Healthy Choice « Food In Real Life

Archive for the ‘Healthy Choice’ Category

Healthy Choice Bacon & Smokey Cheddar Chicken

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Looks: You’d be forgiven for wondering why I took a picture of this meal after I chewed it and spit it back out, but hold onto your butts: that’s what it actually looks like immediately after cooking. The vegetables still look frozen, and the chicken and rice mixture is pale, mushy, and completely unappetizing. 1 out of 5

Taste: Worse than it looks. The vegetables were flavorless, and while the chicken and rice had a flavor, it wasn’t one I’d like to taste again anytime soon – bitter, oily, gritty, disgusting: much like my last foray into microwave chicken and rice. 0 out of 5

Posted in Bacon, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cheese, Chicken, Frozen, Hall of Shame (Looks), Hall of Shame (Taste), Healthy Choice, Microwave, Rice | 2 Comments »

Healthy Choice Pumpkin Ravioli

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Looks: The entire dish lacks the shininess of the meal on the box; the ravioli look dry, and the vegetables appear mushy and overcooked. The sizing is right, but the ravioli filling isn’t as substantial as it should be. 3 out of 5

Taste: Meh. The ravioli are too chewy, and the filling has a bitter aftertaste. I did enjoy the sauce though – kind of sweet, but buttery. The cooked apples are a nice touch too, but there aren’t enough of them to make up for the lackluster pasta. 2 out of 5

Posted in Apple, Asparagus, Frozen, Healthy Choice, Microwave, Pasta, Pumpkin, Ravioli, Squash | 10 Comments »

Healthy Choice Beef Lo Mein

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

Looks: This one does ok, with a few caveats: the beef/noodles ratio depicted on the box is backwards (the noodles by far outnumber of beef strips), the big chunks of zucchini pictured are missing, and the dessert consists more of gingersnap topping than peaches. On the plus side, look at those vegetables! Vibrant colors that match the advertisement. 3.5 out of 5

Taste: The vegetables ended up being the high point again: fresh-tasting with a good bite. I had never had edamame (baby soy beans) before, and I liked their clean green taste. In other news, the dessert triangle was overly sweet, with too much crumbled topping, and while the beef/noodle combination started out well enough with ok noodles, the beef was stringy and the sauce was quite gritty and not pleasant-tasting at all. 2 out of 5

Posted in Beef, Carrots, Edamame, Healthy Choice, Pasta, Peaches, Red Peppers, White Onions, Zucchini | 3 Comments »

Healthy Choice Fajita Steak

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Looks: The meals I don’t plate properly (usually for lack of time, but sometime for lack of dishes) are a little harder to judge, but when you take each section separately, you’ll see that this meal stacks up closely to its box. Not only does it have the first apple crisp I’ve seen with substantially size apple pieces, most of the colors and portions of the other foods are right on as well. (The poor lighting in my kitchen doesn’t do the steak justice.) 4.5 out of 5

Taste: Just so I don’t have to say this again, the apple crisp that is in essentially every Healthy Choice meal is very good – +1 point by default. I really enjoyed the steak part of this meal, but I wasn’t digging the rice or corn (due to their blandness), until I had an epiphany: bland rice and vegetables plus steak with too much southwestern sauce equals a delicious Tex-Mex casserole. They should recommend that combination on the box, because it was really good. (-1 point if you don’t like mixing foods together.) 4 out of 5

Posted in Apple, Beans, Corn, Frozen, Healthy Choice, Microwave, Rice, Steak | 6 Comments »