Archive for the ‘Pasta’ Category

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Lean Cuisine Sesame Stir Fry with Chicken

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Lean Cuisine Sesame Stir Fry with Chicken - Ad

Lean Cuisine Sesame Stir Fry with Chicken

Lean Cuisine Sesame Stir Fry with Chicken - Closeup

Looks: Besides the chicken pieces lacking grill marks and the noodles being just a little too thick, I don’t see anything wrong with this meal’s looks. I’m particularly struck by how accurate the colors are. 4.5 out of 5

Taste: It’s pretty good; the vegetables aren’t soggy, the chicken isn’t dry, and the noodles are substantial. I especially liked the sauce – sweet, but with a meaty undertone. I don’t have much else to say except that this is one of the few “noodles plus vegetables” frozen meals that I’d buy again. 3.5 out of 5

Posted in Broccoli, Carrots, Chicken, Edamame, Frozen, Lean Cuisine, Microwave, Pasta, Sesame Seeds, Soy Sauce, Vermicelli | 3 Comments »

Bertolli Chicken Parmigiana & Penne

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Bertolli Chicken Parmigiana & Penne - Ad

Bertolli Chicken Parmigiana & Penne

Looks: The chicken and tomato bits blend into the sauce much more than the package shows, and there was no melted cheese to be seen (although you could taste it). The sauce is thicker and coats the noodles more than expected, but the noodles themselves appeared as advertised. 3.5 out of 5

Taste: My wife claims this is her favorite of all the Bertolli meals, but I’m just not feeling it. (The Chicken Alfredo & Fettuccine and Chicken Florentine & Farfalle are both superior.) The noodles are fine, but I found the chicken a tad too soggy, and the sauce was underwhelming: it doesn’t taste much different than jarred Ragu. Definitely less than I’ve come to expect from Bertolli. 3 out of 5

Posted in Bertolli, Cheese, Chicken, Frozen, Pasta, Penne, Stovetop, Tomato Sauce | 4 Comments »

Birds Eye Steamfresh Shrimp Alfredo

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Birds Eye Steamfresh Shrimp Alfredo - Ad

Birds Eye Steamfresh Shrimp Alfredo

Looks: It was hard to get a good picture of this due to the reflectiveness of the sauce (any photographers out there have tips for me?), but besides the prominence of the shrimp, it looked very much the same in real life as it did on the package. 4.5 out of 5

Taste: Anyone who has visited this site for a while knows how much I love meals from Bertolli like the Chicken Florentine or Fettucini Alfredo. They’re great frozen pasta meals that you just toss in a skillet for 10 minutes. This meal is like the poor man’s Bertolli. You don’t have to use a skillet (just microwave the entire bag), and the quality is about 75% of that of a comparable Bertolli meal – the noodles are a little softer, the sauce isn’t as rich, and the peas just get in the way, but it’s still a very good meal for how easy it is to prepare. 4 out of 5

Posted in Alfredo, Birds Eye, Bowtie, Frozen, Microwave, Pasta, Peas, Red Peppers, Shrimp, Yellow Peppers | 10 Comments »

Healthy Choice Beef Lo Mein

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

Healthy Choice Beef Lo Mein - Ad

Healthy Choice Beef Lo Mein

Looks: This one does ok, with a few caveats: the beef/noodles ratio depicted on the box is backwards (the noodles by far outnumber of beef strips), the big chunks of zucchini pictured are missing, and the dessert consists more of gingersnap topping than peaches. On the plus side, look at those vegetables! Vibrant colors that match the advertisement. 3.5 out of 5

Taste: The vegetables ended up being the high point again: fresh-tasting with a good bite. I had never had edamame (baby soy beans) before, and I liked their clean green taste. In other news, the dessert triangle was overly sweet, with too much crumbled topping, and while the beef/noodle combination started out well enough with ok noodles, the beef was stringy and the sauce was quite gritty and not pleasant-tasting at all. 2 out of 5

Posted in Beef, Carrots, Edamame, Healthy Choice, Pasta, Peaches, Red Peppers, White Onions, Zucchini | 3 Comments »

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