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I HATE TOFU.
Oh my gosh, you don’t know how much I don’t like it. No matter all the healthy benefits and the millions of ways it’s been tried on me (I even order my Pad Thai sans tofu), I don’t eat it. Period.
So when the cute and very knowledgeable resident nutritionist Andrea at Snap Kitchen on McKinney Avenue said “trust me, you’ll love it,” I accepted the deli-container of Silken Tofu Chocolate Mousse to take home with me with every intention of throwing it away. I mean how good could tofu be in my chocolate mousse?
However, the other seasonal dishes I was given to go home and try from the newly opened Snap Kitchen, “the fresh, take-away” eatery from Austin, looked rather pleasing, at least as good as premade, prepacked food could be. The bright white, orange and green space in the middle of Big D seemed like it would be a cool place for those healthy hipsters with nothing except money and calories to burn. However, the staff there were helpful and showed me quickly how the system worked to get me working like a native New Yorker at a Starbucks at 7 AM.
Using an easy color-coding system, the environmentally-conscience containers are correlated with the calorie proportions an individual is aiming for (small, medium and large.) Additionally, using a few lovely icons, your eye can quickly eye some of those big nutrition plan labels you might be looking to follow like paleo, gluten-free and my personal favorite, plant-powered (vegetarian). With both breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and beverages available for the pickin’ you run through the shelves to grab whatever your heart (and your diet plan) allows. You can also choose to warm it up onsite with a convenient microwave or take it home to put in the fridge and pull as needed throughout the week.
In a rush, along with my tofu/mousse/mess, I received a box of snacks including a few sacks of Caveman Quickies (a paleo snack mix), some tasty chocolate chip cookies (those didn’t make it on the ride home), a spinach and goat cheese scramble, kale watermelon snack and roasted cauliflower.I put them in the fridge and waited for the next morning to begin my quest for fresh healthy eating and no Lean Cuisines in sight. I could only hope they were good enough that I didn’t have to create back-up options for my meals throughout the day.
The next morning after a brief zap in the microwave, I opened up the goat cheese scramble and went in for the first bite. OMG. It was good. Like-not-just-because-it’s-healthy-good, but I would eat this everyday if you let me. I cleaned up the scramble and sweet potato “fries”. Snack time around 10 AM was even better with my Caveman Quickie made with Almond, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Dried Blueberries, Maple Syrup, Honey, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil and Cayenne Pepper. While only priced around $2.25, I was now pretty much in love. Healthy, really good and reasonably priced? I was in. But I still had dessert to conquer.
I had left tofu chocolate in the fridge for a few days, but I finally had a craving for something sweet. Being good all week long eating healthy, I wanted something bad. Something smooth. Something chocolate. And all I had was the tofu chocolate mousse. So I relented, grabbed a spoon and squatted next to my daughter in hopes I could at least feed it to her when I hated it.
Ironically, just like her when I feed her something healthy, I had kept from eating something absolutely delicious because of all my preconceived notions about tofu. This mousse was actually better than anything I had eaten in a long time. And because I was happy eating it, the daughter wanted some too. And it’s not nice to not share. So I shared A BITE. Then she came in like flies to honey. She was hooked too and we were fighting over each and every bite. The rich, but not heavy dessert was like silk and seemed like it would be deserving of any fine restaurant’s menus with a little orange zest and just the right amount of chocolate. No hint of tofu – in texture or taste. I was in heaven…at least until we took the last bite.
So after a few days and a few dishes I’m totally obsessed with Snap Kitchen. While living out in the ‘burbs of A-Town doesn’t make me their prime shopper, I will be making trips to see them regularly to grab a few dishes, definitely those snacks and perhaps another tofu/chocolate/marvelous mess.
Snap Kitchen has three locations in North Texas (with a fourth opening soon.) Check the website for your closest location and make a trip the next time you’re looking for something quick, healthy and delicious. Don’t worry – they’ll make it a snap!
Disclaimer: I was provided some amazing samples of SNAP KITCHEN snacks and meals so I could tell you how they tasted. However, all the lipsmackin’ in this post is all mine and so are my comments shared here. (Don’t let my slobbering get in the way of reading.)
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