Archive for the ‘Pasta’ Category

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Lean Cuisine Pasta Romano with Bacon

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Lean Cuisinse Pasta Romano with Bacon - Ad

Lean Cuisinse Pasta Romano with Bacon - Ad-2

Looks: Except for the absence of melted cheese (which most likely melted into the sauce as it cooked), Lean Cuisine accurately portrayed this meal. Probably because it doesn’t look disgusting in real life, so there’s no reason to fake it. 4.5 out of 5

Taste: Nothing special, but nothing terrible. In the grand scheme of pasta, there are five levels of taste:

1. Michelina’s
2. Chef Boyardee
3. Dry pasta with canned sauce
4. Homemade pasta with homemade sauce
5. Homemade pasta with homemade sauce in Italy

This meals comes in somewhere around #3. The slight bacon taste gives it a little edge over your generic jarred spaghetti sauce, but I might not have noticed that there was bacon in this if I hadn’t already known it. 3 out of 5

Posted in Bacon, Cheese, Frozen, Lean Cuisine, Microwave, Pasta, Tomato Sauce, White Onions | 3 Comments »

Lean Cuisine Chicken in Peanut Sauce

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

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Lean Cuisine Chicken in Peanut Sauce

Looks: The only difference from box to bowl is that the sauce is thicker in real life, and this gives the entire dish less of a “shiny” appearance and more of a “mucky” appearance, to use a technical term. 4.5 out of 5

Taste: Have you ever made a bowl of chicken, noodles, and vegetables, and then just for the heck of it, mixed in a few tablespoons of peanut butter? No? Because that would taste weird? Yeah, it would taste weird, wouldn’t it. If this meal came without the peanut sauce, it would probably rate a 3.5, but the thick peanut sauce was just too much like peanut butter. 2 out of 5

Posted in Carrots, Chicken, Edamame, Frozen, Lean Cuisine, Microwave, Pasta, Peanuts, Peas | 3 Comments »

Lean Cuisine Macaroni & Cheese

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

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Lean Cuisine Macaroni & Cheese

Looks: Hallelujah, it’s the same as the meal on the box! Well, it’s a little more watery, but that’s it. 4.5 out of 5

Taste: I really like – wait, let me start over. I love macaroni and cheese. It’s possibly my favorite food. So when I saw that this macaroni and cheese looked quite appetizing after cooking, I got excited. I may have danced a little in my kitchen in anticipation. However, my glee was short-lived. Although it looks good, it has only slight cheese flavor, and the noodles themselves are somehow watery. (As in they squish out water when you bite into them.) Don’t make the same mistake I did – don’t get excited over this macaroni. 2.5 out of 5

Posted in Cheese, Frozen, Lean Cuisine, Macaroni And Cheese, Microwave, Pasta | 3 Comments »

Healthy Choice Chicken Margherita Cafe Steamer

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

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Healthy Choice Chicken Margherita Cafe Steamer

Reader Sydney Hamilton has stepped up to ensure that you don’t have to go another day without a FoodIRL post:

Looks: It doesn’t look terrible, but it doesn’t look great. The chicken looks so dry in comparison to the pictured ones. The sauce is wayyy thicker than shown and the tomatoes in the picture are much more vibrant than the ones in the actual dish. It’s not too far off though. 3.5 out of 5

Taste: This is the worst thing I have ever eaten. The “angel hair” pasta is basically thicker than linguine, and they are so overcooked and mushy. The tomatoes are so hard and crispy, I thought they were peppers until I realized they weren’t. The chicken is dry and the sauce is way too thick and super bland. 1.5 out of 5

Personally, if something was the worst thing I had ever eaten, it would be lucky to get 0 out of 5, much less 1.5 out of 5.

If you want to see your food on the Internet, send it to food@foodirl.com.

Posted in Chicken, Frozen, Garlic, Hall of Shame (Taste), Healthy Choice, Microwave, Pasta, Reader Submission | 9 Comments »

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