FOOD + BEVERAGE, PRODUCTS, REVIEWS, SPONSORED

Meatless Mondays with Open Nature® Cauliflower Crust Pizzas from Safeway

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Safeway. All opinions are 100% mine.

Trying to make Meatless Mondays a thing, when I’m eating at home. Takeout is great but sometimes, I have those lazy days when I want to just stay home & eat something convenient yet tasty. I am a meat-lover but I do like a lot of foods that are meatless. Like for instance, I prefer my pizzas with little to no meat. I love a classic Margherita!

The craving for pizza was real when I went to my local Safeway the other day so I decided to pick up a few pizzas from the frozen pizza aisle. I like having options so I picked up Three Cheese & Margherita Pizza from Open Nature® with cauliflower crusts. I also purchased some toppings such as mushrooms, fresh basil, truffle Burrata, mozzarella and O Organics® Plant-Based Crumbles as my meat substitute.

I’ve never tried a cauliflower crust pizza before, so I was excited to try these! I added the plant-based crumbles, extra mozzarella, and mushrooms to the three cheese pizza to dress it up a bit and fresh basil and Burrata to the Margherita.

The cooking instructions were very straightforward and the pizzas were ready in less than 10 minutes.

I added the Burrata halfway through baking the pizza so that it would not melt completely and I garnished the Margherita with fresh basil leaves after it was out of the oven to add a little freshness.

The pizza crust texture was different from a regular pizza as expected but you really can’t go wrong with Margherita pizza especially when you add the fresh basil and truffle Burrata to it. The crust was fluffy and soft with crispy edges. I could not believe it was made of cauliflower. I loved the thin crusts & the flavors were great. The plant crumbles were also a good alternative to a meat topping. It added good flavors and texture to the three cheese pizza. The quality of the pizzas were not bad for the price. I would definitely purchase again!

These cauliflower pizza crusts are definitely the perfect alternative to regular pizza crusts when you want to eat something that is better for you. I like that Open Nature® brand has an extensive line of better-for-you plant-based products which are minimally processed and free from 110 food additives. I like the sound of that! I love that these are gluten-free and high in protein.

Open Nature® and O Organics® offers high quality, minimally processed or USDA-certified organic plant-based products exclusively at Northern California stores at Safeway! They are inexpensive, and definitely budget-friendly without sacrificing quality or taste.

If you are still unsure about going into the grocery store during these times, Safeway also offers Grocery Delivery and Drive Up & Go™ for convenient ways to shop! I have yet to try it but will let you know if I do.

I shopped at Safeway in my local area (this is the Foster City location pictured above), but you can also find O Organics® and Open Nature® plant-based products at the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Albertsons, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Randalls, Shaw’s Supermarket, Star Market, and Tom Thumb.

Would you try these? Let me know in the comments if you have tried them and what your thoughts are!

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BAY AREA EATS, FOOD + BEVERAGE, PRODUCTS, SHOP, SPONSORED

Celebrate Summer with Open Nature® Scandal-less Light Ice Cream from Safeway

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Safeway. All opinions are 100% mine.

Summer is here which means ice cream weather is here! To celebrate and to bring a little joy to our unprecedented summer, I’ve decided to make a SCANDAL-LESS ice cream sundae bar using Open Nature® Scandal-less light ice cream. We all could use a little light ice cream after sheltering-in-place, right? I know I could, with all the snacking and eating that was happening in my home during shelter-in-place. I was a little skeptical about the light ice cream at first, but these flavors really won me over! I recommend the Peanut Butter Cup Light Ice Cream.

I went to my local Safeway to gather all the ingredients for my little ice cream bar. I got some topping options such as chocolate chips, hot chocolate sauce, gummies, berries, cereal, maraschino cherries, sugar cones, waffle bowls and of course, some sprinkles! I picked up the following Scandal-less ice creams. I chose a few different flavors such as Peanut Butter Cup, Cookies & Cream, and Sea Salt Caramel. I usually gravitate towards these kinds of flavors normally, so I was excited that Open Nature had a light version of these flavors.

The Peanut Butter Cup flavor was my favorite out of the three because it was not overly sweet and it had a balanced peanut butter & chocolate flavor. Cookies & cream is a classic flavor and I thought Open Nature made a good light version of it. The ice cream wasn’t too hard and it was creamier than other light ice creams I have tried in the past. I enjoyed the sea salt caramel flavor because it had a nice balance of sweet and salty.

Open Nature Scandal-less light ice cream products have no artificial colors or flavors. They are low in calories & fat while having a high protein content. And if you are counting calories, each pint has about 240-370 calories. Can you believe that each ice cream has between 60-80% less calories & 40-50% less fat than regular ice cream? It is definitely treating yourself with less guilt.

For my ice cream sundae bar, I put the toppings in cute bowls and made a little arrangement around the ice creams. Just doing something as simple as that makes such a big difference. I think creating a fun theme is something that everyone can appreciate. It is all about the little details and presentation and of course, the ice cream!

Can you even tell that this is light ice cream? I think everyone was surprised that the ice creams were light. Everyone enjoyed the variety of flavors and the time spent together making our unique ice cream sundaes.

I got these ice creams at Safeway, but you can also find these SCANDAL-LESS ice creams at the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Albertsons, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Randalls, Shaw’s Supermarket, Star Market, Tom Thumb and Vons. Or for convenience, you can also get them through Safeway Grocery Delivery & DriveUp & Go™.

So far, I have been really impressed with Safeway’s private label brands and will continue to try their different items & showcase my favorites throughout the year. Hope you will try them as well & let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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