Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers - Penne & Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo

So I've been beyond lazy and behind on blogging lately. Life updates: my ex-roomie moved in our quad apartment last night due to conflicts with the girls she lived with this year. It's nice to have her back, though we're not directly in the same room (which is odd). Being a Student Senator has been fun and awesome thus far, I'm glad I decided to run. Cost Accounting sucks, and I really need to pick up the ball on that and in general get back into the habit of studying, doing homework, etc. I've fallen mostly off the wagon with the healthy eating but manage to keep a tenuous grip and resist temptation partially. I've also been choosing healthier options even when I do eat poorly. Progress, if only baby steps, I'd say.

What exactly brought me out of hiding you might ask? I've been eating a lot of healthy meals over the past weeks that I haven't blogged about for various reasons (read: laziness and forgetfulness) but since I have both the free time and the meal in front of me today, it was a perfect opportunity. Honestly though, the BIG reason I decided to dust the cobwebs off the ol' blog is that this meal is just plain awful tasting. Read all about it:

First Impressions: Upon first unwrapping the package and plopping it in the microwave, all seemed well. I like to heat the sauce package for about 20 seconds to keep everything hot, so I did. Since I got sick last week, I'm still a little stuffy but from what I could smell, everything seemed fine. The orangey sauce and red peppers contrast nicely.

Taste: I opened the sauce to put into the pasta and took a little taste. I have low expectations for anything creamy and low fat, but even this was a little funky tasting for what I imagined. It has a strange alfredo-y aftertaste that I can't quite pinpoint but there is the roasted sentiment that kind of helps the sauce along. After a few bites of the red pepper pieces, I'm having trouble finishing even this small portion of pasta. I normally gobble it up so quickly, but after a good half hour of trying to avoid as many pepper pieces as possible I might be giving up. The peppers are not only slimy but completely mushy and have an almost metallic sharp taste to them. I wonder if the preservatives in the meal are making this awful taste? Also, I know peppers usually have a little bite to them, but this is like a shark attack bite of awful flavor. Seriously, what DID they do to this poor meal?!

Texture: As I said above, the peppers are like disintegrating slime bombs of awful. The whole wheat pasta you can cook to your liking as far as firmness is concerned but the package directions usually yield a decent al-dente to soft al-dente that pleases me. The pasta is now chewy or gummy as some wheat pastas tend to be. In fact, I think the texture of the pasta and ability to control the firmness of the product is about all I like about this meal.

General Thoughts: Keep away 50 feet from this meal at all times! The terribleness of this meal makes me wonder if the people at Healthy Choice even did market taste testing for this meal and if so, who actually liked this meal? I have to say this is hands down the worst meal I've had since I've started my blogging, taking the title away from this entree. I'm a little worried to try this lines other newest creation but because I've never had a horrible meal out of this line apart from this one time, I'm willing to give it a try. If you're looking to give this line a try, then I highly recommend their Steak Portobello or Rotini with Zesty Marinara options which both rate at 4 or 5 stars in my book!

I would NEVER buy this again!


Rating: 1/2 star

Calories: 290
Fat: 5 grams
Healthy Choice Website with Complete Nutrition Info

Lean Cuisine Market Creations: Asiago Cheese Tortelloni

Doing this whole review and blog thing has been really helpful is passing time up here during my Summer classes, which fall on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Since I couldn't get a job (for reasons such as not having a car, or not being here long enough to merit training and a hire) I usually go home or to Rhode Island for the weekend but inevitably come back for the (sometimes Monday) Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday gauntlet. It's nice knowing that only 3 classes stand between me and a week and half Summer 'vacation' but let me tell you does time pass SLOWLY being cooped up in dorm room with no TV and hardly anyone you know within an hour's drive radius.

Since this was actually my last frozen meal I had stockpiled in the freezer, I was thinking of hitting up the grocery store later. Much to my chagrin, only Smart Ones are on sale this week (6 for $10 isn't bad, but I remember how awful their Chicken Carbonara was...) and I have no other (easy) way to get to Market Basket or any other retailer but Whole Foods. I know Kashi has some supposedly great tasting low-calorie frozen options, but I'm not ready to take the $4+ dive on one meal that's probably a little too sticks and grainy for my tastes. Seriously, I can't stand brown rice or grainy pilafs! The thought crosses my mind that I might be making my own dinner tonight, but with my limited amount of ingredients (ok I have the chicken and the pasta, but no marinades/sauces/spices makes for a nasty dinner) I'm not sure if that's the best route.

Enough with the chit-chat, on to the review!

First Impressions: Smells pretty good as I walk to the microwave to get the pouch and pour it into my bowl. As with the first review of this product line I did, I notice the sauce looks like a little thin and the color is too orangey-yellow for me, but it still coats my fork a bit and ends up getting just the tiniest bit thicker after a few minutes. I was a little disappointed at the size, feeling that a few more veggies could have been tossed in.

Taste: I took a bite of the green zucchini and it was as it should taste, but I warn you I'm not a huge zucchini supporter. Veggies are veggies, so the real test here is for the tortelloni. One of them alone is a mouthful, so I try half of one as to draw out the eating process and savor it, which is a known technique for eating less. It's not as outright cheesy as I'm used to, but it has a deeper, almost richer cheese flavor than traditional ricotta/mozzarella filled pasta is. It was difficult to get a little bit of everything into one bite, as the veggies are pretty chunky, but once I did the combo was delicious! The veggies on their own I don't love, since they're some of my least faves all together, but they balance each other out well enough and you get a nice asiago hint from the tortelloni. The only gripe I could have is that Lean Cuisine advertises this as a 'vodka' sauce which leaves me hanging; I've had many different vodka sauces before and this doesn't qualify to me as one. (Which is not to say the sauce is bad, I just feel like 'tomato cream' sauce or something would have been better)

Texture: Everything is as should be - the veggies are steamed soft but still have some crunch left in them with the exception of the tomatoes, which are stewed. I hate raw tomatoes, and since these still have a slight taste of rawness to them, I try to avoid eating them by themselves but I imagine if you enjoy a tomato in any format then that would be a great thing. So far every dish I've reviewed has had pasta in it, including this one, so I don't know what else to say about the tortelloni. There's really no way to cook filled pastas wrong except if they are underdone and gummy or overdone and mush. This dish has neither problem, so I think on all fronts the textures are about as perfect as you can get.

Usually the photo goes here, but I took the picture without having my flash card inserted and it's on my camera's physical memory... and I have no idea where my cable is. Sorry guys!

General Thoughts: So I must caution that this dish was absolutely fine -- the only 'flaws' with it have to do with my personal tastes. I'll be giving this a rating a little lower than it might actually deserve because of that, but it probably deserves a solid 4.5 stars. Food tasters are supposed to be impartial, but taste is something so personal and unique that I don't see how one can't include their own biases!
Anyways, Lean Cuisine did very well on this entree and it left me fuller than I excepted based on the portion size. My only wish now is that I could find (if it's even out there) a low-fat garlic bread to enjoy all these Italian dishes with! Mangia!

Rating: 4.5 stars (My personal taste rating is about 3 stars)

Calories: 270
Fat: 7 grams

Lean Cuisine Website with Complete Nutrition Info 

Michelina's Lean Gourment: Creamy Rigatoni with Broccoli & Chicken

As a kid, I loved frozen meals and Michelina's brand was a classic - it was cheap, which my Mom loved, and their frozen Mac 'n Cheese or Wheels 'n Cheese were my two faves (after the Blue Box Kraft :). Now as I'm older, I re-visit the Lean versions to see how they stack up!

First Impressions: Alright, so there's no way around saying it, but Michelina's meals are SMALL. They are a great option if you're having 4 or 5 small meals during the day, but don't count on this alone if you're extremely hungry or looking for something that will tide you over from noon until a 6 or 7 pm dinner. The tray it comes in is usually a bit sad looking, and I noticed that this little meal in itself has 8 grams of fat. Upon seeing that, I think two things - 'They could have tried a little harder to reduce the calories & fat' and 'Damn, this is gonna taste pretty good!' The sauce is creamy and thick enough, but the tiny, sparse pieces of chicken and broccoli do leave something to be desired.

Taste: The sauce on its own has an ok flavor, you get a little of that peppery alfredo taste and you can tell this is where the 8 grams of fat is coming (mostly) into play. Although this little meal has 660g of sodium in it (yikes!), it's not overly salty unless you're used to a strictly low sodium diet.

Texture: The sauce has a nice consistency as mentioned above, not watery or thin as one might expect from a 'lean' version of an Italian fave. The pasta is very American in doneness - probably 2 minutes or so past 'al dente' but not yet into the unhappy 'mush' zone. The broccoli 'chunks' (as they are too small to be real florets or anything else) like the pasta are softer than they were in my previous review of the Lean Cuisine meal. They are still enjoyable and as I usually cook my broccoli until it's soft enough to cut through with a fork, I like it. The chicken crumbs (they really don't manage to get to the size of a full slice) are kind of rough for me, so I'm glad there aren't many. They have a few faint grill marks but they are definitely of the variety of chicken that is re-formed into breast patties, so the texture is a bit off, even a little bit chewy.

General Thoughts: So it's not the worst low-fat/lean thing I've ever ate, but it's woefully mediocre. Italian food is super popular in the US, so it makes sense that it captures a large segment of the frozen food market. However, I'm just part of the 'Italian food as healthy? Pfft, yeah right!' camp. Certain recipes are viable as healthy alterntives, like oil based sauces, or even a pomodoro sauce. All bets are off when it comes to cheese and cream sauces, and Michelina's proves that while you can make Italian favorites healthier, it's often with the loss of flavor. This dish would have been improved by nixing the chicken and adding some more and larger broccoli chunks. It might work better with some small side such as a salad or veggie medeley, or even as a 2-serving side dish with grilled chicken.

Ultimately, I might buy this again, but it's not a staple for me.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Calories: 280
Fat: 8 grams
Michelina's Website with Complete Nutrition Info

Lean Cuisine Market Creations: Sweet & Spicy Ginger Chicken - First Review

.::EDIT::. So this post is from ~2 days ago, but Blogger was being a pain and had an issue with me copy & pasting from Word 2007 to here. But here it is anyways :)

I’m not really into Asian foods these days, but I used to love them. Being a fan of Asian culture I’ve had everything from instant cup ramen to hibachi and sushi (though I actually never liked it, I have tried it a few times begrudgingly), so I know my way around the flavor profiles, textures, ingredients, and so on. As this was one of two flavors left in the frozen aisle of the Market Basket last time I went shopping, I decided to take a chance on it. Now for the actual review:

First Impressions (before taking a bite – how does it look, smell, etc?): The smell from the microwave is distinctly Asian; you can identify the sweet and ginger but nothing spicy or garlicky, which I was expecting a little. Once I put it onto the plate, my first thought was “The sauce looks a bit watery”. The color was appealing, as you get the green broccoli, the strong red ‘pop’ of red pepper, and the orange from the carrots. Upon seeing the water chestnuts I was a little disappointed as I’m not a big fan, but I expected them to make a showing.

Taste & Texture: The sauce definitely tastes a little on the watery side too, and you immediately get the sweetness with a hint of ginger. I tried the water chestnuts first, and to my surprise they weren’t bad. Much softer than I’ve ever had in Asian dishes, and I daresay I enjoyed them a little! I was worried that would indicate the other veggies would be too soft but the carrots and broccoli were perfect for my liking – not mushy at all, but past the ‘al dente’ stage. Next would be the chicken, which was moist and not gummy or super soft and chewy as is the tendency with low fat frozen food choices. By this point I’m 3 or 4 bites in and I can feel the spicy part of the dish. It’s enough to warm my mouth and lips but not the point where I have to take a break and drink some water. I have a pretty low spice tolerance (even a few bites of medium salsa are too much for me), so for those folks who like it hot you’ll be disappointed. Finally came the ‘udon’ noodles. I know a thing or two about Asian cuisine, and these are not udon. They are linguini noodles disguised as udon (which have a tendency to be gummy, anyways), but they are still good and like the vegetables, just part the al dente stage. There’s not much to be said for the red peppers – they’re just like any others, soft and kind of slimy but I wasn’t expecting anything different.


General Thoughts: From someone who isn’t a big fan of most Asian cuisine, it’s hard to always get solid healthy frozen food picks because it’s both a popular cuisine choice and one that’s easy to scale back on calories and fat while still retaining as much of the original flavor as possible. I’m glad I decided to pick this entrée up, because it was satisfying and even a little surprising given what my expectations were.

I would definitely buy this again!

Rating (1-5 stars): 4 stars

Calories: 280
Fat: 2 grams
Lean Cuisine Website With Complete Nutrition Info

*Note on the ratings & star system – I’m a harsh judge and never give anything the max rating unless I’m truly blown away, so even a rating of 4 from me on an Asian dish means something! Each category (first impression, taste, texture) roughly breaks down to a max of 1 star for appearance/first impression, and 2 each for taste and texture.

Since I’m having some light ice cream for a small dessert, I’m tempted to write another review but that's for another time.