Sunday, December 9, 2012

Higgins Inca Bean Salad Review: Update

This morning, I mixed the cooked Higgins Inca Bean Salad in with my veggie mix.

For the babies in the nursery this morning, I mixed it approximately 50/50 with my veggie mix:
















The babies seemed to eat it okay:













For my pet and aviary birds, who are used to a chopped veggie mix and not so much cooked foods, I went heavier on the veggies. I like the way this mix turned out:















The pet and aviary birds ate this mix very well. Since my birds are used to a chopped mix, adding the Higgins did not change the appearance of it very much. All in all, just as I mentioned in my last post, this mix makes a nice healthy addition to my regular chopped veggie mix. I feel it makes a nutritious, base for a "mash" recipe or could be served alone if you have a bird that enjoys cooked foods.  The nice thing about it is it all the ingredients are pre-mixed and it is quick to prepare. This mix can also be frozen in portions to thaw out for future meals.  

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Higgins Wordly Cuisine Review: Inca Bean Salad

My poor neglected blog LOL! Time passes quickly here at the aviary! Our facebook page is active, with new people joining every day! We welcome you to be part of it as well. Just to go our site at www.almostangelsaviary.com and click on the Facebook link. See you there!

Higgins Worldly Cuisine Inca Bean Salad Review:

I'm always looking for nutritious foods that our birds will enjoy and that are easy for our customers to prepare once they bring their new babies home. I saw the new Higgins Worldy Cuisine cook and serve mixes and thought I'd give them a try. I purchased three flavors: Inca Bean Salad, Passage to India and Mundo Brazil. This review is for the Inca Bean Salad.

Here is the ingredient list: Quinoa, Pearled Barley, Carrot Granules, Pre-Cooked Black Beans, Pre-Cooked Sweet Corn, Pre-Cooked Lentils, Dried Celery, Pre-Cooked Garbanzo Beans, Pre-Cooked Navy Beans, Dried Parsley, Pre-Cooked Pinto Beans, Potato Dices, Pre-Cooked Red Kidney Beans, Dehydrated Sweet Pepper, Rosemary, Tomato Flakes, Dried Kelp, and Vegetable Broth.

Here's a picture of the dry mix:

Higgins Inca Bean Salad Dry











It was easy to prepare. I just followed the package directions. The veggies and beans are freeze dried so it cooked quickly. No need to soak beans overnight! It was ready in about 10 minutes.

Here's what it looked like after it was cooked:

Higgins Inca Bean Salad Cooked











My taste testers were Cricket (meyers parrot) and some babies in the nursery: 2 jardines and a black headed caique.

I fed this mix in the afternoon, which is not their normal time for soft foods (I feed my veggie mix in the morning), but what the heck, I wanted to see if they liked it.

Cricket ate a little bit, but overall did not act too impressed. The caique nibbled on some as well. The jardines (the youngest birds in this group) ate the most and seemed to enjoy it.

For my birds, I think rather than serving it as is, it would make a nice bean/grain base to which other items could be added (for example defrosted frozen and freshly chopped vegetables, etc.) It is a "wet" mix so it should not be left in the cage for more than a few hours.

I'm going  to add this to my veggie mix tomorrow morning. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Overall, I would give this product a thumbs up.