I will notify you beforehand. We have a lot to do here.
So unless you have a few good moments to read this review, that would be my opinionNOhurts when you decide to come back to it. But COME BACK! This review not only includes information about Bariatric Pal and its soups, but also deep psychological insight into food cravings, as well as a tutorial on how to beat protein foam.
It's all very exciting. Forward!
Was ist Bariatric Pal?
BariatricPal is like Amazon, Facebook, and CNN who got together and had a bariatric love child (yes, I know, that's three parents... don't judge!). It's part information site, part business, part social meeting place with messageboard forums.
And they have soup. With protein in it.
The products
So, as often happens when I do a review, they sent me a lot of products. I'll let you know I didn't photograph them all. I've tried them all, but photographing everything right (food included) is a complicated process, and last week the universe did everything it could to make sure I had little to no time or brains, so... you get what you get receive. But I think what I got is pretty good.
This is what they sent me:
- Bariatric Pal Pilzcreme
- Creamy Broccoli & Cheese Soup Bariatric Pal
- Chicken Noodle Soup Bariatric Pal
- Bariatric Buddy Soup Variety Pack(which contained the above flavors + a few more I've detailed below)
You can click on the soup names to access the nutritional information, which tends to vary quite a bit. For the most part, all of the soups ranged from 70 to 100 calories per serving with 15g of protein.
Aesthetics (appearance and smell)
Of course, these soups come in powder form. None of them looked exceptional. The mushroom cream soup contained dried pieces of mushrooms. I found it very good. It meant the taste was probably real. There was a very slight protein odor. It wasn't very offensive, but I took it in. When it comes to protein smell, I'm like a bloodhound. I can smell it from far, far away. But again, not too bad (and certainly not as bad as some OTHER products I've tried but won't take advantage of).
Preparation
Ok, here we come to some educational material.
The directions for each packet of soup are as follows (I'm paraphrasing): Mix with 6-8 ounces of warm water. Stir until dissolved.
(Maybe I'm not paraphrasing because I think it really says so. Photographic memory, FTW!
So... that's not how I did it. Because? Because when I do that with protein soups, the same thing happensalwaysIt happens I have lumpy lumps that I never seem to work out! And then I have a choice. Do I try to mix it from there and risk getting the bubbly foam? Do I leave the lumpy lumps and pretend they're, I dunno, gnocchi? It's a real dilemma for me. Distract me while I tell you why.
I'm not the biggest soup person. Sure, as a freshman post-op, I ate a lot of soup because, well, that was the only thing I could eat without serious consequences. Soup today...I don't know...unless it's a hearty soup, it's just not that appealing to me. So when I'm testing soups, I really need a good user experience. Because I'm just going to GIVE UP on the process unless it's super easy.
Let me tell you how I mixed the soups.
I combined the soup mix with 8 ounces of water in my handy Ninja Kitchen blender! Just a few seconds did it.
Now.
That will foam sometimes. There is simply no way around it. Some of the Bariatric Pal soups didn't foam, but others did. Here's my super simple 3-step system for handling protein soup foam:
Step 1: Remove the foam from the remaining liquid
But DO NOT discount! This foam is essentially the protein. Well noatthe protein But it is protein. So don't throw it away! Just use a spoon to move it to another location temporarily.
Step 2: Let the foam cool down
And when that happens, something magical happens. It liquefies! HOORAY!
Step 3: Pour the foam-free soup back into your regular soup bowl
For those of you who say, "This is too much to do!" This entire process takes about five minutes. That may still be too long for you. If so, I can respect that!
Forward. Like I said, I'm not the biggest soup person unless it's a hearty soup. I am 8 years old after the operation. These days, the soup reads like an appetizer. (Don't panic before the surgery...I really can't eat as much as I did before the surgery...I can eat more than you!) So I decided to take a slightly different approach with soups. I decided to challenge myself to use three ingredients or fewer to "fill up". in a healthy wayNaturally.
The taste
I photographed four types of soups:
That's what I did with them and what I thought about them.
broth of res
That was the soup from the "defoamer" demo material. After taking care of the foam, I gave it a bit of flavor. It was very nice. very meaty (I don't know of any other adjective for meaty other than meaty...delicious?) There was a slight protein flavor. Again, no offense. Notably, when mixed with water, it no longer smelled like egg white. It smelled... like meat.
What did I add? Two really simple ingredients: zoodles (zucchini noodles from aVegetable Spiralizer) and toasted sesame. Chopped green onions might have been nice too, but I didn't have any on hand. I ate the zoodles with chopsticks after drinking the broth (technically I did NOT break the do not eat/drink together rule as I drank first then ate) and it was like smothering a good noodle soup in eat at a Chinese restaurant. I would like!
Pilzcremesuppe
Well, that was difficult for me because I've never eaten plain mushroom cream. I've used it as an ingredient, sure, but I've never said, "Let's open a can of cream of mushroom soup and eat a bowl!" This has never happened before. I plan to use this flavor in a few recipes to see how it goes, but to give it the 411 flavor I decided to make a bowl.
So… the taste? It was good! Like I said, I've never had cream of mushroom soup alone, but maybe I should start with that. Because I liked that! The mushroom flavor came out very well. There must have been some herbs in there too. For some reason, I kept getting undertones of nutmeg, which wasn't disturbing, just unexpected. (I checked and don't see nutmeg in the ingredients list, so I have NO idea why I chose it.) The only downside is that I'm used to cream of mushroom soup being a bit thicker. Next time I make it I'll only use 6 ounces. Liquid instead of 8. That should fix it.
What did I add? What you see here are turkey meatballs and some black pepper. That's all. I chose this because I always cook my meatballs in spaghetti sauce, BBQ sauce, or cream of mushroom sauce. It was very reminiscent of Beef Stroganoff. Very comforting!
broccoli and cheese
This soup caused the most emotional reaction when I shared the photo on social media. So let's get that out of the way. yes it is fat yes it is green But none of that bothered me. I'm a visual eater, but this was all about the texture of a potato soup and the greens made sense (although I kept telling myself this was NOT pea soup with the first bite).
The taste was pretty much true to form. I tried the broccoli. I didn't find it particularly cheesy. However, there was a savory background that was lovely. I have to admit that broccoli soup isn't my absolute favorite, but that didn't offend me at all!
What did I add? Just a sprinkling of grated cheddar cheese. That's all I really needed. A hit by cheesy!
Tomato
Not to be confused with the Creamy Tomato (which I also got a sample of). Although I liked this tomato soup better than the creamy tomato soup. The creamy tomato was pretty good, don't get me wrong, but it was pink. I eat very pink. And while thick, green soups don't bother me, pink soup does. In my mind, soup shouldn't be pink. (And no, I've never had borscht.)
So for me, tomato soup has certain characteristics. It's a bit spicy but not too much. And it tastes slightly salty, slightly sweet. This satisfies both requirements. Of course, both preferences were built around the intention of dunking a grilled cheese into the soup, but still. I would like. The texture was like a slightly thinner spaghetti sauce and this one had no protein taste or smell. What a bonus!
What did I add? This one technically has more than three ingredients. I added some shrimp, a tablespoon of goat cheese (sour cream or even cream cheese would work well if you don't like goat cheese), some Italian seasoning, and some Old Bay seasoning.
Oh. My. Yummy. Overall I really liked this combo. It was like... a really good seafood feast in my mouth!
So these are the flavors that photos have, but I also tried the other flavors and this is what I thought about them:
- Creamy Tomato Soup: Also foams (but spreads), good taste. But it was pink. Which was a bit strange for me.
- Chicken Noodles: The taste was pretty true. Again, a slight protein taste, but not too disturbing. It didn't foam.
- Chicken Broth: Basically the same as chicken noodles... without the noodles.
- Cream of Chicken: It had the same texture as the broccoli soup but was light brown, not green. Subtle chicken flavor. I would rather use it as an ingredient in something else.
bravery
phew! We're in the final sprint. Are you with me, gourmets?
So if you've been reading my reviews lately, I've listed a single price, which I call the "price per protein serving" for protein products. It's basically the price of a product divided by the total grams of protein you get from the product.
Almost all Bariatric Pal soups contain 15g of protein. Each box contains 7 packages priced at $12.89 per box. So let's calculate:
$12.89 / 7 servings = 1.84
1,84 $/15 (g Protein) = 0,12 $ pro Gramm Protein
This is a measure you can use to compare one protein supplement to another. Is it the cheapest form of protein? No. (For comparison, a 4-ounce serving of chicken breasts costs about $0.04 per gram of protein.) But that shouldn't be because you're paying for convenience and low calories!
final verdict
I liked these soups. I had a few packs left, so I'll play with them. Cream of mushroom soup, for example, would go a long way towards finding a recipe for chicken spaghetti without pasta (Pioneer Woman is dying to experiment with chicken spaghetti!). I say I like to say a lot because like I said (ad nauseum) I said I'm not a soup person! I don't make a lot of pre-made protein foods either, but these are handy when I need a decent meal and/or am trying to make an impossible meal (like chicken spaghetti) with protein!
This is what I think it looks like for you:
- For new post ops - I would definitely say that having something with good protein is worth the investmentit's not cute!
- For other operations later: As you can see, you can do some really awesome stuff with these soups with a few simple ingredient additions.
My advice? Invest in itvariety pack,See if you like it and if you do, play with your food!