Heat Eat Review

• Home
• about
• archives
• the editrix
• contribute
• contact

I don't even butter my bread; I consider that cooking. ~Katherine Cebrian

Get reviews sent to your Email or via RSS

Lean Cuisine Dinnertime Selects Chicken Fettuccini

February 5, 2007 | Reviewer: Nicole

Price: $2.00 on sale
Serving: 1 meal, 12 oz.
Calories: 260
Fat: 12%, 8g
Cholesterol: 15%, 45mg
Sodium: 32%, 770mg
Protein: 27g
Carbs: 18%, 53g
Fiber: 16%, 4g
Diet Exchanges: 2 Lean Meat, 2 Starch, 1 Vegetable, 1/2 Fruit, 1/2 Skim Milk
WW Points: 8 Points

Lean Cuisine says: Roasted chicken tenderloins, freshly made fettuccini and hand-picked broccoli tossed in a creamy Alfredo sauce with parmesan and romano cheeses, served with apples in caramel sauce.

Nicole says: Twelve ounces of food. That’s pretty exciting. Of course, I have a couple Hungry-Man meals at home that could bench press ten Lean Cuisine meals anytime (or sit on them and squash them to death,) but it’s nice to stay on the reasonable portions side of things and still have some expectation of satiety.

This meal require some babysitting - partway through cooking, you must pull back the plastic film, stir main meal section, re-cover, and continue heating. While I appreciate fully cooked food, I think that the spinning motion of the microwave plate should suffice for stirring.

The alfredo sauce was not bad - sure, it had the texture and appearance of a sauce that separates and doesn’t re-mix so well upon reheating, but it tasted A-OK. The noodles were just a touch on the soft side, but served in a hearty quantity. The chicken portion included three large (staple remover) chicken peices and four smaller ones (the hole in the center of a roll of Scotch tape). The flavor of the chicken was chicken-y and texture is appropriately meat-like. The broccoli is bright green, firm, and scrumptious.

And there’s dessert! Apples in caramel sauce! I really think we need to advocate for a law requiring frozen meals to include a meal-appropriate dessert. This one is quick and delightful with a nice mix of pie-quality spiced apples and sweet thin caramel sauce. And I’m spent. It is the size that matters, and this one is a happy medium.

Cedarlane Couscous and Vegetable Veggie Wraps

February 2, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi

Price: $2.00
Serving: 1 wrap, 6 oz.
Calories: 220
Fat: 5%, 3g
Sodium: 24%, 580mg
Protein: 14g
Carbs: 12%, 36g
Fiber: 12%, 3g
WW Points: 4 Points

Cedarlane says: Start with a wheat flour tortilla. Fill it with a generous helping of couscous, non fat mozzarella, zucchini, olives, onion, tomatoes, bell peppers, green chilis, and just the right seasonings. Wrap it up and you have the delicious Cedarlane Low Fat Couscous & Vegetable Veggie Wraps. Wholesome, low fat and great tasting, plus they have no cholesterol.

Abi says: I’d let you know if this was filling, but I consumed it with a Diet Coke, string cheese, and apple slices. While I’m craving some chocolate right now (pretty sure I have chocolate almonds in my tote bag), I’m not on the look-out for other lunch items. This is a good sign, but not telling.

Cedarlane’s cooking instructions told me to microwave the veggie wrap (which I will mistakenly call a burrito from now on) in a paper towel on high for 2 minutes. That or I could put it in the toaster oven for 30-35 minutes. I had a feeling that my coworkers would not be pleased with my toaster oven monopoly unless I was using it to make cookies for them. I might do that later today. After all, three o’clock is the infinite hour and some cookies might help.

While I would never have thought to make a couscous burrito, I must admit that it was a great lunch item, for something that is really just carbs wrapped in more carbs. No, it is not an entire lunch, but definitely part of a well-balanced meal. A meal that included cheese and chocolate.

But let’s get back to the burrito. It is filled with pasta. Does that not strike you as a little unbalanced? It definitely weirded me out. Fortunately, I was able to put that feeling aside. Well, put it aside until I cut open the burrito and found a tell-tale cold spot in the middle.

Ok folks who keep chastising me for using an office microwave and complaining about overcooked food, I am taking this opportunity to point out that our office microwave is not the super-industrial monster all of you must think it is. I had to open up the burrito and heat it for another 30 seconds after the initial 2 minute cook time. This was not my idea of fun. Why? It involved getting back in the microwave line. Actually, it meant cutting in line. Cutting in the microwave line! I did not feel good about this turn of events.

Fortunately, it just took another 30 seconds of heating to have a piping hot couscous wrap/burrito on my hands. At this point, you may be wondering if I’m even going to say anything about the veggies. No, I’m not. Well, I guess I am, but they aren’t even going to get their own paragraph. The vegetables in this wrap were a non-factor. Veggie-phobes can rejoice in the fact that the wrap contains approximately 3 cubic centimeters of zucchini and 2.5 slices of olives. I didn’t recognize any other vegetable items. This was quite disappointing for a frozen item that had the word vegetable and a derivative of the word vegetable on the label. I’m not too impressed.

Will I buy these again? Only if they’re on sale. Otherwise I’d be paying over $2.00 for what amounted to pennies worth of ingredients. I make pretty terrific couscous myself and don’t need to eat it inside of a tortilla.

(According to the package, this meal contains mozzarella and honey, thus it is not vegan. This is pretty lame because they could easily leave out those two ingredients and have a perfectly OK wrap.)

Simply Enjoy Cashew Chicken

February 1, 2007 | Reviewer: Sarah

Price: $2.50
Serving: 1 tray, 10.6 oz.
Calories: 390
Fat: 17%, 11g
Sodium: 28%, 670mg
Protein: 15g
Carbs: 19%, 56g
Fiber: 8%, 2g

Simply Enjoy says: White chicken tenderloins are seasoned and blended with succulent red and green peppers and cashews glazed with a citrus sauce, served with jasmine-scented rice.

Sarah says: I have to say, this meal was pretty good overall. As it was heating up in the microwave, it smelled delicious, which is always a good sign. The food is divided into two sections: the rice and the… well, we’ll call it the meat. But really? It would more aptly be termed the “sauce.” On the left side of the dish sat the rice, steaming, ample-sized, and — as I would soon find out — delicious. On the right side, however, were two itsy-bitsy pieces of chicken. I mean, they were so small that Abi actually asked, “Where’s the meat?” Now, was it delicious chicken? Yes, it was! However, an M&M is delicious too, but that doesn’t mean it is filling.

The proper way to eat this meal (I’m pretty sure, and if I’m wrong, who’s going to correct me?) is to spoon all of the sauce/meat on to the rice, and then enjoy. I have to say that despite the fact that I felt seriously cheated in the fowl department, the food actually did make for a filling lunch. They give you a lot of rice, and the sauce really was fantastic.

All in all, this makes a decent lunch if you’re not craving protein, and at only 390 calories, it would be good choice for someone who’s trying to lose a little of that holiday baggage. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for dinner, though. And hey, maybe other boxes contain more meat: maybe my second chicken just got away. Good for you, Mr. Chicken. Good for you.