Banquet Spaghetti and Meatballs Meal

April 16, 2007 | Reviewer: Guest Reviewers

Banquet Spaghett and Meatballs Meal

Price: $1.00
Serving: 1 meal, 10.5 oz.
Calories: 400
Fat: 32%, 21g
Cholesterol: 6%, 20mg
Sodium: 30%, 700mg
Carbohydrates: 15%, 45g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Protein: 14g

Banquet says: Nothing. Apparently at $1 they can’t afford people to write copy for their packaging. But hey, it’s spaghetti and meatballs.

Brandon says: Banquet’s Spaghetti and Meatballs entree didn’t look all that exciting to me in the freezer, but since all these were on sale and I had several of the other meals in the cart already, I grabbed a couple of the “S&Ms” just for kicks. I mean, how could they possibly mess up something as familiar to everybody as spaghetti and meatballs?

I was pleased to find that they didn’t package the sauce and meatballs already mixed with the noodles. The Budget Gourmet meals also tend to use this same strategy to great effect; keeping the juices away from the absorbent things like pasta or rice helps keep all the elements of the meal from tasting like each other. This was an effective move, saving the entree from being a frozen version horrible canned pasta and sauce items. I was pleased that the noodles stayed largely intact and unsaturated with what little sauce was in the tray.

Yes, the lack of sauce was a bit upsetting to me. Growing up, I was a sauce guy and still am one. That’s where the flavor comes from! Admittedly, there wasn’t much sauce depicted on the package, but I was still surprised by the lack. An extra tablespoonful or two wouldn’t have killed them.

Fortuntely, I was pleasantly surprised by the meatballs. They were pretty darn good and there were six of them, more meat than I would have expected in a dollar meal. Their meaty presence somewhat mitigated my disappointment in the lack of sauce.

The other problem? Not enough cheese in the meal. I had to scour the ingredients list to verify there was in fact parmesan cheese in there. And there was, but I couldn’t tell. Maybe they need to add some grated parm in there on top of everything just to add that little extra texture and concentration of taste that people look for when they see it on an ingredients list.

Anyway, it was spaghetti and meatballs for a dollar, and it was decent but nothing special. It felt like a reasonable small meal. I’d buy it again, but not as a first choice — and only if it was on sale.

Filed Under Banquet Frozen Meal Reviews, Beef, Pasta, Three Stars | 2 Comments

Blogger’s Choice Awards

April 13, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

There isn’t a review today. Why? Because tonight I’m hosting a party at my house (if you know me, you’re invited) and leading up to that party is a bar crawl. This means that I spent last night making Jell-o shots and cleaning Jell-o off of the surfaces in my kitchen (how did Jell-o get on the fridge door? I don’t know) instead of taking a picture for the review you’re expecting today.

So, since you’re not wasting away the workday reading reviews, maybe you should be voting for HeatEatReview.com as your favorite food blog of 2007. Yeah, we’re only a few months into the year, but we could still use some validation. Just head on over to http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/350 and cast your vote for HeatEatReview.com. The current top three contenders in the category are all Vegan blogs. Are you going to let HER be beaten by a bunch of Vegans? I sure hope not!

Yes, you’ll need to create an account and log in and all of that annoying stuff, but once you do you’ll be able to vote for us! That’s right, just head on over to http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/350 and cast your vote for HeatEatReview.com.

Thanks,
Abi Jones
Editor, www.HeatEatReview.com

Filed Under Announcements | 8 Comments

Michael Angelo’s Eggplant & Chicken Bolognese Sauce

April 12, 2007 | Reviewer: Nicole

Michael Angelo's Eggplant and Chicken Bolognese Sauce

SRP: $3.69
Serving: 1 meal, 12 oz.
Calories: 240
Fat: 17%, 11g
Cholesterol: 18%, 55mg
Sodium: 28%, 670mg
Protein: 17g
Carbohydrates: 6%, 19g
Fiber: 6%, 2g

Michael Angelo says: This unique and delicious recipe features fresh from the field eggplant sliced and baked to perfection. We layer it with whole-milk ricotta and trational Italian Bolognese sauce made from fresh, white meat chicken breast sauteed with carrots and celery, vine-ripened tomatoes, white wine and fresh cream. We top it with Bechamel (an Italian white sauce), mozzarella and imported Pecorino Romano.

Nicole says: Michael Angelo’s is not miserly with the cheese, both in the topping and the ricotta layer. The think casserole contains large eggplant peices, which taste pretty good but they are a tiny bit rubbery and tough to cut, so you end up with a mouthful of unadulterated eggplant, which is a shame when there’s all that cheese to go with. The chicken bolognese sauce is definitely tasty, but the meat bits are very tiny and the tomato content is a pittance. Okay, Mike, I guess it’s okay to hold the tomatoes since you give me cheese. This is a nice, quick and easy meal, but nothing to rave about.

According to the nutritional information, Michael Angelo’s Eggplant and Chicken is pretty freaking healthy, a plus considering all that cheese and the heartiness. Go for this meal if you’re craving eggplant. I like eggplant, but it doesn’t send chills through my body. Otherwise, this is something dependable to have around, but mediocre when compared to actual Italian cooking.

Filed Under Chicken, Michael Angelo's Reviews, Three Stars | 2 Comments

Michael Angelo’s Chicken Parmesan

April 11, 2007 | Reviewer: Rebecca

Michael Angelo's Chicken Parmesan

SRP: $3.69
Serving: 2/3 tray, 8.11 oz.
Calories: 260
Fat: 15%, 10g
Cholesterol: 13%, 40mg
Sodium: 23%, 540mg
Protein: 18g
Carbohydrates: 8%, 25g
Fiber: 12%, 3g

Michael Angelo says: Our family’s version of an Italian classic begins with tender whole breast chicken covered in our delicious, authentic Italian breading. We set it on a bed of our 100% durum semolina spaghetti pasta then smother it with our classic tomato sauce made from vine-ripened tomatoes and imported olive oil and finish with a hearty layer of our premium mozzarella cheese.

Rebecca says: Good and bad things happen when you have to cook your lunch for six minutes. In this case, the good thing was that the smell of the chicken parmesan wafted out the microwave and into the kitchen area. It in fact smelled so good that even though it looked relatively nasty as I took it out of the microwave, I was still excited to eat it. The bad news was that I got bored and read the entire box, including the nutritional information. Why are companies allowed to produce meals that contain 1.5 servings? Do they think I am going to stop 2/3 of the way in and save some for later? Why do they lie to us? Suffice to say, I ate the whole thing. I gave the box to Abi to record the nutrition information and I forgot that I was supposed to stop and just ate the whole thing. I dare you to stop at 2/3 of this meal.

The chicken was well cooked-not overdone, moist and juicy. And it appeared to be a nice cut of breast meat. There was only one bite of chicken veiny-gristlely-grossness. The best part of the chicken (and, of course, the purpose for buying such a meal as this) was the breading. It was not too mushy, not to crunchy, not too thin. If I were Goldilocks I might say it was just right. It was a little salty and crumbly and there were green specks (which according to the ingredient list were fresh basil but I couldn’t identify the taste of those specifically). Altogether, it was relatively delicious.

The accompanying spaghetti and sauce was nothing to write home about. It tasted mostly like the spaghetti dinner one pulls out of the big warming tub on the buffet. Unlike most buffet spaghetti, however, there a good sauce to noodle ratio. The sauce may have been bland but it was not watery (close to tomato paste in consistency) and there was not too much of it left in the bottom of the tray. Don’t get me wrong-the spaghetti wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good. But don’t buy this meal for the spaghetti-buy it for the chicken parmesan, which is the title ingredient, and really the most important part.

Filed Under Chicken, Michael Angelo's Reviews, Three Stars | 10 Comments