everyone gathered, the event began. The products being presented to us were 100% steel cut oats, organic rolled oats, and whole and egg white patties. I won’t lie: at first I was a little weary. Frozen oatmeal and eggs? How strange. Normally I avoid the frozen food aisle like the plague, other than my weekly purchase of frozen fresh blueberries and a bag of organic broccoli.
[mmm…what’s on tap for the day]
But then the founder said something that really stood out to me – that the mission of Good Food Made Simple is to create good-for-you food in a simple way, that is not loaded with crap and hundreds of ingredients.
In fact, what you see is what you get. The oatmeal is made up of oats, salt and water, plus natural sweeteners like fruit and sugar in the flavored varieties. And the egg patties didn’t have a list up the wazoo of ingredient after ingredient (think: McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches). Rather, when you took a bite of the egg patty, you knew you were eating real eggs. Not to mention it was absolutely delicious, especially when the chef topped it with homemade pesto and roasted tomatoes. YUM.
[Good Food Made Simple products even come in simple, trendy boxes]
[egg white patty with roasted tomatoes and pesto ]
The company’s goal for the future is to have their products trusted by the everyday consumer. You know, to have people shopping for food know “This is good for me”…”The ingredients aren’t scary nor mysterious”…”Heck, I don’t even need to look at the label. I just know.”
After all, isn’t that how it should be? Don’t you want to know what’s going into the food you’re putting into your body? would you really want to eat something made with ingredients you can’t pronounce filled with artificial dyes? No thank you.
That’s the number one beauty of cooking for myself: knowing exactly what’s going into each and every meal I make. But you know what? Sometimes life gets in the way and we just don’t feel like cooking. Or we work late. Or you have a houseful of screaming children running around. So it’s nice to have a quick, easy and healthy alternative. And Good Food Made Simple is exactly that.
Do you pay attention to the ingredients listen on the back of the box? How do you navigate the frozen food aisle? How much do you really know about the food you eat on a daily basis?
May 17th, 2011 at 8:48 am
Hi Rachel! I dont buy much frozen food, but when I do, I definitely look at labels. To have something simple like the products you tasted would be really helpful for those in a time crunch! I like the idea of making things simpler for those that claim there is not enough time to eat healthily … Its a win win, no matter if you have to make your egg from scratch or buy it frozen! Sounds like you had a really cool time!
May 17th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Thanks for the comment Athena and welcome to my blog!
I agree completely, that as long as you’re eating healthy (and knowing what’s in your food) it’s a win win situation no matter what way you choose to buy your food.
As for me, I usually cook myself but some people have hectic schedules so this would be a great alternative vs. say an unhealthy sandwich at DD or McDonald’s.
Thanks again for your input!
May 27th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Thanks for sharing!