Kashi Chicken Pasta Pomodoro

August 31, 2006 | Reviewer: Guest Reviewers

Price: $3.49, free from Kashi
Serving: 1 entree, 10.5 oz.
Calories: 280
Fat: 9%, 6g
Cholesterol: 2%, 5mg
Sodium: 20%, 470mg
Protein: 19g
Carbs: 13%, 38g
Fiber: 24%, 6g
Weight Watchers Points: 5 Points

Kashi says: Chicken and roasted vegetables over whole grain pasta and topped with fresh tomato garlic basil sauce, parmesan cheese and KashiÂ® 7 Whole Grain Flakes

Veda says: The Kashi Chicken Pasta Pomodoro was a pleasant surprise. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Kashi products. However, I sometimes find that they taste just a bit too healthy for me. This was not the case with the Chicken Pasta Pomodoro. These vegetables were crisp and plentiful and the pasta al dente. Plus, Kashi’s sauce would make a Tuscan mother proud. Zesty, slightly spicy and filled with fresh tomato flavor, I’d buy this meal for the sauce alone. Even more of a pleasant surprise, I was full! Way to go Kashi. I’ll definitely buy this one. So, for anyone who likes their healthy foods veiled under tastiness, go with the Kashi pastas. You can’t go wrong with whole grains.

Filed Under Chicken, Four Stars, Kashi Frozen Meal Reviews, Pasta | 8 Comments

Kashi Black Bean Mango

August 30, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

Kashi Black Bean Mango Price: $3.00 on sale, free from Kashi
Serving: 1 entree, 10 oz.
Calories: 340
Fat: 12%, 8g
Sodium: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 18%, 430mg
Protein: 8g
Carbs: 19%, 58g
Fiber: 28%, 7g
Weight Watchers Points: 7 Points

for omnivores
for vegans

Kashi says: Black beans with roasted red onions and green peppers, red peppers and carrots. Served over Kashi 7 Whole Grains Pilaf and topped with fire-roasted mango sauce. A delicious dish that’s Vegan too!

Abi says: “Please let this be full of mango, please let this be full of mango.”

That was the mantra I chanted to myself while tearing open the end of the Kashi Black Bean Mango box. Unfortunately for me, this meal contained only 12 nubs of mango. Yes, I counted. The frozen meal was also covered in a sauce. A light yellow sauce. Ok, so reading the package informed me that this was a ‘Zesty Mango Sauce’, but I don’t really read the package when I buy meals. You’d think I did, but really I’m more of a pictures girl, that’s how I get into so much frozen food trouble. Then again, the ratio of carrot to mango shown in the image on the box is reversed in the actual food product.

The actual experience of eating the mango made me realize that you don’t actually want a meal full of mango chunks. Why? They begin to approximate the texture of apples in apple pie (sort of mushy), thererefore negating the mango-ness that probably led you to buy the meal in the first place. The mangos and sauce do add a heady sweetness to the meal, wonderfully offsetting the black beans and nutty Kashi blend.

I dig Kashi’s sense of spice, which is much, much more adventurous than that of most frozen meal producers (I’m looking at you Lean Cuisine). The sauce, or peppers, or something magically hovering in the Kashi itself gave my tastebuds a little kick. I greatly appreciated the change of seasoning pace. Where I’m concerned is the overwhelming amount of zesty mango sauce. I stirred all of my sauce into the meal and realized that it was pretty much drenched in the goo. On the flip side, I’d probably be a little disappointed if I had to eat a bunch of dry Kashi.

In case you’re not familiar with Kashi’s products, you should know that they involve a great many whole grains (7, to be exact). Whole grains are covered in bran and require a great deal of chewing. While those of you in a hurry are probably not going to like this feature, I found it a refreshing change from the general sogginess of frozen meals.

Would I eat Kashi meals every day? A definite NO. My mom gave me a few Kashi TLC bars (aka granola bars) while I was in Oregon. The combo of a Kashi meal for lunch and a Kashi bar snack pretty much made me detest all things Kashi for the rest of the week. Pace yourself, folks.

Tanya at IateaPie.net gave this meal a try too.

Filed Under 7 WW Points, Cholesterol Free, Four Stars, Kashi Frozen Meal Reviews, Three Stars, Vegan, Vegetarian | 23 Comments

Kashi Lemon Rosemary Chicken

August 29, 2006 | Reviewer: Nicole

Kashi Lemon Rosemary Chicken Price: $3.00 on sale, free from Kashi
Serving: 1 entree, 10 oz.
Calories: 330
Fat: 14%, 9g
Cholesterol: 5%, 15mg
Sodium: 27%, 640mg
Protein: 16g
Carbs: 15%, 45g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Diet Exchanges: 3 carbs, 2 lean meats
Weight Watchers Points: 7 Points

Kashi says: Chicken marinated with lemon and rosemary, grilled then sliced. Served with baby Portobello mushrooms and sugar snap peas over our Kashi 7 Whole Grains Pilaf, and topped with lemon rosemary sauce.

Nicole says: Kashi 7 grain pilaf has a really lovely texture, especially for microwaved grains. Too bad this meal did not rock my world like the Kashi Southwest Chicken. There was too much sauce that was too light in flavor. Sure, it has a lot of hyphens, but the lemon-rosemary-white wine sauce was just not tasty enough to coat everything in the tray.

In the fungus counter, there are about 3 or 4 bites worth of mushrooms in this meal. I am not a mushroom lover, but I’m sure that if you are, you would dig this meal, because the included baby portobellos definitely tasted mushroomy, and the texture was not too soggy. While Abi has been disillusioned about the quality of sugar snap peas in meals, with Kashi the yummy peas were crisp and refreshing even after being nuked. The helping size was good, too - there must’ve been 8 or 10 pea pods.

The chicken was pretty good texture-wise, but going unaided by the sauce, it tasted bland. Sure there was a good portion, so I got to have 1 large piece of bland chicken, 4 medium pieces of blandness, and a few bits of meat. The peas and pilaf were definitely the highlights of the meal.

Kashi meals are filling, but they don’t produce the feeling you get after eating a high-sodium, higher-calorie microwavable meal like Banquet Salisbury steak in gravy with a mac and cheese side. That satisfied, greasy, I-feel-like-I-ate feeling. They leave you feeling satisfied but still light and floaty. I guess that’s what health food does.

Filed Under 7 WW Points, Chicken, Kashi Frozen Meal Reviews, Three Stars | 9 Comments

Kashi Sweet and Sour Chicken

August 28, 2006 | Reviewer: Jess

Kashi Sweet and Sour Chicken Price: $3.00 on sale, free from Kashi
Serving: 1 package, 10 oz.
Calories: 320
Fat: 5%, 3.5g
Sodium: 12%, 35mg
Sodium: 16%, 380mg
Protein: 18g
Carbs: 18%, 55g
Fiber: 24%, 6g
Diabetic Exchange: 3 1/2 carbohydrates, 3 very lean meats
Weight Watchers Points: 6 Points

Kashi says: Sliced chicken with roasted green beans and yellow pepper, red pepper, crimini mushrooms, onions and edamame (soybeans), served over KashiÂ® 7 Whole Grains Pilaf, and topped with a light, tangy sweet and sour sauce.

Jess says: The Kashi food development company totally has a crush on Heat Eat Review and sent us freebies from their new line of frozen meals as a token of their favor. While they did not include a “Do you like me? Circle Yes or No” letter, it was only because they did not want to appear too forward. Well I would have circled “YES” twice with emphasis, Kashi. You have my heart (and my happy belly).

The chicken looks like someone just decapitated the fowl in the backyard, de-feathered it and roasted it just for me. That’s how fresh! Even though I know in my heart of hearts that the chicken died en masse and was frozen for a while somewhere. The edamame is a lovely crunchy addition of protein power. The beans have odd grill marks that distract the eyes, but happily not the taste buds. The sauce tastes somehow mesquitey, which offsets the sweetness in a pleasant tasty way. It’s like eating Chinese food in Arizona. Or like eating BBQ in a Chinese restaurant. Or perhaps like neither of these things. Finally, there are the whole grains that make this filling meal taste somehow wholesome, like malt shops and Disney movies. I was full all day long and only needed to have beer for dinner. It turns out this was a poor life choice but that is irrelevant to this review.

If you go the Kashi website you may become freaked out by their cultish mottos (Ex. “Wellness isn’t a race; it’s a journey. And every day is a new opportunity to live life a little healthier than the day before.”) and emphasis on changing your life by bowel regularity. Don’t let this deter you from buying this meal. It is a good choice, unlike drinking beer for dinner.

Tanya at Iateapie.net also gave this meal a try. She agrees with our assessment of the tastiness of Kashi’s Sweet and Sour Chicken, but notes that it does contain more sugar than you’d expect in a ‘health’ food.

Filed Under 6 WW Points, Chicken, Five Stars, Kashi Frozen Meal Reviews | 68 Comments