Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Grilled White Meat Chicken & Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Sauce

July 20, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi

Simply Enjoy Pad Thai with Chicken

Price: $2.50 (on sale)
Serving: 1 package, 10.3 oz.
Calories: 240
Fat: 8%, 5g
Cholesterol: 8%, 25mg
Sodium: 25%, 600mg
Protein: 22g
Carbs: 8%, 23g
Fiber: 16%, 4g
Sugar: 1g
Weight Watchers Points: 4 Points

Healthy Choice says: Grilled white meat chicken and roasted red pepper alfredo sauce with linguini pasta and broccoli florets

Abi says: I had a really strange Instant Message conversation with Nicole yesterday. She was writing to inform me that there were a couple of Lean Cuisine Panini in the freezer with HER written on them in black Sharpie. I wasn’t sure why she’d buy these because we’ve already reviewed the Lean Cuisine panini and really she doesn’t have to buy food for the other HER reviewers, that’s my job.

It turns out that the folks at Stouffer’s, Lean Cuisine’s parent company, had shipped us a freaking enormous box containing two panini boxes. Not that I mind getting panini in the mail, but we’d really appreciate some advance warning. Why? Because it is important to dispose of dry ice in a safe manner. That’s why.

This shipment, combined with Colleen’s comment about the lack of Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers reviews on HeatEatReview, got me wondering about why Healthy Choice has never sent us a single frozen meal. And it isn’t just Healthy Choice, it is the entire ConAgra line.

Then it hit me, we at HeatEatReview.com do not have a good history with Healthy Choice meals. As of July 20, 2007, the average Healthy Choice meal on HeatEatReview.com has a rating of just 2.32 stars. Ouch. This isn’t the first time I’ve thought about my relationship with Healthy Choice.

The morning after I consumed the Cafe Steamers version of Grilled White Meat Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Sauce I came to a stunning realization about Healthy Choice products: they produce the worst microwave meal chicken I have ever had the misfortune to consume.

That’s all it is: the worst chicken ever.

Yet ConAgra is the same company that produces Marie Callender meals, a frozen food line that is graced with fantastic chicken. I’m seriously confused. Does being on a diet or trying to eat healthy food mean that you’re subject to the purgatory that is ground and formed and fake-grilled chicken? Healthy Choice says yes, but Kashi and Lean Cuisine say ‘No, you don’t have to eat that weird ground-up-chicken junk.’

If you don’t mind chicken that features a foamy texture and little to no flavor, then you’d probably like the main ingredient in Healthy Choice’s grilled white meat chicken and roasted red pepper alfredo. If you don’t enjoy Healthy Choice’s unusual take on chicken, then you’ll need to deal with the strangely bland roasted red pepper sauce (top ingredients: sweet red pepper, high maltose corn syrup solids, and salt).

Too bad the primary ingredients in this meal are so lackluster; the broccoli and linguini benefit tremendously from the new cooking style, emerging from the microwave perfectly steamed.

[Tanya at Iateapie.net has a great description of how the steamers work and she gave the Roasted Chicken Chardonnay 3.5 kisses. -Ed.]

comments

16 Responses to “Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Grilled White Meat Chicken & Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Sauce”

Kat on July 20th, 2007

HeatEatReview.com is a terrific site. I’m sure you’re saving a LOT of people a LOT of money (and a lot of bad meals). Thanks for all you do! Next week, you’ll be our ‘hot pick’ at
Julie on July 20th, 2007

The big advantage of HER that I’ve discovered is finding out that it’s not just “me” who thinks Healthy Choice makes a bad product (among others) . I imagine ConAgra finds this kind of thing problematic. Prior to this I wasn’t aware who made Healthy Choice - I did know they made Marie Callender which I buy en masse when they’re on sale. I haven’t found the chicken in Marie Callender to be infused with fat. In several of their meals it actually seems very lean which makes me even more confused with Healthy Choice.

I just gave up on Healthy Choice after Safeway and/or Conagra stopped making/carrying the “Flavor Adventure” meals. A couple of them weren’t too bad when they cost $2.00. But they just disappeared.
Jill on July 21st, 2007

Yes, I will join the club of Healthy Choice dislikers, I have never had a meal I actually enjoyed from them. I’m even willing to spend the extra money and get Kashi, it’s just so much tastier.
Crow on July 21st, 2007

Cafe Steamers? Must be from New Orleans or Singapore.
Colleen on July 21st, 2007

Cool, my name was mentioned in a review! Awe, I don’t think its bad. I think almost all healthy choice meals are pretty awful (and probably not very healthy) but I like the two steamers I’ve tried a lot. Everything tasted fresher to me.
Molly on July 22nd, 2007

Terrible.
Cristina on July 22nd, 2007

Every chicken dish I’ve ever had from Healthy Choice is spongy and weird. I thought it was all frozen meals but once I started buying Lean Cuisine boy did they prove me wrong. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought something was funny about Healthy Choice… if only they would get it together.
Julie on July 22nd, 2007

Colleen: maybe they’re OK but with the way things are lately I can’t afford to gamble unless they mark them down to 99 cents. Maybe not even that. I still have some Banquet thing in my fridge I bought for a buck ages ago. I could barely gag down the other one I bought. I keep the other one in case of er…famine I guess?
D on July 22nd, 2007

Speaking of Lean Cuisine, I just had a Garlic Ginger something - and one piece of chicken was filled with clear ooze and the other bit had a nub of hard, white . . cartilage, I guess? Yucky, Stoffers! I’m thisss close to never eating meat again. After I grill up a nice, juicy hamburger for dinner, I mean.
Colleen on July 23rd, 2007

The cheese ones bad. The one with the tomato is better to me, but you probably wouldn’t like it at all if you hated this one so much.
MaryAnne on July 23rd, 2007

Everyone should get together and join forces whilst repackaging what is left of the Healthy Choice nastiness and sending it back to Healthy Choice HQ. Colleen who commented that Healthy Choice products probably aren’t very healthy is dead on the money. Personally, I think they just tweak things around so the nutrition looks healthier to the average frozen meal shopper. Compare it to a Hungry Man dinner and it is, but I don’t think any nutritionist will tell you that faux chicken or high maltose corn syrup solids are the way to go. I prefer Smart Ones, Morningstar, or Boca. I have to admit though, the Cafe Steamers gave me a little ray of hope that they might be improving.
Andrew on July 25th, 2007

So … how do you dispose of dry ice safely? I ask because the one and only time I had a little sack of it, I just took it out to the garbage and put it in a cardboard box. I take it that’s probably not the safe way.
Julie on July 28th, 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_ice
Rose on July 29th, 2007

I’d have to say that healthy choice makes a disgusting meal. no two ways about it. I’ve had the misfortune to be stuck with nothing else in the house, and have choked a few down. bleck.
Zach on November 21st, 2007

I whole heartedly agree, healthy choice sucks. The ONLY, and I do mean ONLY good meal they offer (I know, don’t kill me yet..) is the turkey dinner.. it’s honestly really decent. I like lean cuisine’s more (they have two variations), but, my mom prefers the healthy choice… weird, I dunno.. their turkey is fine. Chicken from healthy choice is a huge mistake, foam rubber weirdness all the way!
Carmen on January 14th, 2008

I just started eating healthy in the past week. I was very surorised when I tried Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers. I really do like them. I like them so much that I went to the store and spent $40.00 on a eal for each day at work for lunch. I really don’t like frozen dinners,but I sure like Cafe steamers.