MetsFan5
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Posts posted by MetsFan5
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I have tried various sets from the meals. The Udon is as good but the rest is absolute trash. To be fair, I don’t have high expectations but one time the pasta burnt at the top and the other time it came out like a soup.
That said, the proteins cooks well and are juicy and flavorful. From my experiences the over steams most of the time and then bakes and sometimes broils.
Their Asian centric meals to me have been the best. Yet the pasta meals are there most popular. As someone who tends to make sauce from scratch I know I should stay away from Italian (for lack of a better term) meals.
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I’m so sorry @Smithy, I find that when I am stressed, depressed or anxious food has little appeal. But your tabouli looks fantastic and is such a smart choice to eat during times of stress— easy on your tummy, filling, fresh and healthy. Best wishes to you and your love.
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5 hours ago, liuzhou said:
Carnivores generally just don't taste that good, IMO. Then there are the vitamin A problems. Pigs have become omnivorous due to humans, but are naturally herbivorous when left to their own devices.
Carnivorous seafood is the big exception to the 'taste bad' notion, although many species are vegetarian.
The worst things I've eaten so far are cØrn and swan.
What was so bad about swan? Too lean and gamey? -
The other night I had their turkey burger with tots meal.
The tots were a bit undercooked but the exterior crisped up in the (provided and maybe reusable) aluminum pan and were good. The turkey burger was juicy, flavorful and surprisingly good. It was a very generous turkey burger— (I did check the internal temp at its thickest it was 160F before resting).
i could only eat about 1/3 of the burger.
I continue to enjoy the meals. I’ve placed future orders and am thinking as long as I keep salad ingredients and raw veggies on hand, this has me relaxed.
I do plan to go to TJ’s and get some of the products that align with the Tovala bar codes in the near future.
Turkey burger cooking, prep and instructions:
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@rotuts thanks. I am enjoying how easy and mess free this oven is. The meals so far (3 out of 4) have been better than expected. The serving sizes are too large for me so I generally eat 1/2 to 1/3rd.
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I admit to finding comfort in canned soup when sick. This new soup— Campbell’s tomato and grilled cheese is interesting. I have grown to like tomato soup but while I have no issue trying a canned version, it wouldn’t be with water.
https://sporked.com/article/campbells-grilled-cheese-and-tomato-soup-review/
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2 hours ago, rotuts said:
the feature on the CSO that helped it make fantastic toast
( not all agree the CSO makes fantastic toast )
is that the oven is sealed . toast on the CSO is dry heat
but the moisture in the bread release steam while the bread toasts
you get that steam when you open the door
the surfaces are crispy , but the center of the toast is not dry.
does your unit have a special toast button ?
Yes it has a toast button and I used that and felt it was a total failure.
The oven is sealed. I did not flip the toast as the instructions didn’t say to do so. I saw the steam function on but either the water reservoir is empty or close to (and why didn’t this highly intuitive machine alert me is that was the case) because the toast was horrible.
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Also, looking ahead at the meals I have, one is appealing to me right now, but it’s too much food for me (I had onigiri and a salad for an early dinner).
I’m craving a pizza but have this meal, which I wish the bar codes had separate bar codes for each item (I suppose I could make both and try the reheating feature out but I’m not that hungry):
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4 minutes ago, rotuts said:
the feature on the CSO that helped it make fantastic toast
( not all agree the CSO makes fantastic toast )
is that the oven is sealed . toast on the CSO is dry heat
but the moisture in the bread release steam while the bread toasts
you get that steam when you open the door
the surfaces are crispy , but the center of the toast is not dry.
does your unit have a special toast button ?
it does have a toast button, that’s what I used. It cycled between steaming and baking. I was very disappointed— I love toast and the CSO seems to be great at that.
I am going to try to make toast using manual settings. I think I will visit the CSO index for times and temps.
It was really bad toast. I would rather eat microwaved bread with butter than that toast.
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The outcome? The toast looked good. To be fair the bread was slightly stale but the toast sucked. It was dry and crumbly throughout, burned on the bottom (I did not take a picture of the bottom of the toast) and the only thing it may have been good for would be making bread crumbs.
I did not replenish the water that was used during the steaming of the shrimp prior to making the toast. So I will try again— the oven makes a noise and a signal when the water reservoir is full, so I’m not always measuring the amount.
The deceitful toast:
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I used the toast feature in the oven. It has toast levels between 1-5, 1 being the lightest. I set it for level 2. Here are pictures of the bread being toasted. You can see that during the toasting process, the oven used both steam and baking features as indicated on the dial screen:
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@blue_dolphin thank you for explaining the pricing and functions much better than I ever could have (especially using an iPhone)!
You can manually set it to both bake and steam or broil and steam.
I will post the cooking instructions for the other meals as I make them.
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I should also add that just in terms of convenience this really was a success for me.
I know “how” to cook but it’s not enjoyable for me, especially when cooking for one. I also hesitate while cooking proteins at times and this alleviated that issue.
Had I made this meal and purchased the ingredients I would have been left with 5-10 servings of left over slaw, had to buy fresh herbs, a lot of pantry ingredients, would have a ton of left over tortillas, etc. and would have a sink of dishes to wash.
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4 hours ago, rotuts said:
how did the meal taste ?
would you buy this again ?
in terms of the oven itself
the scan feature doesn't seem to save you much effort
the meal kit might say cook in the CSO for X minutes at XYZ F
thank you for sharing your experience and taking us step by step
through the oven's us and the Tovela meal kits.
I was under the impression that the ' smart ' feature
was a unique oven cycle , custom tailored for each kit .
but I might be missing something, for sure.
The meal itself was surprisingly good. I would order it again. I didn’t have any pans to wash, just silverware and a bowl I mixed the slaw in. The shrimp came with a small aluminum baking tray.
The oven cycled through different cooking functions while cooking the shrimp— I did not watch them all, but scanning the QR code prompts the oven to use the methods needed to best cook the meal.
The oven as mentioned, can be used manually. Tovala has partnered with various companies— Trader Joe’s, Kirkland/Costco, Ore Ida, Amy’s, Pillsbury, etc so that their QR codes for cooking these products works with the oven.
The meal was salty and I love salt. It wasn’t overly salty to my taste but I imagine it would be for a lot of people. The serving size was generous. I didn’t manage three tacos so I ate the shrimp mixed with the slaw and tossed the extra tortilla. It was my only meal of the day and I was stuffed, not unpleasantly though.
So far I’m pleased with it; the oven wasn’t a large investment and I am not obligated to order weekly meals, only 6 meals in total over I think 6 months time. Meals are generally $9.99 and you can upgrade proteins and order “premium meals” like crab stuffed sole, filet mignon, etc.
Setting it up was super simple— the hardest part was wrestling the oven out of the box. The app allowed me to connect the oven to my wifi, which is how the scan feature works. As directed, before using I washed the sheet pan and air fryer basket and manually set the oven to cook at 450 for 20 minutes. My phone gets a push notification when the cooking time is complete (the oven turns off but the residual heat can over cook things, obviously) which is nice as well.
If anyone is interested, I can continue to document cooking the meals I have and I’ll also be testing out the toast feature and doing more “manual” cooking.
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2 hours ago, cdh said:
Is there a way to manually set the oven to do stuff, or do you need to have bought an ingredient kit with a code to scan to make it do anything? If so, I wonder whether there is a community devoted to reverse engineering the codes so you can tell it specific stuff to do...
Yes, you can set the temperature and time and cooking method (baking, steam, broil and air fry as well as “toast”) manually. The user manual has suggested methods and temperatures for various things like a chicken, reheating things (there is a reheat button) etc.When scanning a dish’s code, the machine knows what time, temperature and cooking methods (s) to use. I believe the machine used steam and broil to cook the shrimp but I didn’t watch it cook.
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Here are the prep instructions. I have used meal kits and did wasn’t like one in terms of prep etc:
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Here is the meal assembled on Dixie’s finest paper plate:
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Honestly considering I mostly live off delivery food from restaurants, this may be an improvement.
Here’s the box unwrapped:
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Here’s the nutritional information for the meal. It’s labeled as being “calorie smart”:
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I will document everything!
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I have the oven, I am setting it up tomorrow and I have 4 meals to prep and scan
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Jones has great products. Superior by far to most commercial brands IMO.
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I like the soy garlic ones.
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4 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:
Broiled miso-marinated black cod on rice noodles, steamed sugar snaps, cucumber & pickled ginger salad
I would pay a decent amount of money for this dish!!
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Tovala Smart Oven
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Yes, in the app you can rate each meal and comment on any issues you’ve had.
I’ve noticed some meals marked as “revamped” which I’m assuming means they changed something about the item to cook it better.