Microwave – Page 17 – Food In Real Life

SmartOnes Three Cheese Ziti Marinara

Looks: Much like the Healthy Choice Tomato Basil Penne, there is no way to cook this meal in a way that results in a dish like the one picture on the box without adding extra cheese (and some mint, I think). The picture on the box is also enlarged quite a bit, making the noodles appear larger than they actually are. 3 out of 5

Taste: SmartOnes frozen meals are generally a level above the competitors, but this one isn’t such a clear-cut winner. The ziti comes out a little over-cooked, and there’s no discernible cheese on the pasta since by the end of cooking, it has melted and been stirred into the sauce. It’s still a semi-filling meal, but not as tasty as the box would indicate. 3 out of 5

Healthy Choice Tomato Basil Penne

Looks: If you had access to all of the individual ingredients, you could maybe construct what is shown on the box, but for a meal that includes the instruction “stir entree and replace film cover,” you’re never going to end up with a pasta dish as displayed on the box, with the sauce and cheese nicely poured over the top. The noodles are the correct shape though and the sauce is the right color, so I guess that’s something. 2.5 out of 5

Taste: Ask my wife, she’s the one who ate it. (Hey, you’re not paying to read this, what did you expect?) Ok, I asked her and she said “The noodles were a good texture and the sauce was flavorful. I had to add my own cheese. I give it 4 foods out of 5. Wait, what scale does your little blog use?”

Eggo Bake Shop Twists (Apple)

Looks: The outside of the product is almost exactly the same as the one pictured on the box. The inside, however, looks nothing like the packaging. Rather than two solid tubes of apple filling, the pastry contains two flat apple stripes, and the solid breading surrounding the filling is actually crumbly and cakey. (So crumbly, in fact, that I couldn’t make a clean cut to show the filling.) 3 out of 5

Taste: The twist is sweet, soft, and tastes like apple pie. (The sugar on top is a nice touch.) The only bad thing about this pastry is that it’s gone in three bites or less; it would have earned a full 5 out of 5 if it were two feet long. 4 out of 5

P.S. Eggo – if you do introduce a two-foot-long version of this pasty, I would like to be the first to know. Thanks!

Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli

Looks: Once you’ve shaken them out of the can and swirled them around a bit, the ravioli do have the same basic shape as depicted on the wrapper, and the sauce is almost the right color. However, the meat inside is not a healthy brown, but rather a sickly gray. (The pasta too is miscolored – more a pasty white than a golden yellow.) Additionally, the sauce doesn’t coat the ravioli like it’s supposed to, and the pasta pieces are more like flared-out boxes of meat than fluffy little beef pillows. 2.5 out of 5

Taste: There isn’t much. The sauce is really the only thing with a flavor, so it’s a good thing it’s decent for having come out of a can that may have been on the shelf for years. The “pasta” is so soft that you can chew the whole meal with just your tongue and the roof of your mouth, so add another point to the score if you’re suffering from lockjaw. 1 out of 5