What to Eat: Try Target’s Simply Balanced Microwaveable Lentils and Grains
You gotta give Target credit. Its Simply Balanced Black Beluga Lentils, Cultivated Wild Rice, Farro, and Whole Grain Garlic 6 Grain Blend are a steal.
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Move over, brown rice. Now you can whip up something different in just 90 seconds. That’s because the lentils and grains are already cooked, and can sit in your pantry in their shelf-stable pouches until you’re ready to pop them into the microwave.
Bonus: Target adds no salt (or anything else except water) to three of the four. And the Garlic 6 Grain Blend—a mix of grains like brown rice, rye, bulgur, quinoa, and wild rice—has just 150 milligrams of sodium per cup.
(Caution: Simply Balanced also sells saltier grains. The Garlic & Olive Oil Quinoa, Southwestern-style Quinoa & Brown Rice, and Whole Grain Quinoa each has about 650 mg of sodium per cup. That’s in the same ballpark as Near East and Uncle Ben’s.)
So toss some warm Simply Balanced lentils, farro (think nutty, like wheat berries), or wild rice into a salad of chopped spinach, cherry tomatoes, and shredded carrots with a dijon mustard vinaigrette.
Or combine them with chopped roasted or sautéed vegetables like red and yellow bell peppers, scallions, butternut squash, and broccoli. Mmm.
Is Target trying to offer whole foods to people who don’t want to pay Whole Foods prices?
That’s Simply Brilliant.
To find a Target location near you that carries these Simply Balanced products call (800) 440-0680 or visit target.com.
Other relevant links:
- A healthy recipe for a quick lunch salad. See: Healthy Recipes: Lentil and Grain Salad
- Ready-to-eat wheat berries in a minute. See: Whole Grains in a Hurry
- A new line of great-tasting frozen meals. See: These new frozen dinners aren’t salt heavy and taste great
Could the plastic bag that contains the food be free of BPA, BPS, phthalates, etc.?
I don’t understand how these meals can be recommended knowing full well that microwaving anything destroys most of the nutrients and enzymes in the food. These meals may be nutrient dense, but only if they are heated in any other manner than a microwave.
From Nutrition Action Healthletter: It’s a myth that microwave ovens destroy the nutrients in food. There are a number of reasons why microwaving is actually a more benign way of cooking foods, including a relatively short cooking time and the use of less water for nutrients to leach into. The notion that microwaving creates toxic compounds, as some people claim on the Internet, is nonsense and has no credible scientific evidence.
Are there any chemicals added to make it shelf stable?