Price: $2.50
Serving: 1 tray, 12.3 oz.
Calories: 360 per serving
Fat: 9%, 6g
Cholesterol: 13%, 40mg
Sodium: 25%, 590mg
Protein: 20g
Carbohydrates: 19%, 56g
Fiber: 28%, 7g
Sugar: 17g
Weight Watchers Points: 7 POINTS

Healthy Choice says: beef in a Spicy Southwestern Style Sauce, Whole Grain Rice, Vegetable Blend & Caramel Apple Multigrain Crisp.

Jessica says: Healthy Choice Fajita Steak is good! As you can see in the pictures, this meaty Mexican-inspired dish with a kick had a healthy serving of EVERYTHING. Every compartment was filled up with frozen dinner foods. There was a admirable amount of whole grain rice, a decent helping of thick, beef chunks, plenty of corn with just a few beans (that’s the way I like it, but if you’re hoping for tons of beans, this isn’t for you) and the very reason why I love Healthy Choice complete meals, Apple Crisp! Mmmm!

I think the addition of cilantro in the vegetable blend was not my favorite combination, but the corn wasn’t too soft and the cilantro wasn’t so strong that I couldn’t enjoy the sweet corn. The Spicy Southwestern Style Sauce was a little spicy, but not bad at all, and there was plenty for not just the meat but also to mix in with the rice. Of course the beef is the typical frozen dinner beef, but the chunks were thick and there were several thumb-sized pieces. The Apple Crisp has always been my favorite Healthy Choice dessert, but you can definitely tell it’s a healthier version of the sticky, gooey mess my mom used to make me.

Eat it or leave it? Overall, I will definitely buy this again. It’s always hard to find frozen dinners that actually have a lot of food and variety. Healthy Choice really did a great job with this one.

Price: $2.49
Serving: 1 package, 5.1oz. + water
Calories: 380 per serving
Fat: 8%, 5g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 22%, 530mg
Protein: 12g
Carbohydrates: 24%, 72g
Fiber: 24%, 6g
Sugar: 9g
Weight Watchers Points: 7 POINTS

Trader Joe’s says: Fusilli, also known as corkscrew pasta, is topped with a tomato basil sauce made from Italian grown tomatoes and basil. We paired this very traditional Italian made sauce with authentic durum wheat semolina pasta to make a classic Italian dish worthy of a fine dining experience. This convenient meal solution is perfect for the discerning food lover on the go. Italian Express meals are shelf stable and can be stored in your pantry or at your desk for a quick, delicious meal any time.

Maggie says: Now THAT’S a lot of copy. And had I read it beforehand, and noticed how many times they used the words “Italian”, “tomatoes”, and “basil”, I might have had lower expectations for this dish.

As it was, I annoyed from the start when I realized that I actually had to do some preparation to eat this microwave meal. Filling a bowl with water, adding a sauce concentrate, stirring carefully to thin out the sauce, then mixing in the pasta, was more steps than I expected for “quick”, and I had to go back to my desk to get a fork. After microwaving—for three and a half minutes, which is ALSO not quick—the cooking instructions say to let sit for a minute, and I recommend this step very highly, both to allow the dish to cool and to allow the sauce to thicken up. I perked up when the final product looked so awesome—see picture—and the pasta shape gave me the warm fuzzies as I fondly remembered many, many bowls of Kraft Spirals Macaroni and Cheese.

No such luck here. I was basically eating a bowl of Chef Boyardee. This “discerning” food lover couldn’t discern any whiff of basil—perhaps that’s why they mentioned it so much in the copy, to try to fool you into thinking it was there—nor the special Italian quality that I was supposed to notice from eating “Italian Grown” tomatoes. I was about to add salt to make the dish more exciting, and was actually reaching for the salt as I was filling out the sodium content portion of the review form. Which is why I noticed that this dish already has ONE QUARTER of your salt intake for the day. I don’t know how the dish managed to be so bland, but it was.

And then I added salt anyway. This dish may also have strongly benefited from some Parmesan Cheese. But like always, so would most things, so that’s hardly a point in the dish’s favor.

Overall, this dish is only mildly objectionable and it does have quite a lot of fiber. But I’m assuming that so does Chef Boyardee. There are so many actually tasty microwaveable meals out there I’d give this one a pass.

Hey y’all, a quick technology update before I post today’s review: Heat Eat Review now has closeups! Like this:

Lightbox* Example

Basically, you can now see the pictures of every food reviewed in excruciating detail. Head back to our postings from late September/early October (this link is sort of contextual to page 8 of reviews, not to dates – basically everything I’ve posted since the Hunger Challenge has a closeup) to see the technology in action. Since September 29th every review now has a big photo showing you just how delicious (or scary) the food actually was. Is. Have you noticed that I suck at tenses?

Anyways, thanks for reading Heat Eat Review and I hope you enjoy the new feature!

P.S. The script that helps the lightbox run needs to load on the page before it can work. If you get a picture like this:

Bad Lightbox

Just hit your back button and try clicking on the photo again. It should work.

Price: $1.25 (note if not US dollars)
Serving: 4.6oz.
Calories: 370 per serving
Fat: 27%, 18g
Cholesterol: 13%, 40mg
Sodium: 35%, 840 mg
Protein: 19g
Carbohydrates: 37g
Fiber: 6%, 1g
Sugar: 7g
Weight Watchers Points: 9 POINTS

Smiley’s says: Flame Broiled Patty Real American Cheese (I thought American cheese is processed cheese to begin with, how can there be “fake American cheese?) Microwavable Sesame Seed Bun

Chang says: About 10 years ago, grocery stores in China began selling pre-packaged hamburgers (with lettuce and various sauces, including thousand island dressing). I used to eat one everyday for breakfast (Why breakfast you ask? Well my grandmother would only cook me lunch and dinner.) Like all fad foods, this trend died down within three years, but I still get nostalgic whenever I eat low-quality hamburgers (by which I mean lower-than-McDonald’s)…

…which is the only reason why I gave this cheeseburger two stars instead of say one or zero.

I tweaked the microwaving a bit by nuking the bun first for about 20 seconds and heat the patty and the cheese separately so the bun won’t get soggy. At the first bite it did feel like ‘flame broiled”, but a few seconds later I realized I’ve been tricked by liquid smoke. Despite a lot of sodium the whole thing is bland (I thought I had a packet of ketchup stolen from Burger King in my drawer, but I couldn’t find it.) The worst part is the patty. You know how good burgers (scratch the “good”, even Burger King’s burgers) are supposed to juicy, greasy, and slightly chewy? Well this burger has the texture of…poor quality sausage patties (sans the flavor), it’s soft, almost soggy (but not juicy or greasy) and you can’t stop wondering what’s in it. (I can stop wondering now, the second and third ingredients are water and textured soy protein).

The best part in this cheeseburger is the bun, but then you can’t really mess up a hamburger bun, right?

{In effort to find the most disturbing cheeseburger-related video that did not involve cats, I present to you Twilight…..with Cheeseburgers – Ed.}