Marie Callender’s Macaroni and Cheese

July 14, 2006 | Reviewer: Bale

Marie Callender’s mac and cheese is probably the best frozen mac and cheese in existence…

Marie Callender's Macaroni and Cheese

Price: $2.50
Serving: 1 cup, 8 oz.
Servings in tray: about 2.5
Calories per serving: 350
Fat: 23%, 15g
Sodium: 47%, 1130mg
Protein: 16g
Carbs: 12%, 36g
Fiber: 12%, 3g

Marie Callender says: I blended tender elbow macaroni with a rich, creamy cheese sauce made with real butter.

Bale says: Marie Callender’s mac and cheese is probably the best frozen mac and cheese in existence. Not only is it a very large portion (20 ounces if you eat the whole box), the texture of the noodles is very good . . . not too soft and not too hard. The best thing about this side dish as a meal is the flavor of the cheese. You couldn’t ask for anything cheesier unless you make a pan of macaroni and cheese from scratch. That’s the only thing that would give this meal a run for its money.

The HeatEatReview.com staff has also reviewed:
Banquet Macaroni and Cheese;
Stouffer’s Macaroni and Cheese;
Annie’s Microwaveable Mac and Cheese; and
Kraft Easy Mac Cups.

Filed Under Five Stars, Mac and Cheese, Marie Callender Reviews, Pasta, Vegetarian | 8 Comments

Hungry-Man Mexican Style Fiesta

July 13, 2006 | Reviewer: Nicole

In which Nicole eats half of a Hungry-Man meal and declares herself unsatisfied in multiple ways.

Hungry-Man Mexican Style Fiesta

Price: $2.00 (sale at Safeway)
Serving: 1 package, 20 oz.
Calories: 870
Fat: 58%, 38g
Sodium: 93%, 2230mg
Protein: 24g
Carbs: 38%, 113g
Fiber: 53%, 13g

Hungry-Man says: Beef enchiladas in chili sauce with Mexican style rice, refried beans and a brownie.

Nicole says: I could eat this entire meal. But I wouldn’t enjoy it. Not that I would be painfully full, though I am reasonably satisfied after half of the meal and a small salad. It would be painful because this meal really does not taste good. The enchiladas are in the same class as Banquet’s enchiladas: untextured meat (though this is supposed to be shredded, from the photo), soggy shells, and a sauce with enough flavor to make these bits of American-Mexican cuisine palatable.

The refried beans were very disturbing, however. The first bite and every one thereafter had a distinct chemical taste. In refried beans, of all things. These are a protein you can safely eat straight from a can, but for some reason Swanson needed to add some freaky nasty preservative that make them taste worse than cold refired beans from the can. Pfft.

Abi gave me a heads up that the brownie was disappointing. I stil looked forward to it, though. She was right - though it’s clear that there is some chocolate or chocolate flavor in this, the dessert is quite bland. It’s like bad vegan chocolate. The texture was not hideous, though, compared to microwave brownies in meals that I’ve had in the past. This may be related to the fact that you have to remove the brownie part way through cooking. This meal gets knocked up half a star only because the whole thing would be a filling meal for $2.00 (on sale.)

Click here to read Abi’s review of this meal.

Filed Under Beef, Hungry-Man Reviews, Two Stars | 5 Comments

Amy’s Kitchen Indian Palak Paneer

July 12, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

After consuming this meal, I’ve decided that I prefer my dal in lentil form. Speaking of lentils, did you ever go to the State Fair when you were a kid and try the lentil chili? We would beg my mom to buy lentil chili mix. Odd kids, I know…

Amy's Kitchen Indian Palak Paneer

Price: $3.49
Serving: 1 tray, 10 oz.
Calories: 240
Fat: 23%, 9g
Cholesterol: 2%, 5mg
Sodium: 28%, 680mg
Protein: 10g
Carbs: 13%, 38g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
WW Points: 5 Points

Amy’s Kitchen says: Smooth, creamy palak paneer, made from organic spinach and soft Indian cheese, is lightly spiced with authentic Indian herbs and spices. Rajmah dal, made from organic red kidney beans in a ginger-garlic sauce and tender organic basmati rice complete this delicious meal.

Abi says: This meal tastes like the leftovers that you take home from a restaurant and reheat the next day. They’re never as good as the original and you’re often left wondering if the food has reacted poorly to the environment of your fridge or if it was the glorious restaurant atmosphere (and carafe of wine) that made the meal great.

In the case of Amy’s Palak Paneer, there were two problems. The first is that it is currently 90 degrees in DC and the A/C at HeatEatReview.com headquarters can’t handle the heat. The second issue is the general blandness and sogginess of the meal. I know, it is creamed spinach. But I couldn’t get over the fact that it has the consistency of baby food. There’s plenty of rice here, too much rice, in fact. It is just rice! I paid a lot for this meal and I get mostly rice. Thanks alot, Amy’s Kitchen. In other news, you’ll get just the teensiest dollop of so-so kidney-bean dal. After consuming this meal, I’ve decided that I prefer my dal in lentil form. Speaking of lentils, did you ever go to the State Fair when you were a kid and try the lentil chili? We would beg my mom to buy lentil chili mix. Odd kids, I know.

Overall, Amy’s Palak Paneer was one big, disappointing ‘blah’. Get the Pesto Tortellini Bowl instead.

Filed Under 5 WW Points, Amy's Kitchen Reviews, Three Stars, Vegetarian | 7 Comments

Hungry-Man Mexican Style Fiesta

July 11, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

Once again falling victim to my inexplicable desire to purchase all items with ‘Fiesta’ in the name, I picked up this little treat at Safeway last week.

Hungry-Man Mexican Style Fiesta

Price: $2.00 (sale at Safeway)
Serving: 1 package, 20 oz.
Calories: 870
Fat: 58%, 38g
Sodium: 93%, 2230mg
Protein: 24g
Carbs: 38%, 113g
Fiber: 53%, 13g

Hungry-Man says: Beef enchiladas in chili sauce with Mexican style rice, refried beans and a brownie.

Abi says: Nicole and I split this meal. We also split a grilled caesar salad from Roberto Donna’s Galileo. I am actually taking pauses between each sentence to take bites of my fantastic cannoli dessert, perhaps also made by the hands of Mr. Donna, though probably not.

Actually, I just decided after writing that to stop messing around and eat the entire cannoli. Yum. It was half chocolate and half plain. The plain side was covered in chopped pistachios and the chocolate side has chocolate sprinkles. Those things are the best ever! Especially when I know that there are people sitting in Galileo right now paying a whole heck of a lot for the same thing I just at for $2.50!

(note to Roberto: I don’t enjoy the candied fruit bits. They are disgusting and take away from the delightful purity of the creamy ricotta)

Unfortunately, this is not a review of a meal from Galileo, one of the most expensive restaurants in DC. This is actually a review of my Hungry-Man meal. We at HeatEatReview HQ get tons of email urging us to eat Hungry-Man meals. Why is that? Could it be that other people are scared to eat Hungry-Man meals? Are the readers completely enchanted by meals that provide 93% of your daily sodium needs in one sitting? Do they want to see if a bunch of girls can handle being
‘Hungry-Men’?

You may have noticed that most of the reviews on this site are written by women. In fact, most of the people I work with are women. Even our IT department (which I am a part of) is mostly women. Does that mean that HeatEatReview.com is only for women? Most certainly not. We review for everyone, including guys. Should guys eat this meal? No. Nobody should eat this meal. I don’t care how much hate-mail you Hungry-Man-Loving readers send me, I cannot in good conscience recommend that any other human being ever consume this meal.

Let’s start with the things my coworkers said before I even heated up the meal…

“That looks good if you want to eat non-denominational meat.”

and

“Can’t help myself, I love Duncan Hines like nobody else…”

Evidently Kate was disgusted by the enchiladas while Josh started singing a commercial to the tune of “Sugar Pie (I can’t help myself)” by the Four Tops. There’s nothing like hearing a grown man sing about his love of Duncan Hines. Unfortunately, the brownie in this meal isn’t worth singing about. First, because it requires that you remove (and essentially destroy) the brownie from the tray halfway through the cooking process. Secondly, the brownie is almost entirely tasteless. My new coworker, Kelly, was quite curious about the brownie and inquired immediately about its tastiness. I was utterly sorry to say that while it was piping hot, it didn’t exactly taste like anything. A Betty Crocker Warm Delights Brownie would have this thing begging for mercy. The only nice thing about this brownie is that you can easily parlay the removal into an eating your dessert first session. If only the brownie was worth eating.

And the rest of the meal? Aside from my coworkers complaining about the extreme odor of the meal (multiple people likened it to body odor. Yes, they claimed this meal smelled like an unwashed contstruction worker), the food was plain old bland. Tomato paste based sauce, dried out corn tortillas, tasteless shredded beef. At least, I hope that was shredded beef. The refried beans, generally a delight when served in my home, gave off a frightening odor that further terrified my cube-mates. I can’t explain the popularity of Hungry-Man meals. Are Americans too lazy to heat up two separate - but more delicious - meals?

Stay tuned for Nicole’s take on the meal, to be posted on Thursday, and stay away from the Hungry-Man Mexican Style Fiesta.

Filed Under Beef, Hungry-Man Reviews, One Star | 13 Comments