Lean Cuisine Creamy Basil Chicken

May 31, 2006 | Reviewer: Jess

Price: $2.89
Serving: 1 Bowl, 10 1/2 oz.
Calories: 290
Fat: 11%, 7g
Sodium: 26%, 640mg
Protein: 22g
Carbs: 11%, 33gs
WW Points: 6 Winning Points
Diet Exchange: 1 1/2 Lean meat, 2 starch, 1 vegetable, 1/2 Skim Milk

Lean Cuisine says: Roasted white meat chicken with penne pasta, red and yellow peppers and zucchini in a creamy basil sauce

Jess says: Lean Cuisine, do you google yourself? Don’t be ashamed. It’s fairly common practice these days. Everyone does it. I’ve done it.

Well, I’m hoping that you do. And that Google has led you to this site. My esteemed colleagues and I have really good advice for you, and we’ve developed a relationship with you that you may not even be aware of! We address you personally and we always come back to you even when you do us harm. We want to you succeed and you should listen to us. You really couldn’t ask for a more targeted audience. We’re in our 20’s and still body-conscious enough to purchase food that promises leanness. We’re poor and really don’t like spending a lot on lunch and, let’s face it, you set your prices low even before the frequent (if not constant) sales at Safeway and Giant. I won’t buy you if you’re more than $3 because I know it’s just a matter of time before you’ll come back to your cheap senses. But we’re classy, and like to think that we have discriminating tastes. So we get excited about exotic food descriptions that imply cuisine of various cultural origins. Yes, we could email you directly, but we are already doing so much of your work for you. We’ve stepped forward towards you. Red rover, its time for Lean Cuisine to come over.

That said, on to this meal, which in not a finished product, but a work in progress. But all is not lost. We can fix this. First of all, stop with the cubed chicken. It’s not pretty. It’s not tasty. It does not survive the microwaving process well. And its rubbery texture can frighten the squeamish. Second, if you promise that something has basil in it (yes, basil is one of the loveliest of the herbs) you should use real basil leaves. Using basil flakes is insulting. I could have poured my own basil flakes on the meal that had not been frozen and thus nullified in taste and smell. It’s a basil sauce! Give a little! Finally, capitalize on your veggies. You claim to have perfected the veggie freezing process (I read your boxes). I don’t disagree. Your zucchini was scrumptious and the peppers tasted like peppers. But the scant offering of veggies leads this meal to blandness. Now that you’ve eliminated the chicken, throw me some more of those zucchini slices. And I’m still impressed by your snap peas from a previous meal, so give me some sugar (meaning add snap peas to this meal).

I think this relationship between Heat.Eat.Review and Lean Cuisine has beautiful potential for growth. Let’s be better, together, okay?

Filed Under 6 WW Points, Chicken, Lean Cuisine Reviews, Pasta, Three Stars | Leave a Comment

Lean Cuisine Hunan Beef and Broccoli

May 30, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

Lean Cuisine Hunan Beef and Broccoli

Price: $3.29
Serving: 1 tray, 8.5 oz.
Calories: 230
Fat: 6%, 4g
Sodium: 26%, 630mg
Protein: 12g
Carbs: 12%, 36g
Fiber: 8%, 2g
WW Points: 4 Winning Points
Diet Exchanges: 1 Lean Meat, 2 Starch, 1/2 Veg

Lean Cuisine says: Tender pieces of slow roasted beef rib tips in an oriental-style soy and hoison seasoned sauce, with hand-picked broccoli florets, water chestnuts and long grain rice

Abi says: Have you noticed that there aren’t a lot of beef reviews on HeatEatReview.com? There’s a reason for that. Beef, when made in a microwave, is generally gross. Personally, I prefer the carcinogenic beef that comes off of a grill or the carcinogenic beef that comes in Costco hot dog form.

Lean Cuisine’s Hunan Beef and Broccoli filled the work kitchen with fumes of burnt oriental-style sauce. While pulling the plastic film off of the meal, my colleague Andrew laughed at me. Laughed. Seriously, right in my face and then made some comment about how I would probably die if I ate the whole meal.

Lean Cuisine Hunan Beef and Broccoli

Being one who enjoys tempting fate, I sat down to eat some of this beef with broccoli (one of my favorite Chinese takeout dishes). Ew ew ew. That is the proper term to describe this concoction of soft jerky-like beef, sauce, and rice with broccoli. Actually the rice and broccoli that had escaped the sauce was pretty freaking awesome. Ok, it wasn’t actually awesome. I was just trying to interject some positivity into this review. The broccoli was ok and I ate it because I know that broccoli is good for me and aside from pineapple and avocado, I haven’t consumed any other vegetables/fruits in the last 36 hours.

Thank God that Carolyn yelled over the cube wall ‘Anyone want to go to Baja Fresh?’. I called her over to show off my scary meal and let her know that I needed some Baja.

Today for lunch, I ate a chipotle glazed chicken salad. Here is the description from the Baja Fresh brochure I picked up during our trip:

Warm, grilled charbroiled chicken, drizzled with a chipotle glase atop a bed of romaine, roasted corn and chilies, sliced avocado and grilled fresh pineapple. Served with out own chipotle vinaigrette and flautas filled with melted jack cheese and roasted corn and chilies.

It was exactly and described and absolutely delicious. A ‘wow this is an awesome salad’ kind of salad. I would eat one for dinner too, but I am going to have thai food instead.

Filed Under 4 WW Points, Beef, Lean Cuisine Reviews, Zero Stars | 6 Comments

Smart Ones Southwest Style Adobo Chicken

May 26, 2006 | Reviewer: Carolyn

Smart Ones Southwest Style Adobo Chicken

Price: $2.50
Serving: 1 Tray, 10 oz.
Calories: 280
Fat: 7%, 4.5g
Sodium: 28%, 670mg
Protein: 19g
Carbs: 13%, 40g
WW Points: 5 Winning Points

Smart Ones says: Tender white meat chicken in a sweet chili sauce and paired with a southwest style seasoned rice, bean and corn medley.

Carolyn Says: For one of the first times in my life, the food that came out of the microwave looked almost identical to the food on the cover of the box. Not bad! The instructions told me not to mix the chicken with the rice while cooking, so I waitied until after the food was done cooking to mix it up. The rice was quite good, not too soggy, and nicely accented with corn and peppers. The chicken was also as delicious as microwavable chicken can get - not too chewy or hard. Sauce was tasty as well. Only downside is the fact it was not a super filling meal, but thats what you should expect from these brands.

Filed Under 5 WW Points, Chicken, Smart Ones Reviews, Three Stars | Leave a Comment

Amy’s Kitchen Pesto Tortellini

May 25, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

Amy's Kitchen Pesto Tortellini Price: $2.50 (reg. $3.99)
Serving: 1 bowl, 9.5 oz.
Calories: 430
Fat: 29%, 19g
Cholesterol: 14%, 40mg
Sodium: 27%, 640mg
Protein: 20g
Carbs: 15%, 45g
Fiber: 11%, 3g
WW Points: 10 Points

Amy’s Kitchen says: The ultimate in comfort foods -tender organic tortellini pasta and ricotta in a rich creamy pesto sauce.

Abi says: Last weekend I attended a birthday barbecue. I’d promised the birthday girl (Carolyn) a fruit salad and I intended to deliver. While shopping at my local Giant last Saturday morning I decided to venture out of the produce section and into the frozen foods. That was a huge mistake.

Begin saga

There, sitting in the freezer section were 4 Amy’s Pesto Tortellini Bowls. Four! I yanked open the door and scooped the boxes into my loving arms. Then I realized that I should really buy six items, so I threw in an Enchilada Pie and a Stuffed Shells bowl.

Why such enthusiasm? Well, when I first started to review meals for this site, Amy (friend) told me about the wonders of this bowl and informed me that the pesto was so good that she had once reserved some of it to use on another pasta dish. While this may sound disgusting to many of you, I took it as a sign of the superior quality of this meal.

Two weeks later, there was a sale on Amy’s bowls — 2 for $5.00. But there was no Pesto Tortellini to be had, so I got a raincheck. For the last two months I’ve been checking for those bowls. I’m sure the guy who stocks the frozen food thought I was crazy. I’m not crazy, but the raincheck was burning a hole in my pocket.

Which takes us back to Saturday and my warm embrace of six boxes of frozen food (George is going to freak out when he sees that our freezer is completely full). On Saturday I walked up to a checkstand, placed my items on the belt, and said a fond farewell to my raincheck. That is until the raincheck function on the cash register didn’t work and the coupon function didn’t work and I got to get all of my meals for the sale price and keep my raincheck! Yes!

Later in the day, I arrive at the barbecue, set my fruit salad on the table and proceed to stand around a bowl of fruit salad with my friends, chat and eat straight from the bowl (we had forks). I did not talk about frozen food at that time. I chatted about frozen food later when Amy got to the party and we both were ecstatic about our Pesto Tortellini purchases. We cleaned out Giant. Sorry folks in Columbia Heights.

End of Saga

If not for the 40% RDA of saturated fat provided by this meal, I would probably have these twice a week. In fact, it is several days after I had this meal and I’m wishing that I could eat one right now, even if it is only 10:30 a.m. The pesto isn’t quite as garlicky as I like and a couple of the tortellini were hard. Instructions tell you to just cut a slit and let the baby go for five minutes in the microwave (turn once if you don’t have a rotating tray). Unfortunately, this makes for uneven cooking. I am still trying to figure out a way to adequately stir this meal without disrupting the steam-bag environment. Well, I have three more pesto bowls for this experiment.

Filed Under Amy's Kitchen Reviews, Five Stars, Pasta, Vegetarian | 12 Comments