Archive for the ‘Healthy Choice’ Category

Healthy Choice Sweet Asian Potstickers

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Reader Dena Struchtemeyer sent in this review of Healthy Choice’s Sweet Asian Potstickers:

Healthy Choice Sweet Asian Potstickers - Ad

Healthy Choice Sweet Asian Potstickers

“I recently tried Healthy Choice’s ‘Sweet Asian Potstickers’ meal. That was a mistake. Notice how the ‘sauce’ looks like sewage? Not a coincidence. By the time the meal was cooked, the rice, carrots and potstickers had become thoroughly soaked in the sauce. As a result, the entire thing tasted like a sickly-sweet soy sauce. Except that is, for the stuffing inside the potstickers. The concoction was so dry that it seemed almost shocking compared to the other soaked parts of the meal.”

“The potstickers aren’t even the same shape or color as on the box and the potsticker casing is so chewy that I almost flung half the meal across the room trying to eat it. That nice creamy on sauce on the box? It’s nonexistent. The nicely chopped green onions? They’re nonexistent too. The large chopped pieces of bell pepper? You guessed it, nonexistent. The whole thing was awful.”

Healthy Choice Grilled Chicken Marinara Cafe Steamer

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Healthy Choice Grilled Chicken Marinara Cafe Steamer - Ad

Healthy Choice Grilled Chicken Marinara Cafe Steamer

Looks: Are those even the same meals? The chicken pieces are deformed, the broccoli looks weak, the cheese is missing, and the sauce (which got mixed into the meal, by direction) was not the right color. 1 out of 5

Taste: It tastes about how it looks. Weak, without any standout flavors. The chicken tasted strange, like it was really ground chicken formed back into nuggets – not at all like “Grilled Chicken Marinara.” Very disappointing for what I’ve always seen as an upper-level brand. 2 out of 5

Healthy Choice Meat Loaf

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Healthy Choice Meat Loaf - Ad

Healthy Choice Meat Loaf

Looks: If I had plated it like it is plated on the box, it would have matched up nicely, except for the dessert. The colors are all very similar, and the portion sizes are the same. The apple cranberry crisp, however, doesn’t look like what they show on the box at all. It doesn’t contain any cranberries (that I could find), and the apple pieces are way too small. 4 out of 5

Taste: Let me paint you a picture: You like meatloaf. You buy some meatloaf. You cook the meatloaf. You sit down to eat the meatloaf. You take a bite of the meatloaf. You chew the meatloaf. You spit out the meatloaf. Why did you spit out the meatloaf? Probably because there was a piece of what you can only hope was gristle the size of a baby’s tooth in your first bite. (The rest of the meal was ok, but this first impression made it impossible to enjoy the other food quadrants.) 1.5 out of 5

Healthy Choice Orange Zest Chicken Cafe Steamer

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Healthy Choice Orange Zest Chicken Cafe Steamer - Ad

Healthy Choice Orange Zest Chicken Cafe Steamer

Looks: Surprisingly accurate for a dish containing chicken, vegetables, and sauce. A few small differences though cause this meal to miss a perfect 5-out-of-5 score: The sauce (pictured as being poured over the dish) is obviously mixed in, the greens are a little wilted, and the green onions are MIA (or just very small). 4.5 out of 5

Taste: After seeing how close it looked to the box, I expected it to taste as good as it looked too, but I ended up disappointed. The chicken has a strange texture and taste that I wouldn’t have independently classified as chicken; it’s more like a meatball made of poultry. The vegetables don’t have much of a taste either, and they’re a bit too soft to have their texture make up for tastelessness. The sauce-and-rice mixture I had left towards the end of the dish did turn out to be quite tasty – if this meal had been “Sweet & Spicy Orange Zest Rice”, it would have scored higher. 3 out of 5