Lean Cuisine Swedish Meatballs

May 25, 2006 | Reviewer: Carolyn

Price: $2.00
Serving: 1 tray, 9 1/8 oz.
Calories: 280
Fat: 10%, 7g
Sodium: 26%, 630mg
Protein: 22g
Carbs: 10%, 32g
Fiber: 8%, 2g
WW Points: 6 Winning Points
Diet Exchanges: 2 Lean Meat, 2 Starch, 1/2 Skim Milk

Lean Cuisine says: Tender oven-roasted meatballs seasoned to perfection in a tasty sour cream gravy accented with a side of curly pasta.

Carolyn says: I will admit I picked this out because it seemed like such an odd frozen lunch, but I ended up really liking it! I think in their attempts to be health friendly Lean Cuisine loaded up on the lean meatballs and skimped a little bit on the carby pasta - which ended in a slightly high ratio of meatballs to pasta. Unusual. But, the meatballs were pretty moist and saucy. The pasta was also fine, and there was enough sauce to go around. The Swedish Meatball meal didn’t get burned to the edge, maybe because they instruct you to cook it on 1/2 power for twice as long. That is the second or third frozen meal we have seen recently by Lean Cuisine that is using that whole 1/2 power thing. Interesting new trend. Overall a pleasing purchase and more filling than usual.

Filed Under 6 WW Points, Beef, Four Stars, Lean Cuisine Reviews, Pasta, Pork, Turkey | 2 Comments

Kid Cuisine All Star Chicken Breast Nuggets

May 24, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

Kid Cuisine All Star Chicken Breast Nuggets

Price: $1.86 (on sale)
Serving: 1 meal, 8.8 oz.
Calories: 460
Fat: 29%, 19g
Sodium: 35%, 830mg
Protein: 36%, 18g
Carbs: 17%, 50gs

Kid Cuisine says: A meal with an all-star cast, complete with a multi-colored star sprinkle packet. So sprinkle some happiness and treat yourself to a galaxy of great taste.

Abi says: When a coworker describes chicken as ‘airy’ you should probably assume that is a bad thing. Ok to be airy: puff pastry, Not ok: meat. From those sentences, you’ve probably deduced that my chicken nuggets were airy. Also, I keep misspelling nuggets as nuggest. Why? Because I had to type the word ‘breast’ in the title and now I have all of my s’s and t’s confused.

I didn’t eat the pudding. Before you go questioning my journalistic integrity, please note that I consumed the pudding in my review of the Kid Cuisine Carnival Corn Dog. These meals were purchased at the same time, thus it is unlikely that there was improvement in the product while there were hanging out in my freezer.

The corn was the blandly amazing star in this meal from Kid Cuisine while the macaroni and cheese was styrofoamy and the chicken nuggets drove me insane. Why? Because the instructions on this meal are as follows:

1. Cut and remove film cover from the tray except over corn. REMOVE CHICKEN NUGGETS AND SPRINKLES PACKET.

2. Microwave meal on HIGH 1 1/2 minutes; stir macaroni & cheese. REPLACE CHICKEN NUGGETS; continue microwaving 1 minute 45 seconds.

3. Let stand 2 minutes in microwave. CAREFULLY REMOVE AS PRODUCT WILL BE HOT; stir macaroni & cheese and pudding.

Here’s a picture:

I had enough trouble with these instructions as an adult. Can you imagine being a kid and following them? I’m guessing that while this meal is made for kids to eat, it is not made for kids to actually cook themselves. You have to have an adult around for these instructions. Not exactly a timesaver.

Filed Under Chicken, Kid Cuisine Reviews, Two Stars | 2 Comments

Lean Cuisine Chicken Fettuccini

May 24, 2006 | Reviewer: Nicole

Lean Cuisine Chicken Fettuccini

Price: $2.89
Serving: 1 Tray, 9 1/4 oz.
Calories: 280
Fat: 10%, 7g
Sodium: 30%, 690mg
Protein: 21g
Carbs: 11%, 33g
WW Points: 6 Winning Points
Diet Exchange: 1 1/2 Lean Meat, 2 Starch, 1/2 Skim Milk

Lean Cuisine says: Tender pieces of roasted chicken breast topped with a creamy alfredo sauce made with Parmesan and Romano cheeses, cream and butter. Accented with black pepper and parsley. Served with fettucini pasta.

Nicole says: Perhaps I was hasty in writing off Lean Cuisine. After suffering through three severely disappointing meals, I couldn’t help myself. When I pulled the Chicken Fettuccini from the freezer I thought “Who can screw up fettuccini alfredo?” and immediately answered myself, “Lean Cuisine can!”

What can I say, we’re all wrong sometimes. The chicken portion is scant, well so are all Lean Cuisine portions. Here you get about 6.5 reasonably tasty and properly textured cubes, though one was gristly. The noodles are just about al dente and the sauce - WOW! I am impressed. The alfredo sauce is CREAMY, CHEESY, and tastes like in contains some fat! The dish contained plenty of this lovely sauce, but wasn’t swimming in cream. The words “black pepper” and “parsley” are misleading, but that does not discount this Lean Cuisine Success.

Filed Under 6 WW Points, Chicken, Four Stars, Lean Cuisine Reviews, Pasta | 1 Comment

Lean Cuisine Cheese Ravioli

May 23, 2006 | Reviewer: Nicole

Lean Cuisine Cheese Ravioli

Price: $2.89
Serving: 1 Tray, 8.5 oz.
Calories: 240
Fat: 9%, 6g
Sodium: 25%, 600mg
Protein: 11g
WW Points: 5 Winning Points
Diet Exchange: 1 medium fat meat, 2 starch,

1/2 other carbohydrate

Lean Cuisine says: Delicate ravioli stuffed with Ricotta, Mozzarella, Parmesan and Romano cheeses, then topped with a robust tomato sauce accented with basil, onion and garlic.

Dear Lean Cuisine:

By the time you read this note, I’ll be gone. I’ll have faded from this world into a transparent grey substanceless existence. Why? Because you are what you eat, and I’ve been eating far too much of your weak cuisine. It’s not me, it’s you. You have lack flavor and leave my appetite unsated.

The “tomato sauce” atop your cheese ravioli is NOT “robust.” Though it does contain chunks of what appear to be tomatoes and onions, I detect nothing. Amazingly, this version is even
blander than “tomato” sauces from other LC meals. The ravioli shell is fair. But it’s what’s inside that counts, right? I ate the ravioli very carefully, so as to extract as much cheese taste as humanly possible, knowing your reputation for skimpy, bland cheese portions.

The process I used to taste the cheese inside each ravioli had me acting far more intimately with this meal than I generally act towards my lunch. The six medium sized ravioli, well, we are boyfriend-girlfriend now. And six ravioli! That’s not a meal, its a side dish. Me and the ravioli, not me and you, Lean Cuisine. But it’s the kind of relationship that will only last until something better comes along, and I expect that will be very soon.

With Love,
Nicole

Filed Under 5 WW Points, Lean Cuisine Reviews, Pasta, Two Stars, Vegetarian | 5 Comments