Falafel Mix

We made a falafel mix from Trader Joe's recently, one that was sitting in our pantry for over a year, mostly because it didn't expire until March 2020 and we had so much else to eat in the meantime. We had been putting together a lot of pantry meals this month since we had some long stretches without grocery shopping, and the falafel mix sounded like the perfect thing to try out for a Mediterranean dinner, paired with some other TJ's sides that'll be in another post at some point - the dolmas and the giant white beans.

I hadn't really paid much attention to the nutritional content of the falafel mix when we bought it, and since then, only checked the ingredients to make sure there was no egg (there isn't any; it's vegan) and we could give it to B. We figured that we would make the whole box, and if there were any falafel left over, it would be good for lunch. I started mixing, and since I had nothing else to do, started reading the nutritional facts. My jaw dropped when I got to the sodium number. That couldn't possibly be right, could it?


(Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is intended to be health or nutrition advice, but just our take on what was provided on the package.)

One serving size according to the box was 180 calories and 810 milligrams of sodium. 810 milligrams of sodium?! That's a lot in my book, especially considering a serving size is 1/3 cup of mix. The box has 9 servings (3 cups of mix), which meant that the entire box was 1620 calories and 7290 milligrams of sodium. 1620 calories isn't nothing either, but if you divide that by 3 (two adults, one toddler, and maybe some leftovers), that's 540 calories each, so not that terrible. But even if you divide that sodium number into thirds, that's 2430 milligrams of sodium and much, much more than any person should really be eating in a day (not my judgment; it surpasses the American Heart Association's recommended daily max) and far more than any toddler should be ingesting. Sometimes things with high sodium counts on the package don't taste that salty though, so I hoped for the best. I don't think I realized when I picked up the box at the store that the sodium content could be this high. I am so glad the new FDA labels this year recommend giving the numbers for the entire package and can't wait to start seeing those become more common.


Putting together the falafel mix was easy. One cup of mix, 3/4 cup of water, mix well, let it sit for about 45 minutes, shape the falafel into balls or patties, bake for 25 minutes, done. Far easier than making falafel on your own from scratch. They smelled so good as they baked in the oven, and when I pulled them out after about 25 minutes, they had puffed up nicely and texturally were dense but soft. (We weren't going for crispy and opted not to fry them.)


Then we tried them, and they were more salty-tasting than we thought they would be, even knowing the sodium content. All we could taste was salt. So much salt. All those delicious spices we could smell when they were baking? Gone and overpowered by salt. We had an entire tray full of baked falafel patties, and after having a few each, couldn't bear to eat any more. We put on some hummus to try to kill the salt, but it didn't work. We unfortunately didn't have any yogurt or tzatziki to see if that would work better. The entire time we ate the falafel, we tried to figure out what we could possibly eat it with that would counteract the insane amount of saltiness, and all we came up with were lightly dressed salads and plain yogurt. They were just unbearably salty, and if I hadn't bought them so long ago, I would have considered bringing them back for a refund. They were that inedible for us.


The other thing I did while eating the salty, salty, salty falafel was read every review of the falafel mix I could find on the internet to see if there was a general agreement that they were salty. I know I probably cook with less salt than the average American, and even more so now, cooking for a toddler, but I was still surprised how in the minority we were on our opinion. Most people never even mentioned the salt, the majority of people raved and loved the mix overall, and I think I found maybe three people who thought they were salty. In almost every case, other people responded that they did not find them salty at all, or that maybe there were just abnormally salty packages, something I find unlikely considering that the package was actually intended to have over 7000 milligrams of sodium. I don't even know the last time we didn't finish a meal and tossed it, because we just don't do that and we operate under the general principle that most things are salvageable, but we just couldn't finish these. We couldn't even eat 2/3 of them.

Buy again? A very sad but enthusiastic no. We wanted to like these so much, since a simple falafel bake would make for such an easy weeknight dinner. But unless the nutritional facts have changed since we bought them (which would account for all the raves if true, and I'll update this post if that's the case), I can't see us getting these again.

Week 5 - Rice

The week 5 challenge theme, rice, was actually one of the more difficult ones for me as far as choosing a recipe to try. We eat a fair amount of rice at home, but how could I make rice the central ingredient instead of just an accompaniment? Risotto was the first thing that came to mind, but considering I'm currently in physical therapy so that I can figure out how to stand longer without pain, something where I needed to be standing at the stove for an extended period of time was just not a great option. I looked and looked until I found a recipe that sounded delicious and where rice seemed to be a main part of the dish instead of the side, and I ended up deciding on cheesy Italian rice with sausage from Delish. It wasn't an especially complicated dish, but it sounded like it would work for us.

The ingredients for the rice dish, as adapted from the Delish original, were:

- 2 cups brown rice (measured before cooking) ($2)
- olive oil for sautéing and drizzling ($0.20)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.79)
- 2 spoonfuls of minced garlic ($0.25)
- 14 oz mild Italian chicken sausage ($5.99)
- 2 zucchini ($1.47)
- a few handfuls of cremini mushrooms ($2.19)
- 1/3 batch of parsley ($0.50)
- shredded parmesan cheese ($2)
- lemon juice to taste ($0.15)
- freshly ground black pepper ($0.05)

We made some modifications from the original, like opting for zucchini and mushrooms instead of spinach since those were easier for B to eat, choosing parmesan over mozzarella and cheddar because it was better for my lactose intolerance issues, using more sausage, and adding parsley. The total cost of our recipe was $15.59. Not cheap, but not bad at all for dinner for three hungry people with enough leftovers for one lunch.


The steps for making the rice were:

1. Make the rice in the rice cooker. [Note: We made two cups of rice in our rice cooker, but didn't end up using 100% of it. We kept a little bit on the side in case B didn't like this and wanted some plain rice, but at the end of the meal, it was still in the rice cooker so we just finished it. We could have added all of it though, so I'm counting it all.]

2. Heat olive oil in large pot. Add onion and garlic, and cook until soft.

3. Add sausage, crumble while cooking it, and cook until fully cooked through.


4. Add zucchini and mushrooms, and cook until both are soft enough to eat.

5. Add cooked rice into the pot along with the cheese. Stir well. Add parsley, stir, and remove from heat.

6. Season with olive oil, lemon juice, and black pepper to taste.


Overall, we really liked this one. It was our first time using the 365 brand mild Italian chicken sausage, and despite the fact that it contained over 3000 milligrams of sodium according to the package, the dish was somehow not incredibly salty. I didn't add any extra salt because of the sausage's sodium content, but it wasn't really that salty at all. It was also probably a little less cheesy than the original, since we used parmesan instead of super-melty cheddar and mozzarella, but we were okay with that.


As far as the challenge, the rice was definitely the center of attention, mostly because there was so much rice. This probably could be made with less rice to let the other ingredients shine more, but considering we were hungry that night, it was probably good that we used as much as we did. Making the dish was fairly simple and easy, and if you already had cooked rice (and didn't have to wait two hours for it to be ready in the rice cooker), it could be a good, quick work night meal. We would make this again.