SPONSORED POST: Green Giant Steamers Veggies

When it comes to frozen vegetables, I usually stick to peas, peas and carrots, or a peas, carrots, and fava bean medley.  This is because I mostly use frozen vegetables in fried rice, a dish which is all about using up what you have and sometimes that means no fresh vegetables. When Foodbuzz teamed up with Green Giant and sent me a coupon for their new Steamers bag, I considered using this in fried rice also. But I saw the potential that my little Valley Blend with butter sauce bag had for freshness and wanted to compare how it would taste as a fresh vegetable substitute. Also, the steamers bag has a base so the bag can stand in the microwave and a cook sensor that will say "DONE" when the veggies are ready. I wanted to test the bag technology and the vegetable taste so I did not incorporate it into a recipe.

Here's the final product after 5.5 to 7 minutes in the microwave. Phil checked periodically to see the "DONE" sign. Green Giant got the taste right; the veggies were sweet and the butter sauce was delicious. The texture is still mushy like most frozen vegetables. The portion size is pretty small. For single folks, this is a perfect portion for one.The "DONE" sign was pretty faint and difficult to see. I attempted some butter garlic scampi pasta and tossed these veggies into my bowl. It made the pasta much better. So the final verdict? Yes on taste, yes on convenience because you can pop it in the microwave and forget about it, yes on compatibility with other foods. I can see this going well with things other than pasta.

Using Tyler Florence's Shrimp Scampi recipe, I made a pasta to go with my veggies. 

For the first time ever, I cooked with dry sherry.

I have given up on buying fresh limes and lemons only to use a wedge and waste the rest. I'll use the bottles now.

My butter, garlic, onion, red pepper mixture. Didn't have shallots so I replaced them with onions. I really think I should have browned the butter more at this step.

After adding wine, lemon juice, more butter and oil.

Here's the final product. It was very buttery but not very flavorful. I didn't put enough shrimp and didn't brown the butter. TyFlo's recipe called for adding 1 cup of pasta water at the end. This made my pasta watery and bland. Maybe next time I will skip this step. I mixed in my veggies at the last minute just to taste and it improved the pasta alot.

Thank you to Foodbuzz and Green Giant for this opportunity to try frozen veggies that are new to my repertoire. Now I know I have a delicious alternative to fresh veggies, and especially one that's already seasoned.  

P.S. Here's another reminder to enter to win the Godiva goodie bag with Godiva apron, truffle, coffee mug, 2 bags of coffee, and Godiva coupons. Directions are here. WINNER PICKED AND ANNOUNCED BY MONDAY 11/21/2011.