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