Cleaning Wipes = Bad

Since I've made a habit of confessing my vices to the world through VTT, I may as well fill you in on another one, gentle reader. I am naturally a very messy girl. I really am. I was never one to be dirtydirty per se, but certainly disorganized! It has only been through living with a very tidy roomie or two that I have learned to keep my apartment in a presentable state. And so I will take whatever shortcuts I can find to fulfil my quest for order on the home front.

Keeping that in mind, I have come to love cleaning wipes. With a quick pull and a swipe, pretty much any surface can go from dusty/cat-hairy to neat and fresh. But you have to be careful with your cleaning products, kids. Sometimes bits of animals are hiding in there, not to mention all kinds of other things that aren't so nice for Mother Earth.

So of course Method's Pink Grapefruit All-Surface Wipes seemed like a perfect addition to my quasi-lazy cleaning routine. All of Method's products are vegan (wow!), are not tested on animals, and are earth-friendly. I have purchased some other products from them (including a truly amazing orange/mango spray cleaner, which I will review some other day) and was very pleased. I like grapefruits. I like supporting small companies with a cause. And I like a good price (I paid $4-something Canadian for a canister of 30 wipes at Shopper's Drug Mart. The Method website lists them at $4 US).

The wipes came home with me, and the time came to test them out. Sadly, very sadly, they smelled really gross. They smelled like someone ate a grapefruit and promptly barfed it up on a moist towelette. And they didn't have a whole lot of cleaning power... It was more like smearing power. I still kept the whole canister and used up all of the wipes, but every time I cleaned with them, all I could smell was barf (I know that's unpleasant but I gots to be honest).

Sooo I definitely have not purchased them again since, but I have kept an open mind about all of Method's other offerings and urge you to do the same. Let's buy a buttload of everything else they make, and hopefully over time pukefruit will be forced out of the product line!

Product info: http://www.methodhome.com/product.aspx?page=17200

Curry = Good

Guess what, everyone? We finally have our first good TV dinner review! (As in the dinner was good, not just the review. The reviews are always good, right? RIGHT.) Yup, Helen's Kitchen managed it with their Thai Yellow Curry. I am actually looking at the empty container for it right now and marvelling at how good it was.

Today's lunch break involved yet another meander through grocery store aisles with my wonderfully patient co-worker friend. Seriously, these trips can be major ordeals. I had a drink, bun, and yogurt in my basket but could not decide on a main course. Salad? Soup? Or did I dare venture back into that crap-riddled freezer that is home to so much grossness? I was feeling brave so I decided to go for it.

I'd been eyeing Helen's Kitchen's dinners for awhile, because they offer quite a range of veg*n organic products (and because I love the company name, *teehee*), but I always shied away because of the price ($6.99 Canadian - *gulp*). But today I threw caution to the wind (I did pick up a second job recently; maybe I can splurge here and there on a TV dinner or two) and grabbed the yellow curry, if only because its package was the most colourful.

And back to the office we went. I microwaved dutifully, stirred everything up, and took a bite. It was good! Yes! And not just passable, either - It was actual, honest-to-goodness good. Sweet, spicy, tangy, and filling. It was some kind of mix of vegetables and tofu on a bed of rice, so it's actually a nice balanced meal with lots of protein and nutrients. It is vegan, so no worries about searching for strange little remnants of animals! It kind of has a lot of saturated fat (5 grams, which is apparently 25% of your maximum daily recommended intake?), but no trans-fat (whatever that means).

So because I don't care tooooo too much about fat, I will probably buy this again, when I have a little extra pocket change. $7 really is a lot for one little TV dinner. Given the fact that I see my co-workers with Michelina's that they paid like $1 for, I'm a bit scandalized. Well, a girl's gotta pay for the good stuff, I guess!

Product and nutrition info: http://www.helensfoods.com/meals.shtml (scroll down to Thai Yellow Curry)