Lean Cuisine Ginger Garlic Stir Fry with Chicken

March 26, 2007 | Reviewer: Rebecca

SRP: $3.19
Serving: 1 meal, 9 7/8 oz.
Calories: 290
Fat: 6%, 4g
Cholesterol: 10%, 30mg
Sodium: 27%, 640mg
Protein: 17g
Carbohydrates: 15%, 46g
Fiber: 16%, 4g
WW Points: 5 Points

Lean Cuisine says: Snap peas and broccoli with white meat chicken and whole grain rice in a ginger garlic sauce

Rebecca says: The first time I took a bite of chicken and it tasted strange I thought it must have been a mistake. The next time I took a bite of chicken and it tasted strange I thought “Really? The chicken tastes funny?” I purposely picked up a piece of chicken and subjected myself to yet another piece of chicken-it still tasted funny. It turns out I must be as nice as Jess claims I am because I kept thinking “no, there’s no way the chicken tastes funny. I like Lean Cuisine usually and usually the chicken doesn’ taste funny” and so kept eating the chicken. Some of it tasted good but the majority tasted strange.

I thought it could be the sauce - maybe the sauce only works with the rice and the vegetables but somehow doesn’t mix with the chicken. I’ve since decided that’s as farcical as the idea that any well respected spa would actually serve a meal like this. Because the sauce was good, it worked with the brown rice and all the vegetables. It should have worked with the chicken.

The box advertised twice as many vegetables and sure enough there were so many vegetables that I was able to smell the pepper steaming as I heated it even though they weren’t advertised on the box. There were definitely lots of \nice crispy snap peas, carrots sticks, and way more peppers than I would have expected. I can’t really tell the difference between snap peas and snow peas so I checked the box again and discovered broccoli was a featured vegetable. I have no memory of consuming the broccoli but I may have eaten them in between chicken bites. The rice was your straight up brown rice cooked in the microwave. In comparison to the strange chicken and the excess of vegetables, it hardly seems worth mentioning.

I admit that I may have just gotten a bad batch of chicken so please correct me if you have consumed this meal and gotten some tasty chicken. But extrapolating that all the ginger garlic stir fry with chickens have chicken like this, I give it one star.

This meal was sent to HeatEatReview.com by Lean Cuisine’s Public Relations company. HeatEatReview.com will always disclose the source of free products. Questions about our reviews? Check our our review policy or send us an email.

Filed Under 5 WW Points, Chicken, Lean Cuisine Reviews, One Star | 16 Comments

Stouffer’s Fish Filet

March 23, 2007 | Reviewer: Nicole

Stouffer's Fish Filet

SRP: $3.19
Serving: 1 meal, 9 oz.
Calories: 420
Fat: 28%, 18g
Cholesterol: 18%, 55mg
Sodium: 43%, 1030mg
Protein: 20g
Carbohydrates: 15%, 45g
Fiber: 8%, 2g

Stouffer’s says: Breaded Alaskan Pollock filet annd macaroni and cheese

Nicole says: After another offering from Stouffer’s “Classic Meals” line, I’m wondering where my parents went wrong. They never, ever served fish with macaroni and cheese. Frozen fish sticks were usually accompanied by a frozen veggie. Maybe some cream corn (cream corn rocks!) I can’t recall off the top of my head what they served with fresh fish, but I know it wasn’t mac and cheese. All these years, I’ve been missing out on this classic pairing.

So my Alaskan Pollock turned into a fried blow fish while nuking. I sort of freaked, didn’t want fish innards exploding all over the work microwave (and I didn’t want to buy another lunch,) so I removed the meal a minute before I was instructed on the second half of cooking (3 minutes, stir mac, 2-3 more minutes.) Bad move, it was not yet HOT in the middle, just warm. Re-cooked for 45 seconds, all the while fearing the worst for my puffy fish. It ended alright - no explosions of hot-air filled fried skin.

And the taste? Not bad at all. Ya know, for frozen fish heated in a microwave. I’d go so far as to say it cooks up just about as well as it would in the oven. The top and sides of the breading are actually crisp, though the bottom has suffered the standard fate of nuked breading. I wish I had some ketchup. Or tartar sauce. I thought I hated tartar sauce when I was young, but I really simply refused to try it. So I’ve only discovered in my mid-twenties that it’s yummy with fried fish. But this is still A-OK without. The size of the filet is quite generous considering this is only a nine ounce meal - it is approximately the size my fist, just flattened out just a bit.

Now to the mac and cheese, the real reason for this purchase (I wouldn’t buy the fried fish if it were with peas, or green beans, or mashed potatoes). It is cheesy and it bubbled and crusted just the tiniest bit around the edges - I LOVE that. The meal didn’t involve any actual burning, but portions were a bit harder than they “should” be. The noodles are mushy, but the noodle to sauce ratio probably perfect - this is not a cheese lake with a school of soft noodles swimming about, nor a pile of noodles with a bit of cheese melted over them.

I had very low expectations for this meal, but am so pleasantly surprised that it is tasty and satisfying. Nutritionally, the sodium content is a bit high, but otherwise it’s a low dose of fat, calories and carbs for the tasty fried fish and mac side. The extra half-star is for crispiness.

Welcome to the dance, Cinderella.

Filed Under Fish, Mac and Cheese, Stouffer's Frozen Meal Reviews, Three Stars | 10 Comments

Next Week: New Spa Cuisine from Lean Cuisine

March 22, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

Twice the Veggies of an average Lean Cuisine entree, excluding Dinnertime Selects

The friendly folks at Lean Cuisine’s PR department sent us a box of Lean Cuisine’s new Spa Cuisine entrees and we’ve been on an unintentional diet ever since. Oh, just kidding. I ate pizza for dinner last night. And had a Belgian Sunrise. Take that, diets everywhere!

For those of you who are actually interested in eating healthy or dieting or these adjustments and additions to the Lean Cuisine product line, check out our series, coming Monday, March 26th to Friday, March 30th.

Monday - Lean Cuisine Ginger Garlic Stir Fry with Chicken
Tuesday - Lean Cuisine Hunan Stir Fry with Beef
Wednesday - Lean Cuisine Sesame Stir Fry with Chicken
Thursday - Lean Cuisine Grilled Chicken Primavera
Friday - Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli

Filed Under Announcements | 9 Comments

Simply Enjoy Apple Blossoms

March 21, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi

Simply Enjoy Apple Blossom

Price: $2.59
Serving: 1 blossom, 4oz.
Calories: 370
Fat: 31%, 20g
Sodium: 13%, 310mg
Protein: 4g
Carbs: 15%, 46g
Sugar: 20g
Fiber: 16%, 4g

Simply Enjoy says: Juicy Northern Spy apples mixed with a blend of apple pie seasonings surrounded by a tender, flaky pastry crust, create the perfect Apple Blossom. These pre-baked pastries are truly a melt-in-your-mouth culinary treat. So, don’t be surprised when
you hear your family and friends tell you, “It’s Apple Blossom time!”

Abi says: Above is the most accurate and frighteningly predictive product blurb in the history of frozen foods. Yes, the apples were juicy. Yes, the pastry crust was flaky. Yes, the Apple Blossom was a melt-in-my-mouth culinary treat.

And yes, from time to time I hear my friends say to me “It’s Apple Blossom time!”

These pastries are culinary crack, if crack was made of butter and sugar and Northern Spy apples. Stop and Shop’s Apple Blossoms are something of a nutritional nightmare. Thank God Nicole only gave me one, because I definitely could have consumed eight of the warm, spiced, tenderly delicious pastries.

These things were so freaking good that I just checked my freezer to see if I had any. I do not, so now I have returned back to the computer to write my sad, non-apple-blossom-having review.

Get yourself to Giant or Stop and Shop and pick up a box of Apple Blossoms. Then make sure that you share them with a friend. There are only two in a box, so this shouldn’t be an issue. Then again, once they’re gone, you’ll start wondering whether sharing was such a good idea after all.

Filed Under Five Stars, Simply Enjoy Reviews | 12 Comments