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June 2009 >> Source: Health Magazine
America's Healthiest 2009 Awards
Dinner / Frozen Vegetarian Entrée: Amy's Light in Sodium Indian Mattar Paneer ($4.99)

When you're craving the taste of India in the comfort of your own home, Amy's serves up a winner. This dinner has three tasty parts: delicately spiced organic peas and paneer (Indian cheese); organic basmati rice with carrots, onions, and cumin; and curried garbanzo beans and sweet organic tomatoes. All this for 320 calories. 8 grams of fat, and 11 grams of protein.

March 2009 >> Source: Fortune
ORGANIC GROWTH
Rachel and Andy Berliner of Amy's Kitchen tell FSB how they built a leading frozen-food brand by catering to busy vegetarians.
As told to Fawn Fitter

LIKE MANY BUSY COUPLES, ANDY AND RACHEL Berliner turned to frozen dinners when home cooking wasn't on the agenda.One night in 1987 they came up with a better idea. The result: organic powerhouse Amy's Kitchen. Based in Petaluma, Calif., Amy's leads the nation in prepared organic food sales and boasted 2008 revenues of $240 million. With Andy, now 61, as CEO and Rachel, 55, as head of marketing, the 1,600-employee company sells 140 vegetarian products, such as frozen black-bean tamales, in chains that include Kroger, Safeway and Whole Foods.The couple's daughter, Amy -- born the same year as the company that bears her name -- is training to join the family business. And it all began with a humble potpie.

RACHEL: My parents raised their own organic vegetables. Andy's first business was Magic Mountain, and organic tea company, which he sold in 1981. We were already committed to a healthy vegetarian lifestyle when I got pregnant with our daughter in 1987. Near the end of my pregnancy, I pulled a muscle and couldn't stand long enough to cook or shop, so Andy went to the local health-food store for some frozen meals...

ANDY: ...and they tasted like cardboard.

RACHEL: We had been talking about how to put our child through college and provide her with a certain standard of living, and we knew we wanted to do that by running our own business. We just didn't know what type it would be.

At the time potpies were the most popular frozen meal, so we decided to bake our own. My mother suggested that since we were launching the company to support our daughter, we should name it after her. My mom, who's an amazing cook, came up with a vegetable and tofu potpie recipe. We spent hours in the kitchen, testing the recipe and then making about 100 pies by hand so we could debut them at a San Francisco health-food show in March 1988. The first day of the show, a handful of natural-food stores signed up for orders. But then we had to figure out how to fill them!

"We borrowed against Rachel's car, and I sold a watch and some gold coins -- that raised about $20,000, enough to get us going."
- Andy Berliner

>> Read Full Article

May 2009 >> Source: Seventeen
Your 5-Minute Dinner Fix!

Sometimes you only have enough time to heat and eat, so keep these healthy meals in your freezer!

Amy's Black Bean Vegetable Enchilada
Beans, veggies, spicy sauce, and more are all stuffed inside two corn tortillas. Yum!

April 30, 2009>> Source: Press Democrat
Amy’s Kitchen receives award from assemblyman

Assemblymember Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, is presenting his Sustainable North Bay Award for April to Amy’s Kitchen in recognition of its environmentally friendly business practices.

“For all of its products, Amy's uses certified organic ingredients, including vegetables, grains and fruits grown without pesticides,” Huffman said. “All dairy ingredients are free of artificial growth hormones, and do not contain animal enzymes or rennet. In addition, Amy's products do not contain genetically modified organisms or hydrogenated fats or oils.”

Amy’s Kitchen has manufacturing operations in Santa Rosa and Medford, Ore., and employs about 1,700, including 1,000 in Sonoma County.

The company is the largest North American provider of frozen organic food, turning out more than 5 million meals per month.

Huffman is scheduled to present the award to Paul Schaffer of Amy’s Kitchen on Thursday, April 30, at 4 p.m. at the company’s headquarters on Corporate Circle in Petaluma.

February 2009 >>Source: Veg News
Take the Cake

Sure, the new year offers an opportunity to herald in healthy habits, but some of us think the emphasis should fall on "habits" rather that "healthy." For an addictive taste of dessert nirvana, we recommend Amy's Organic Cakes. The venerable vegetarian company whose pizzas, soups, and frozen meals have kept us sated for 20 years has added two rich cakes to its repertoire–Chocolate and Orange. We went gaga for the Orange flavor's moist, citrusy goodness, and love that the packaging proudly proclaims its vegan-neww and GMO-free-newss. Yum!

February 2009 >>Source: Good Housekeeping
100 Best Convenience Foods - Frozen Meals
Click below for detail view!

January 2009 >>Source: Pilates Style
Hot Fuel

Start your day with a warm, comforting and nutritious breakfast.

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Studies show that children who eat the morning meal do better in school, and nutritionists agree that skipping breakfast can actually prevent weight loss. On top of that, consuming healthy fare when you wake up not only revs your metabolism so that your body can burn fat, but it also boosts your cognitive function so you'll think clearly. So get with the program and be sure to fuel your body every morning. And what better way to do that – especially in the winter – than with a piping-hot, nutriously delicious breakfast? Forget lumpy oatmeal, sugary treats, carb-loaded bagels or –worse– greasy diner food. Nurture yourself with these natural picks, which will keep you full and satisfied throughout your hectic (and occasionally endless) mornings.

January 2009 >>Source: Clean Eating
Staff Tested Supermarket Soups
By Sandy Cordeiro

Since soup epitomizes comfort food, Clean Eating decided to see how clean some of the brands lining the shelves actually are. And, our taste testers were all too happy to see what varieties they'd be savoring come winter. Read 'em and eat.

Amy's Organic Lentil Vegetable Soup
Perfect for those with food intolerances, this natural soup featuring organic green beans, tomatoes adn spinach is free of gluten, dairy, lactose, soy, corn and tree nuts. Or try Amy's Organic Light in Sodium Soup in Lentil Vegetable for the same flavor with half the sodium.

NUTRIENTS PER 1-CUP SERVING
Calories: 150, Total Fat: 4g, Carbs: 23g, Fiber: 6g, Sugars: 5g, Protein: 7g, Sodium: 680mg

TASTE TEST:

• "Surprisingly substantial. I'm not a huge fan of lentils, but i would eat this again. The veggies have a nice crunch and consistency."
• "Yum! Very simple and tates homemade. Satisfying with all the lentils and finely chopped veggies. I'd buy it!"
  

December 2008 >>Source: Kiwi Magazine
Freedom to Eat

November 2008 >>Source: Inc.com
Ask Andy Berliner
Andy Berliner co-founded Amy's Kitchen with his wife, Rachel, in 1987. Amy's had $240 million in revenue in its 2008 fiscal year and has 1,700 employees.

Q: My company is entering a new and evolving market. How can you create demand for a product when most potential customers know nothing about it?
Mark Caron
CEO, Snac, New York City

A: When we started Amy's, in 1987, selling frozen vegetarian potpies, the mass market wasn't ready for our products. There really weren't any frozen natural foods in grocery stores. Most people thought health food tasted like Birkenstocks.

The most important thing in your early days is establishing relationships with customers who are already passionate about your product and will spread the word about your company. We talked constantly to buyers at trade shows and to the owners of small health food stores. We never spent much money on marketing.

There's no magic way to make customers want your products. As an entrepreneur, you have to look really hard at the market, examine what's out there, and leave the rest to your judgment. If your market is nascent or nonexistent, you may face a lot of resistance. At every stage of my business, whenever I would tell people that I was launching a new product, they would tell me it was a bad idea. This happened when we introduced our first product, and when we came out with frozen Italian and Indian food lines. My executives told me we couldn't go into the canned soup business (we were a frozen food company, after all). But I tasted what was out there and knew we could dramatically improve on that. Our soups quickly became No. 1 in the organic and natural soup market.

Growth may be slow at first, but that can work to your advantage. In our first 10 years, we added a few health food stores, distributors, and grocers each year. We often spent years developing new products, getting the taste of our foods just right. (My wife and I taste everything, of course.)

Once customers start to discover your product, however, you have to be ready to meet demand. In the mid-'90s, the organic food market suddenly began to take off. We had been growing steadily, about 20 percent per year, but in 1997, our sales grew 80 percent. At this point, we had 36 products, enough to fill a small section in the frozen food aisle of the national grocers that now wanted our product. Surrounded by Stouffer's and Swanson, we knew it was crucial that when we went national, we had enough products to tell a compelling story to customers.

November 2008 >>Source: Health Magazine
Lose weight on fast food (really!)

Want to get slim on the go? Drop a quick 10 pounds with our convenience-food plan.

Thursday: Amy's Light in Sodium Vegetable Lasangna frozen entrée and 2 cups mixed greens tossed with 1 tsp olive and a squeeze of lemon juice.

October 2008 >>Source: Every Womans Voice (Posted March 11th, 2008)
We Love: Rachel Berliner, Amy's Kitchen Cofounder

Long before “locavore” became a buzzword, before organic foods appeared on neighborhood store shelves, before vegetarians numbered in the tens of millions, Rachel Berliner and her husband, Andy, were working hard to create Amy’s Kitchen, their enormously successful line of natural frozen foods. As any working parent—Amy’s is named for their daughter, born right before the company was created—would know, Rachel struggled to put nutritious meals on her family’s table, finding that vegetarian ones were next to impossible. Amy’s, now in its 20th year, is truly a family affair: Rachel’s husband Andy is CEO, her mother Eleanor is the company’s chief copywriter, and daughter Amy has her own section on the company website where she blogs. And each member of the family taste-tests Amy’s products before they’re added to the line (jealous!).

It’s easy to admire Rachel and the rest of the Amy’s team for their great-tasting and healthy products, but it’s their commitment—to keeping Amy’s a family operation, to using sustainable practices, to supporting organic farmers, to keeping their customers in mind all the time, to raising consciousness about the benefits of eating healthy foods—that makes them stand out. So, raise that slice of Amy’s pizza and toast a pathbreaking, and well-fed, woman!

To learn more about Rachel and the Amy’s Kitchen products, visit AmysKitchen.com (you're already there!)

August 2008 >>Source: RFF Retailer
The 'Amy's Kitchen' Kid Tells All
By Warren Thayer

'When i was little, I used to sneak over to my friends house to eat Jif peanut.'

Amy Berliner, the kid made famous by Amy's Kitchen, has just turned 21 and is about to start her junior year at Stanford. We figured it was time to catch up with her and see what frozen food celebrity is like, and whether she secretly craves Twinkies.

What's it been like having a frozen food line named after you for your whole life?
Actually, I don't know what life is like without having a product named after you. When I was little, it was really cool having my name on the box, and as I got older and realized it was good for people, and that made me happy. Certainly thankful that my name wasn't on an oil company or something. When I was like three or four, my best friend told me that the only way they could legally call it 'Amy's' on the package was to have a little piece of me inside every box, and that people secretly cut off little pieces of my hair at night when I was sleeping and put it in the food. And I thought, 'Oh, no!' l believed him. You don't have to print that.

Aw, I really want to. Any other early memories?
I remember being in the factory. Sometimes I'd get up really early with my dad, and I remember mixing the sauce with him. All I ever ate was the vegetable pot pie, because it was the only thing around. It was our first product. I actually had it this morning for breakfast. I eat real food for breakfast, otherwise I'm starving later.

Did kids tease you at all?
No, kids never teased me at all about Amy's. They thought it was cool. But they did tease me about being vegetarian. They tried to sneak meat into my food.

Have you been involved in developing new products?
I've done that my whole life. When I was little, my parents would say, 'Amy, invite your friends over for a taste test.' And the kids would say 'More salt,' or 'More cheese'. I interned at Amy's and helped develop Nacho Snacks, and suggested a new vegan product that's about to come out. I've helped my mom out with most photo shoots for new packaging, in San Francisco. I'd help with the design and go shopping with her for props.

What were the most unusual props you ever bought?
Nothing unusual, really. For the kids' meals, we just went into the attic and got out my old toy boxes. So if you look at the packages of kids' meals, those are all my old toys. I can tell you stories about all of them. Like one of the packages has a bobbing-head turtle. I have a whole collection of them; I used to go to Mexico every year and would buy them down there.

Are you a closet junk food junkie? Do you scarf down Twinkies?
When I was little, I used to sneak over to my friend's house to eat Jif peanut butter. My mom made me eat organic peanut butter, which never tastes the same. I loved it on Wonder Bread, not the organic sprout bread we had at home. Now it (Jif and Wonder Bread) grosses me out but I loved it then.

Do you have any brothers or sisters?
No. Good thing, huh? Otherwise, they'd have had to call it "Amy's and Fred's" or something.

June 2008 >>Source: Prevention Magazine
Flat Belly Foods: Cereal

Amy's Organic Bowls Steel Cut Oats Hot Cereal
Whole grain steel-cut oats retain more flavor than rolled or instant oats but typically take more than 30 minutes to cook. This bowl is ready in 5 from the microwave; 200 calories, 5g fiber (20% DV), and 6g of protein per single serving bowl.

June 2008 >>Source: Womens Health / Mens Health
Healthy Reviews

June 12 2008 >>Source: Wall Street Journal
Swapping In Wheat Crust
By Joseph De Avila

Food makers are trying to take some guilt out of gorging on pizza.

They are launching a slew of pies with whole wheat and whole grain crusts. But while the pizzas may be a little bit healthier, they tend to have a similar number of calories and grams of fat per serving. (And a word of warning: A serving is often just one third or one-half of the pie.)

We fired up our ovens and baked four different frozen pizzas. The quality of the pies we tasted ranged from fantastic to less than appetizing. Here's how they measured up.

Amy's Kitchen Cheese and Pesto Pizza with Whole Wheat Crust

Price/Availability: $6.39; amyskitchen.com
Calories/Total Fat: 360 calories/18grams of fat per serving.

Comment: Amy's frozen pizza was outstanding. The pesto and tomato sauce combination was a nice change from standard pizza sauce. We could only faintly taste the wheat in the crust. The pies are fairly small; there area only three servings per pie. We had to fight off urges to eat the entire pizza in one sitting.