Trader Joe’s Chimichurri Rice

May 30, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi

Trader Joe's Chimichurri Rice Price: $3.59
Serving: 1/2 cup, 4 oz.
Calories: 120
Fat: 8%, 5g
Sodium: 26%, 620mg
Protein: 3g
Carbs: 5%, 16g
Fiber: 6%, 2g

Trader Joe says: In South America, chimichurri is perhaps as common a condiment as ketchup in America — albeit much more flavorful and distinctive. It’s nearly always served alongside grilled meat, and now we’ve blended it with basmati rice to create a one-of-a-kind side dish to go with everything from steaks to shrimp and chicken breasts to fish filets.

Cilantro, lime, creme fraiche, garlic, ginger, and Peruvian panca peppers combine to produce the unique flavor of the sauce, and diced tomatoes, peas, and shallots add further texture and flavor to the rice. Bring the taste of Peru to your table — in five minutes or less!

Abi says: Admit it, you’re surprised that I cook real food. That’s my dinner plate featuring an entree of pollo en mole with green beans and chimichurri rice.

Chimichurri rice is my new favorite Mexican food side dish. It is spicy and piquant and just about everything wonderful that Spanish rice is not. Even though I’m Hispanic, I am not a fan of Spanish rice. I find it unacceptable that people try to pass off that tomato-colored blandness as a side dish. When I’m eating food, I want flavor. I want the delicate frangrance of jasmine rice or the loveliness of saffroned basmati, I’ll even take regular rice seasoned with cilantro, lime, and a dash of salt and pepper. I do not want the pinkish mess that people try to tell me is somehow authentic or necessary. My people lived without ‘Spanish’ rice for generations, albeit surviving off of corn, a seriously inefficient food source.

Considering my lack of visits to South America and the lack of chimichurri in Peruvian chicken joints in DC, there’s no way for me to know if Trader Joe’s Chimichurri rice is in any way authentic. What I do know is that it is delicious, so delicious that spilling any on the floor will cause you to weep silent tears of anguish because the 5-second rule cannot possibly apply to rice.

If you have consumed both authentic chimichurri and this Trader Joe’s product, I’d love to hear about how they are different or similar.

Filed Under Five Stars, Trader Joe's Reviews, Vegetarian | 18 Comments

Smart Ones Broccoli and Cheddar Roasted Potatoes

May 29, 2007 | Reviewer: Andrew

Smart Ones Broccoli and Cheddar Roasted Potatoes Price: $2.20 (on sale)
Serving: 1 meal, 10 oz.
Calories: 220
Fat: 9%, 6g
Cholesterol: 4%, 15mg
Sodium: 20%, 480mg
Protein: 9g
Carbohydrates: 11%, 34g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Weight Watchers Points: 4 points

Smart Ones says: We roast red russet potatoes to perfection, then add a generous helping of crisp broccoli, and smother it all with a creamy cheddar cheese sauce. So delicious, so satisfying … and another little way you can be good today.

Andrew says: When I was heating this meal up, it filled the air with a smell akin to that of McDonald’s french fries. Now, regardless of how you feel about the healthfulness (or lack thereof) of McDonald’s food, I think just about any person on the face of the planet can agree that the fry smell is excellent.

The fry smell is something the Lean Cuisine version of this meal didn’t really supply, so already the Smart Ones version was leading on the judge’s scorecards. This is rare in my experience, as Lean Cuisine meals seem to be much more consistent and flavorful than Smart Ones … ones.

But this Smart One kept bringing the goods, round after round. OK, I’ll stop with the boxing metaphors. I’ll just say this is an extremely tasty, yet simple dish that I think almost anyone could enjoy, given a taste for cheddar sauce.

Speaking of the sauce, it’s great! It’s robust and zesty and coats the potatoes and broccoli well. And there’s plenty of it! And it’s even more orange than the Lean Cuisine cheese sauce, which has got to be a good thing.

The potatoes have good, firm texture, but they’re certainly not too firm. The broccoli is pretty standard for frozen meals, which means it’s green, has that broccoli flavor, and is reasonably rigid. I had my dish in our work microwave for the suggested 6 minutes and everything turned out perfectly — steamy and hot. Love it when a plan comes together.

So why not five stars instead of 4.5? I’d love it if they threw some bacon in there. Lean Cuisine, for some reason, has this exact meal, and then another version with bacon bits in it. The bacon-inclusive meal, as you can guess, is slightly more satisfying for us carnivores. If you’re vegetarian, though, you should be more than happy with this version. But vegetarianism is certainly not a prerequisite for thorough enjoyment of potatoes, cheese and broccoli.

Filed Under 4 WW Points, Four Stars, Smart Ones Reviews, Vegetarian | 13 Comments

South Beach Diet Garlic Herb Chicken

May 25, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi

South Beach Diet Garlic Herb Chicken Price: $2.50 (on sale)
Serving: 1 container, 10 oz.
Calories: 270
Fat: 17%, 11g
Sodium: 28%, 660mg
Protein: 44%, 28g
Carbohydrates: 4%, 13g
Fiber: 16%, 4g

South Beach says: Grilled breast strips with rib meat with garlic and herb sauce and green beans almondine.

Abi says: This meal contains an impressive amount of protein. Unfortunately, it contains sauces that render the chicken and green beans inedible, therefore the 44% of your recommended daily allowance of protein is useless.

I lack the sophisticated scientific machinery necessary to confirm that the sauce in Kraft’s South Beach Diet Garlic Herb Chicken actually contained garlic or herbs. Instead, I can only wonder why Kraft had to take some decent chicken breast strips (no measly cubes here!) and cover them with this much sauce. It reminded me of childhood experimentation with the spice cupboard at home and the horrific spiced milk that I couldn’t convince my little brother to drink.

But maybe you like extremely strong yet unidentifiable sauces. In that case, you’d love the green beans, which should be awesome (slices of almond, yum), but end up floating in a pool of oily water. Ok, I don’t know if it was actually oil, but it had the definite sheen of a city puddle after a rainstorm.

If you’re not eating this meal in front of other people, I highly recommend blotting each item with a paper towel before consumption. If that is not a feasible option, then you could just scrape the chicken pieces along the side of the tray, hoping to rid yourself of as much sauce as possible, while saving your dignity.

Filed Under Kraft Reviews, South Beach Meal Reviews, Three Stars | 4 Comments

Amy’s Kitchen Single Serve Pesto Pizza

May 24, 2007 | Reviewer: Jess

Amy's Kitchen Pesto Pizza - Single Serving SRP: $4.49
Serving: 1 pizza, 7 oz.
Calories: 440
Fat: 29%, 19g
Cholesterol: 5%, 15mg
Sodium: 33%, 780mg
Protein: 12g
Carbohydrates: 13%, 39g
Fiber: 8%, 2g

Amy’s Kitchen says: Light tender crust topped with Amy’s homemade pesto, part skim mozzarella cheese, garden fresh organic tomato slices and broccoli florets.

Jess says: I really did not want to burn this pizza. I had burned the last free pizza and then I wrote about why I burned it and this caused all this debate about whether I should include unnecessary personal details in my reviews like I am currently doing. Abi also looked me square in the eye and told me not to burn it. Square in the eye is body language for an exclamation point.

Upon deplasticking the pizza, I had to release an audible ‘awww’. It looks kind of runty. I was hungry and the size of this pizza did look likely to satiate. At 440 calories I would prefer fullness. Had I paid the $4 plus dollars, I would have demanded freedom from hunger for at least three hours. But it was free to me and therefore it seemed too bold to demand anything more.

I cooked this in the office toaster oven for 6 minutes at 425 degrees, checking on it like a new mother every two minutes or so. Six minutes made the outside look gorgeous, browned the cheese, and perfumed the air with basil and garlic. However, as I went to cut it into 4 square pieces like Mama used to I realized the inside was still cold. A minute in the micry got the cheese bubbling nice enough to burn my mouth. I was quite pleased with the resulting combination of soft and crispy and would recommend this formula with an added pause for roof of mouth safety.

Out of the micry, the beauty of Amy’s Single Serve Pesto Pizza made the 7 ounce size less important. There is an ample supply of tomatoes and broccoli, all on top of a well made, comfy looking bed of pesto and cheese. The actual taste pretty closely matches the perceived taste. The pesto is robust and brings flavor to each bite. This was really pretty good and I would probably eat it again. But do you know what is my wish of wishes? I want this over pasta, maybe whole wheat penne. I’ve had the tortellini bowl. I know what you can do with pesto! Pizza is really a default meal and $4 plus is a lot to spend on pizza. Amy, give me broccoli and tomatoes over pasta in a creamy pesto sauce with a heavy hand of parmigiano and I’ll give you a 5! Girl Scout’s honor!

I had to get the nutritional information from an Amy’s press release because I lost the box. Or maybe Jess never gave me the box. Anyways, if you’re eating one of these pizzas right now and the nutritional information is different, please let me know. - Abi

Filed Under Amy's Kitchen Reviews, Four Stars, Frozen Pizza Reviews, Vegetarian | 6 Comments