Heat Eat Review

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

What use are cartridges in battle? I always carry chocolate instead. ~George Bernard Shaw

Get reviews sent to your Email or via RSS

Boston Market Honey Roasted Chicken

March 9, 2007 | Reviewer: Nicole

Price: $3.00
Serving: 1 meal, 9.2 oz.
Calories: 410
Fat: 25%, 17g
Cholesterol: 17%, 50mg
Sodium: 48%, 1140mg
Protein: 20g
Carbohydrates: 15%, 46g
Fiber: 6%, 2g

Boston Market says: Our juicy chunks of chicken are honey-roasted and complemented with a sweet and tangy sauce made from balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, and brown sugar. It’s served up with a side of our signature Au Gratin Potatoes

Nicole says:

Dearest Darling Boston Market:

How do I love thee? Let me pay tribute.
Aroma from the microwave so sweet
And savory I could not wait to meet
Your cheesy sauce and honey Dijon soak.
I love thee among frozen meals no dispute,
Bland sauces and low-fat cheese can’t compete.
I love thy luscious, tender chicken meat.
I love its zesty aroma en tout.
I love the potatoes covered, no ruse,
In the creamy thick cheese bath like a cloak.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With all the mediocre frozen meals.
If forever I had to simply choose
Just one, Boston Market, our souls I’ll seal.

The only complaint I could possible make about this meal is its size - not even ten ounces, with a two larger chicken pieces, about five small ones, and a child’s fist of potatoes. Some might shy away from the sodium content, I know. And, no, you won’t get all your food groups. But it’s all worth it. This is probably the tastiest thing ever to go into the microwave frozen. Boston Market was already a heavy-hitter with me, but this meal is a home run.

The skin-on roasted potatoes were an unbelievable complement to the chicken. And that chicken? It was texturally perfect, swimming in amazing Dijon mustard/balsamic vinegar/brown sugar concoction. The cheese sauce cooks up creamy, with beautiful shreds visible before the meltiness comes on.

Suddenly, as rare things will, it vanished.

Progresso 50% Less Sodium Garden Vegetable Soup

March 7, 2007 | Reviewer: Guest Reviewers

Price: $2.19
Serving: 1 Cup, 8 oz.
Calories: 100
Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 19%, 450mg
Protein: 3g
Carbs: 7%, 22g
Fiber: 11%, 3g
WW Points: 1.5

Progresso says: Finally, just what you’ve been waiting for! The same colorful medley of vegetables as our Progresso Vegetable Classics Garden Vegetable Soup, and also heart smart with half the sodium.

Amanda says: That blurb really sucks, doesn’t it? Apparently we’ve all been waiting for the exact same soup as the soup they already made. Which they kindly gave to us. Again. But in case we didn’t think this was good enough, they point out that they gave us exactly the same soup AND less sodium. Well hey! Thanks Progresso!

I decree 3 stars. The potatoes are delicious in this soup, and plentiful. I appreciate this for both the nice texture (they weren’t too mushy) and the bulk they add to my hungry stomach. The kidney beans were surprisingly firm (a plus in my book), though the green beans and carrots pretty much disintegrated in my mouth. There was a chunk of tomato large enough for me to see where the STEM CAME FROM. It was a REAL tomato! Coming from both a giant corporation and a can, I have to admit I got a little excited at this discovery. However, the tomato surprise didn’t make up for the fact that I saw corn, celery and onions floating around but neither their flavors nor textures were noticeable.

Overall the flavor is pretty typical of canned water and tomato based veggie soup. There’s nothing about the seasoning that blew me away, but nothing to really complain about either. The most remarkable trait of this particular tomato based soup is that the tomato flavor is pleasantly devoid of that weird metallic tanginess present in some canned soups. This is the second time I’ve had this soup and my official opinion is that it’s good to have around when you don’t really feel like anything in particular and just want something quick, warm and easy. I have to admit though, that while there are 2 servings per can, I consumed the entire thing. With Wasa Multi-grain crackers. Which if you haven’t had, you should go out and buy. Right now. And pick up some spicy hummus while you’re at it. And then eat that on the side. Now, that’s a meal. If I’d just had ½ the can? I wouldn’t have had the strength to type this review 40 minutes post consumption.

Smart Ones Lasagna Bolognese

March 5, 2007 | Reviewer: Adina

Price: $2.00
Serving: 1 meal, 9 oz.
Calories: 270
Fat: 6%, 4g
Cholesterol: 4%, 15mg
Sodium: 22%, 540mg
Protein: 14g
Carbs: 43%, 14g
Fiber: 13%, 3g
WW Points: 5 Points

Smart Ones says: Enjoy a delicious twist on traditional lasagna with tender, bite-sized lasagna noodles in a rich, meaty sauce that’s made even tastier by adding mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.

Adina says: This meal was not meaty. Okay, I admit that there are Cheerios-sized meat pieces in the sauce. But if you don’t really focus all your attention on the act of chewing, you risk not even getting to taste the meat, which is quite flavorful. The nearly invisible meat sort of looked like mini meatballs, which made me think of Wayne Szalinski from Honey I Shrunk the Kids and I fantasized about how he would accidentally shrink me with his shrinking machine and then the mini meatballs would be giant meatballs and I would be very happy.

As I am finding with most Smart One meals, the noodles are pretty good. I think the best thing about them is that they are thick, giving off the allusion that you are eating a lot food when in fact you are just chewing a lot.

The sauce was not that good - it was watery and tasteless. Also, don’t advertise cheese in your meal if nobody can find or taste the cheese. Throw me a bone and sprinkle some flash frozen parm on top! I don’t care if it melts away after 30 seconds in the microwave, so long as I know it is there, in my heart.

A note about Smart Ones: they love the 2.5 minute, stir, 1 minute heating instructions. They love it so much that I think they write it on all their meals regardless of how long the meal really should be cooked. I ended up cooking it for 2.5 minutes and then stirring huge chunks of icy tomato sauce, and then cooked it for another 2 minutes. I would suggest cooking it initially for 3 minutes, stirring, and then cooking it for another minute and a half. Unless you love icy tomato sauce, then ignore this paragraph. Also, you might want to apply for a job as Cooking Instructions Writer for Smart Ones.

Kraft South Beach Kung Pao Chicken

March 2, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi

Price: $2.00 (woo, Shopper’s Warehouse!)
Serving: 1 meal, 10.3 oz.
Calories: 300
Fat: 17%, 11g
Cholesterol: 27%, 80mg
Sodium: 37%, 890mg
Protein: 32g
Carbs: 6%, 18g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
WW Points: 6 Points

South Beach says: Breast strips with rib meat, red peppers, and peanuts in kung pao sauce with broccoli, water chestnuts and yellow peppers

Abi says: Three thoughts went through my brain as I put this meal in the microwave.

1. That is not enough sauce for all that chicken.
2. Is that all chicken? Wow, that’s a lot of chicken.
3. That is far too little sauce for all of that chicken.

It turns out that I’m horrible at estimating the sauce quantity in a frozen item. Once I’d microwaved the meal for four minutes (stirring the chicken after the three minute mark), I realized that there was precisely the perfect amount of sauce to coat the enormous mound of chicken in the tray. South Beach’s chicken is terrific in a ‘boiled chicken’ sort of way.

Fortunately for the chicken (and your tongue), South Beach’s sauce is among the best pseudo-Chinese sauces I’ve tasted in a frozen meal. Another plus: peanuts. While microwaving peanuts might not be your idea of fun, I found that this meal contained the perfect peanut to chicken ratio, with at least one peanut (or half peanut) to each chunk of chicken.

Usually vegetables are the savior of a meal. They’ve pulled through for me time after time with their bright color and high nutritional content. Plus, they have fiber, which is important when you’re eating a lot of microwavable meals. In the case of South Beach’s Kung Pao Chicken, the vegetables were a dismal reminder that the microwave does not always play nice with bell peppers or broccoli. Sure, the water chestnuts were crispy, but if I ever found a non-crunchy water chestnut, the world would probably implode.