The Kitchen

A little heads-up about a late-breaking change in the cooking time for our FiberGourmet Light Spaghetti.

The cooking time on the box says the spaghetti needs only 6-10 minutes. This was copied over from one of our other boxes during the design process, and is not accurate. The cooking time should be more like 10-14 minutes, depending on your preferences.

As many of our loyal customers know, some of the most popular flavors of our nested fettucine - including Whole Wheat, Spinach, and Garlic Parsley - have been out of stock for a long time. This was caused by our switching the packaging to boxes, in order to protect the pasta better during transit, a process which has taken longer than anticipated. While we still don't we regret the overall decision, we do regret that it's taken so long to choose a box size which would work, and to finish the artwork for that box, and for that I do apologize.

After several false starts and missteps, I'm pleased to report that those two crucial and difficult design stops have been completed. You can see a preview of the new box art here.

While the art shown says it is for Garlic Parsley, in the final box that space will be left blank and a sticker containing the product flavor, ingredient list, and UPC will go in its place. We just put down the Garlic Parsley info as a placeholder. This will help us save money on the boxes, so we can keep our costs and your prices down. Although the boxes are more expensive than bags, we don't plan to raising your price for the final product, and we think you'll be very happy with the condition the pasta will arrive in at your door in the future.

We've received some questions about how to easily measure the bulk-packed light pasta mentioned in our last post. While our standard light pasta comes in handy 8-oz boxes, this pasta comes in a giant 20 lb box which at first glance is a bit tricky to deal with.

Fortunately, there's a very simple way to measure out exactly how much pasta you need before cooking it, without even resorting to a scale. All you need is a standard baking measuring cup, like the one shown in the picture below. The rule of thumb is that every ounce of pasta will show up as two ounces in a standard measuring cup (basically because water is twice as dense as pasta). So if you'd like 8 ounces of pasta, simply fill the cup to the 16 ounce line, as in the picture below.

For 2 ounces go to the 4 ounce line, 4 ounces is the 8 ounce line, and so forth. The same would apply to other measuring cups or spoons if you don't have one exactly like the one below. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions, and bon apetit!

Buy in bulk and save a bundle! We now offer 20-lb boxes of bulk-packed light pasta for sale exclusively here on our website. It's the exact same FiberGourmet Light Pasta you know and love, just in a larger box. Why pay extra for fancy packaging?

At $74.00 for a 20-lb case, this pasta works out to just $3.70 / lb. By contrast, the Suggested Retail Price for a box of our light pasta in stores is between $3.50 - $4.00 ... but that's for just half a pound. The bulk pasta is literally half the price!

Currently the bulk pasta is only available in either elbow or penne shape, although we will expand to new shapes if they prove popular. NOTE: Some boxes were made using egg whites (they're from a trial where we were trying to further improve the consistency), but are otherwise identical to our standard light pasta.

Half-calorie pasta at half the price. Buy now, while supplies last!

You may have noticed that products on our website have been dropping out of stock fast. This is due to both our advertising with Weight Watchers and our crackers being handed out on JetBlue, which have really been spiking both website and retail-store sales. It's a good problem to have, but a problem still.

Anyway, just thought I'd give an update: the truck with the pasta has already left to our warehouse, and the truck with the cheese crackers should leave tomorrow or Wednesday. Expect us to be fully restocked by Monday at the latest, hopefully even Friday. We'll fill all the outstanding orders then.

Thanks again to everyone for their patience and understanding during our crunch time.

Here's a tip from the mailbag to improve the texture on our Light Mac & Cheese. Thanks again, Lauren!

I’m a Fiber Gourmet superfan!! I love, love, love your light mac and cheese and eat it every week!!! And I love that the latest change to the product is only 2 WW points per serving, so I got a little nervous when I received an email from you about a week or so ago about another possible recipe change for the next production because you weren’t happy with the current cheese sauce. I did notice that the cheese sauce comes out a little runny. I recently stumbled upon a way to make it oh-so-creamy and great, so I’m sharing with you in case it’s something you haven’t stumbled upon yourself.

I make the mac & cheese per the instructions on the box (with 1/4 c fat free milk and 1 T Brummel and Brown). I scoop out my 1 cup serving into an uncovered glass bowl and pop it in the microwave for about 40 seconds, or until the cheese sauce bubbles, or cooks, at the bottom of the glass bowl. I take out the bowl, stir the contents and voila, creamy mac & cheese!!

Thank you for making such great products!! Keep them coming.

Lauren G.

I love it when these posts write themselves :)

Another great TV spot featuring FiberGourmet appeared on WPIX in NY today - check it out here.

Thanks again to Lisa, and everyone over at Women's Health Mag for getting the word out about the highest-fiber, lowest-calorie pasta on the planet! :)

If any of you were watching Good Morning America at about 8:38 this morning, you would have seen the following spot on our FiberGourmet Light Pasta:

Our 26 seconds of fame! Now that's a nice engagement present :)

We've received some feedback from our customers recently about damage occurring to the pasta during transit, in particular to the nested fettuccine as part of BYOB's or Samplers. I just wanted to let you know that we are aware of the issue and are taking some steps to correct it by changing our product configurations and packing supplies for the future. Apologies again, and do let is know if you received any damaged products.

As the more eagle-eyed customers have already noticed, we've recently launched some new flavors of our popular Light Pasta. In fact, the changes went up at midnight Wednesday, and by Thursday I had stores have called me up because customers were asking about it!

The new flavors were selected by an online poll which I'm pleased to say that hundreds of people responded to. The clear winner was the Wild Mushroom Blend. Also popular were two bold and spicy flavors, Red & Black Pepper and Cajun. Finally, Lemon & Pepper rounds out the group with a tangy citrus twist.

This also marks the triumphant return of two flavors we'd tried earlier: the quirky dessert pasta Chocolate, and the super-healthy (even by FiberGourmet standards) Ultra Light Pasta, enhanced with Fortefiber.

You'll also find that the navigation on the site has been spruced up yet again, with the Build Your Own Box page in particular getting a complete overhaul. We've also updated the sampler packs to reflect all the nifty new flavors.