Archive for the ‘Red Peppers’ Category

Lean Cuisine Linguine Carbonara

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Lean Cuisine Linguine Carbonara - Ad

Lean Cuisine Linguine Carbonara

“Hey boss – I’m packing up these Carbonaras, but we’re low on peas and bacon. Should I order more?” “Nah, just give ’em four peas and two little bacon scraps. They’ll never notice.”

I’ve made carbonara myself from scratch; I’ve had it in Italian restaurants; I’ve even eaten it in Italy, where they tend to make pretty decent Italian food. While this (unsurprisingly) doesn’t come close to any of those three experiences, it’s a passable approximation for a frozen box that cooks in three minutes. The sauce has the trademark eggy/cheesy taste of a carbonara sauce, but it’s way too loose. The noodles are too soft too, making this more of a carbonara soup than the thick pile of cheesy pasta that it’s supposed to be.

Looks: 2.5 out of 5 Taste: 3 out of 5

Healthy Choice Asian Potstickers, Revisited

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Ever since reader Dena Struchtemeyer sent in her review of Healthy Choice’s Asian Potstickers, I had wanted to try some myself to see how closely my exerience would mirror hers. I hope to do this with other reader reviews in the future, so let me know how I’m doing.

Healthy Choice Sweet Asian Potstickers - Ad

Dena’s potstickers:

Healthy Choice Sweet Asian Potstickers

My potstickers:

Healthy Choice Sweet Asian Potstickers

Looks: Not as vibrant or as fresh as the box depicts, but much moreso than Dena’s. The portion sizes are accurate though. 3.5 out of 5

Taste: The potstickers were chewy (the way I like them), but the filling was mostly tasteless – tofu is not known for its flavor. On the other hand, the rice surrounding the potstickers was terrible; gritty and dry, completely unpalatable. I’d eat the potstickers again if I was able to get them for free, but I’d still throw the rice away. 2 out of 5

Healthy Choice Roasted Chicken Marsala Cafe Steamer

Monday, February 8th, 2010

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Healthy Choice Roasted Chicken Marsala Cafe Steamer

Looks: Mushrooms are MIA. Sauce is much too watery. Chicken-to-noodle ratio is far too low. 3 out of 5

Taste: Bland, but the chicken was nice and juicy. The vegetables were still quite crisp, which somewhat made up for the overcooked and mushy noodles. Not a keeper. 2 out of 5

Birds Eye Steamfresh Shrimp Alfredo

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

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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