A trip to Seattle isn’t complete without going to Wal-Mart to stock up on prepackaged foods not available in Canada. I probably spent more at Wal-Mart than I do at the Seattle Premium Outlet. Pretty sad, I know!

Most of these items that I found have a bit too much salt, but that’s normal for pre-packaged foods.

We totally don’t have Chef Boyardee’s Macaroni products in Canada. When I saw these items, I knew I had to try it. I might be disappointed, but I wanted to try anyways.

The Mac & Cheese was horrible! It tasted so bland and boring. It was so hard trying to finish the entire can.

The Cheesy Burger Macaroni and the Chili Mac wasn’t too bad at all. If you add some hot sauce into it, it really makes it taste a lot better.

Campbell’s Raviolios are similar to Chef Boyardee’s Beef Ravioli. The only major difference is the shape of the pasta. Raviolios are oval-shaped compared to the square shape of the usual beef ravioli. Tasted good and no complaints.

Spaghettio’s Meatballs is like regular spaghetti and meatballs but with circular pasta. Tasted alright as well.

Spaghettio’s Goldfish was fun to eat since everyone loves the snack the smiles back…goldfish!

I also have these cool new line of soups called Campbells GO. It’s targeted towards the younger generations that are ethnically diverse and have sophisticated tastes. I grabbed 2 of the different flavours since I thought the packaging was cool and the flavours really sounded yummy.

Chicken and Quinoa with poblano chilis and the spicy chorizo and pulled chicken with black beans tasted pretty good. It was easy to prepare and ready within minutes.

I am always in a rush, so meals like this work for me. Thus I rarely cook at home…and eat out all the time.

When I was a kid, I always adored Warheads for creating their sour warhead candy. It was a pleasure to see people putting the candy in their mouth and seeing them squirm from the sour taste. I was an evil kid, but it was something fun to do.

When I was at Wal-Mart, I saw this in one of the aisles and decided to give it a try. We were very excited because the only items we’ve only had were the sour warheads.

The cubes come in 6 flavours – Green Apple, Blue Raspberry, Strawberry, Watermelon, Orange and Black Cherry. The candies are not very sour at all. Not even comparable to the sour in Sour Warheads.

After trying all the flavours, all of them suck! The only flavours that were remotely decent was the orange and green apple. It had a very strong artificial taste to them and the watermelon flavour really seeped into the other flavours. I probably will never buy this product again.

Are you a Warheads fan? Have you tried this product yet?

Website: http://www.warheads.com/

On Episode 4 of Food Network Canada’s Recipe to Riches, Jackie Koh of Vancouver, British Columbia battled against other home cooks in the Hors d’Oeuvres category.

Small in stature but big in personality, Vancouver’s Jackie Koh has a flair for fashion, fun and food. She was born and raised in Seoul, Korea and is passionate about maintaining a strong link to her roots through her cooking. Jackie’s sweet, spicy and savoury meatball recipe is an homage, of sorts, to her late father and to the great pride for her Korean heritage that was instilled in her by him.

I was very excited to try these Korean Meatballs and to see M’s reaction to the meatballs. As he is Korean, he would know if they are truly good or not. You can find the Triple ‘S’ Korean Meatballs at any Loblaw store for $6.99 in the frozen section.

Even though the box says there are 21 meatballs, my box had 23. Woot!

The Triple ‘S’ Meatballs is a blend of beef and pork and a combination of sweet, spicy and savoury spices. These meatballs are already fully cooked, so you stick them in the oven just to heat them up. When cooking them, I did find red oil coming out of these meatballs, but when you put them in your mouth, it’s a bit dry.

The level of spice was nice if you like an extra kick in your food. I wasn’t a huge fan of the meatballs, but M did enjoy the taste.

The recipe is on their website here.

On the 5th episode of Food Network Canada’s Recipe to Riches, Rick Matharu won the entrees category with his butter chicken lasagna creation. It was a very close competition, but Rick’s unique recipe and personality shined through to win the prize.

Rick Matharu is a proud Canadian of Indian descent with a friendly smile and a velvety smooth voice. He’s a local Punjabi radio personality who is enthusiastic about food, photography, and the fine art of spinning tunes. Over the years, Rick has also become something of a master of fusion cooking – a skill he picked up as a schoolboy from his mom, who would always put an unexpected Punjabi twist on little Ricky’s lunches.

When my mom went to the store to buy a few Recipe to Riches items, she was very very excited  since she thought it was very creative. It retails for $7.99 and can be found at any Loblaws stores or places that sell Presidents Choice products.

You stick it in the oven with the plastic cover on, just pop some holes through it so steam can escape. Later on, you can peel off the entire sheet so the top can brown nicely.

The butter chicken lasagna is made of tandoori-spiced chicken in a savoury sauce made with garam masala, sautéed red onions, green peppers and mushrooms. It is a bit spicy, so little kids may not enjoy it. It has a medium amount of spice, but it blends nicely.

The recipe is on their website here.

In Episode 2 of Food Network Canada’s Recipe to Riches, Stephen Child’s Chipotle Chili Slams won the Savory Snacks Category. He is from Victoria, British Columbia and battled many other home cooks to win. Don’t let the chili scare you on the package, it’s not that intense.

Childs is a civil engineer whose passion for food is surpassed only by his keen sense of ingenuity. Only a guy like Stephen could take a recipe for a classic comfort food like chili with cornbread and turn it inside-out, so to speak, with delicious success.

Each box retails for $4.99 and is available at all Loblaw stores across Canada! Any place that sells Presidents Choice products.

Inside the box are 4 wrapped up Chipotle Chili Slams.

You can either microwave it quickly or throw it in the toaster oven.

Thats how it looks like when it’s out of the oven.

The Chipotle Chili Slams contains some vegetarian bean chili filling covered in a golden wheat and cornmeal pastry. I find the best way to prepare this is through the mini oven, but if you don’t have time, the microwave is good too, except you won’t get as crunchy of an exterior. It wasn’t too spicy at all and tasted really good. The only thing I didn’t like was the cornmeal falling off.

Too bad they had to modify the recipe. I would have loved to try it how it was meant to be eaten.

The recipe is on their website here.

In Episode 3 of Recipie to Riches on Food Network Canada, Tracey Rigden from Etobicoke, Ontario battled it out in the Cookies and Squares category for her Salt-Kissed Dulce de Leche Brownie.

Tracey Rigden has been baking for as long as she can remember. A self-admitted ‘geek’, she loves to read fantasy and sci-fi in her spare time, and has even been known to attend the conventions… when she isn’t busy baking, that is. Tracey’s winning brownie recipe is definitely out of this world – a combination, in fact, of two recipes which she has perfected over several years.

Salt-Kissed Dulce de Leche Brownie retails for $8.99 at any Loblaw Stores such as Superstore, No Frills, etc.

Inside of the box is a large pan of brownies, you just let it thaw and it’s ready to be served. It’s great that it’s so easy to prepare.

It’s easy to slice up and great for a large party. You don’t need a lot of this to be satisfied. You can slice up about 16 squares.

The Salt-Kissed Dulce de Leche Brownie is a dense brownie layer topped with sweet dulce de leche under a rich chocolate ganache sprinkled with sea salt. I thought the dulce de leche was a tad sweet, but my sisters loved this.

Have you tried this? Thoughts?

The recipe is on their website here.