Do you remember some years back when Nutella was trying to pass itself off as a healthy breakfast food?
The company never explicitly said that it was a wellness supplement, but their commercials tacitly suggested as much, with images of fresh milk and hazelnuts and allusions to high protein content and calcium. They employed some version of that insidious food marketing phrase “part of a nutritious meal,” which is sort of like saying that wisdom tooth extraction is part of a happy life; the relationship is correlative, not causative, just like bacon can be the outlier in a breakfast of kale smoothie and flax bars. There was a class action lawsuit brought against Nutella as some parent allegedly stuffed her kid full of the chocolatey spread every day and was then shocked when little Billy didn’t turn out quite as lithe and athletic as she expected. Nutella is delicious, but I’m pretty sure a steady diet of the stuff isn’t going to land me on the cover of Men’s Health Magazine, irrespective of what ambiguous advertisement messaging I might encounter.
Fast forward to last week as I popped the lid off a container of Not-ella during a late night Peaky Blinders binge session. I dipped halved strawberries into the thick chocolate and vanilla spread and felt pretty righteous. Old Billy’s got nothing on me, I thought, as I reviewed the nutritional information for this stuff for the third time, incredulous that something so tasty is actually made from a base of chickpeas.
Not-ella is just one of several creative and flavour-forward dishes from the kitchen of Feed Me Fit, a North Shore-based healthy meal preparation and delivery outfit that co-shares a space with the high-octane nutrition and supplement shop, Jack’d, at 1144 Lonsdale.
I have wanted to check out one of these healthy, ready-made meal services lately as a bothersome hamstring has largely scuppered my morning run routine, so I have found myself at the gym instead, where I tend to work up an appetite for filling foods that are good for me. It can be time-consuming to prepare three sound meals a day from healthy, well-considered ingredients, so the idea of offsetting the burden is appealing.
Feed Me Fit delivers or prepares for pickup, meals that are designed to nourish the active diner. It’s very much a lifestyle business, catering to the fitness-minded, and those who have spent any time training at the gym over the years will recognize the low fat, high protein, carb conscious approach to nutrition. My observation after sampling seven dishes from a recent order is that Feed Me Fit principal and chief cooking officer Venessa Stonehouse seems to recognize the pitfalls of this style of cooking and side-steps them effectively, dishing out fare that does not sacrifice flavour and is, relatively speaking, inexpensive. Let me qualify this last idea by suggesting that if you were to head to the shop to source all of the ingredients in any given dish on Feed Me Fit’s menu, you’d likely spend more money. While you may end up with enough leftover to make more dishes out of your own raw materials, the convenience of having the meals made for you (and delivered) offsets that savings.
The Not-ella is made with chickpeas, unsweetened cocoa, hazelnuts, tahini, hazelnut oil and vanilla extract. It has the unmistakable texture of hummus, which is to say whipped yet dense, but the similarities end there. The dominant flavours of cocoa and vanilla contribute to the feeling that you’re eating something indulgent, and the dark chocolatey colour is much more reminiscent of dessert than appetizer. The generous container of Not-ella, priced at just $6, was accompanied by a handful of pretzel thins for dipping.
I tried Orange Pecan Cinnamon Roll Protein Doughnuts, also from the “Treats” section of the menu, and found them to be citrusy on the palate and weighty, great with a strong black Americano first thing in the morning. A second breakfast dish, Maple Fig Tahini Overnight Oats, was similarly filling with sweet ribbons of fig pulp and chia seeds, hemp hearts, maple syrup and tahini. The dish is meant to be heated for 90 seconds before eating, making for a warm, rib-sticking breakfast. For my taste, the tahini was out of place in this boosted oatmeal, though I do recognize it plays a role in the overall nutritional value of the meal.
My wife DJ and I tucked into the rest of the items for dinner, starting with my favourite dish of the whole lot, Kung Pao Cauliflower Bites. Florets of cauliflower were tossed in gluten-free bread crumbs and cooked until crispy, then topped with roasted peanuts, scallions and red chillies. The whole thing was then topped with a delicious Kung Pao sauce with pronounced notes of garlic, ginger, chilli, and sesame. The cauliflower made for a great appetizer for the two of us, though I’m not sure that Feed Me Fit would recommend washing it down with a cold beer the way I did.
We turned a second entrée of Pulled Jackfruit Sliders with Bourbon Beet Barbecue Sauce into a shared appetizer as well. Jackfruit has a distinct, meaty texture that lends itself to this sort of preparation and the dish was a success overall, though I must once again express my disdain for smoky tasting barbecue sauces.
My entrée of Garlicky Shrimp, Mushroom and Spinach Risotto was very tasty, revealing flavours of white wine and garlic on the five large shrimps provided, and creamy Parmesan notes on the Arborio rice. The dish was satisfying, though by no means large, a statement that seems to apply across the boards to Feed Me Fit meals, which is appropriate given the health focus here, though should be understood first by patrons accustomed to big meals.
A final entrée of Crispy Peanut Tofu with bok choy on cauliflower “rice” was well prepared, though in distinct contrast to my comparatively rich risotto (made from actual rice), the cauliflower rice on this dish (made entirely of granular cauliflower) was a touch austere.
Our order of seven dishes was $79.
All orders, both delivery and pickup, require 48 hours notice. Meals come individually packaged with simple heating and final preparation instructions. Feedmefit.ca. 778-968-7080.
