Preaching truth to packaging. Pictures of packaged food, cooked to specifications, compared to the photo on the box.
Looks: Besides the meatballs, nothing on the box matches what’s in the package. The noodles are much thicker (and much softer) than pictured; the sauce is Snicker-bar brown, not Twinkie yellow, and the ratio of noodles to balls is way too low. 2 out of 5
Taste: The noodles were soggy and the gravy was bland. The meatballs were just ok, although I did appreciate getting six of them. (I’m looking at you, Banquet!) 2 out of 5
Bonus picture of the entire meatloaf, post-cooking:
Looks: I did not expect this to score any higher than a 3, but what can I say? Once it’s sliced, the meatloaf in the box matches the meatloaf on the box. 5 out of 5
Taste: While it’s not the best meatloaf I’ve ever had (that honor is tied between my mom’s meatloaf with cheese on top and the lamb meatloaf at Santorini), it’s surprisingly good for only taking four minutes to microwave. It was a little oily, and the meat grind was overly smooth, but I would probably buy this again if I’m ever in the market for pre-made meatloaf. 3.5 out of 5
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
Looks: Once again, the box fails to account for the directions instructing the preparer to stir the meal together. When will these companies learn? Also, the noodles look more like extruded Play-Doh than the spaghetti on the packaging. 3 out of 5
Taste: Absolutely disgusting. The noodles fell apart as if I had cooked them for twice their instructed cooking time, causing the whole meal to feel like pig slop. Half of the meatballs were spongy; the other half were hard. All of them were tasteless, making me wonder just what ratio of breadcrumbs to meat Michelina’s is using in their recipe. The sauce had no redeeming qualities. There are not many meals that I can’t bear to finish, but this was definitely one of them. 0 out of 5