Simply Enjoy Pad Thai with Chicken

July 18, 2007 | Reviewer: Nicole

Price: $2.50 (on sale)
Serving: 1 package, 10.58 oz.
Calories: 300
Fat: 11%, 7g
Sodium: 41%, 980mg
Protein: 13g
Carbs: 16%, 49g
Fiber: 8%, 2g
Sugar: 12g

Simply Enjoy says: Our Chicken Pad Thai is made with deliciously seasoned white chicken tenderloins that are simmered in authentic Thai-style peanut sauce. Served on a bed of traditional rice noodles this tangy-sweet Thai-style dish is destined to become a favorite with your friends and family

Nicole says: A great frozen Pad Thai is kind of like angels or wood nymphs. You maintain a secret, romantic hope that it/they is/are out there, but you know it’s a longer shot than Moses parting the Red Sea. So why was I excited about this meal?

Simply Enjoy has a pretty good track record here at HER headquarters. Their Indian entrees are pretty freaking amazing - nicely spiced sauces, good meat, and generous starch portions.

The Pad Thai with Chicken has a generous starch portion and I was excited that they actually used rice noodles rather than throwing peanuts and fish sauce over fettuccine. But the noodles didn’t come out great, instead they could only be described as rubbery. I suspect they were slightly overcooked, a likelihood since rice noodles do cook more quickly than wheat-based noodles. And speaking of overcooking, one section of sauce heavy noodles hardened in a slightly burned mass. I tried to eat it, but you try choking down burnt peanuts and hard noodles. It isn’t pretty.

This is a standard Simply Enjoy chicken portion - four medium large pieces of chicken (each slightly smaller than a stapler remover) and a couple of tiny pieces. The chicken’s got a decent texture and maintains some juiciness but little flavor - we depend on the sauce for that.

The sauce here is the real disappointment, though. Pad Thai? I should have known that “sweet-tangy” in the description wasn’t just a misprint. This meal tastes like sweet and sour sauce with peanuts thrown in. We have a few decent Thai restaurants in DC, so I fancy myself a decent judge of pad thai sauce. I’ve even made it once myself (surprisingly easy!). This is simply not Pad Thai sauce. There is the slightest hint of fish sauce, a heavy sweetness, and a tang (vinegar?). There are peanuts, but they are overcooked, robbing them of any crunch and most flavor.

I simply did not enjoy this meal, will not purchase again, and would not recommend to anyone. Unless you want mediocre, mislabeled sweet and sour chicken. Even then, I’m certain there are better mediocre sweet and sour chicken meals. And I suggest that those Canadians stick to Indian cuisine.

[For better mediocre sweet and sour chicken meals, check out Jess’s reviews of Lean Cuisine’s Sweet and Sour Chicken and Kashi’s Sweet and Sour Chicken. It appears that Jess is the Queen of all things Sweet and Sour at HeatEatReview.com -Ed.]

Filed Under Chicken, One Star, Simply Enjoy Reviews | 7 Comments

Lean Cuisine Chicken Pecan

July 16, 2007 | Reviewer: Andrew

Lean Cuisine Chicken Pecan

Price: $2.50 (on sale)
Serving: 1 package, 9 oz.
Calories: 260
Fat: 9%, 6g
Sodium: 28%, 690mg
Protein: 19g
Carbs: 11%, 32g
Fiber: 16%, 4g
Weight Watchers Points: 5 Points

Lean Cuisine says: Roasted chicken in a caramelized orange sauce with snap peas and brown rice with pecans

Andrew says: As a guy who eats five frozen meals a week (I work second shift OK?), I have a subset of comfort foods devoted to the “safe” frozen meals I can buy and feel comfortable with the prospect of eating later, no questions asked. In any given week, I get about three experimental meals and two that I’ve eaten and enjoyed several times already.

This is one of the safe ones. Whole grain rice and pecans, plus pecan-infused orange sauce make for a very nutty flavor throughout. Nutty, indeed, with a slight sweetness, perhaps from the dab of honey in the ingredients list. And the orange sauce.

The chicken tenderloins are par for the Lean Cuisine experience: Bite-sized and lean. These, too, are imbued with a heartening nutty warmth and are decently juicy, again, assuming you can follow microwave directions (I’ve never heated it in an oven, FYI).

The tiny bits of carrots in the rice are basically color support and not much else. The snap peas, however, shine. Or snap. They bring a welcome change of texture and flavor, with some of that nice pea sweetness. Don’t think peas have sweetness? YOU’RE NOT TASTING HARD ENOUGH!

Anyway, if you like the woody, nutty essence that pecans bring to food, you should enjoy this on some level. This isn’t the first frozen meal I’ve had that included pecans, but this is the first to represent the essence of that nut so well.

It’s not mind-blowingly good, but I’ve had this meal about four times now, and each time it’s come out exactly the same. I reward consistency and pleasantness in equal measure.

Filed Under 5 WW Points, Chicken, Four Stars, Lean Cuisine Reviews | 7 Comments

No More Paid Reviews

July 15, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

Fellow frozen food lovers,

This last week I had to decide whether I would accept $50.00 for a paid review of an online culinary school. I spent a couple of days mulling over the offer, and in the end decided that the paid reviews just don’t work with the ethos of HeatEatReview.com.

Most of the things I’m paid to review are absolute crap. An online culinary school? Crazy-expensive tropical juice? A recipe site so laden with ads and lacking recipes that it is basically useless? Are you freaking kidding me?

This isn’t fair to you because you don’t come here to learn about that kind of junk. You come here because you want to find out what ridiculous things we ate for lunch and whether or not those Kashi meals are worth the money.

Speaking of Kashi meals, HeatEatReview.com will continue to accept free food from frozen food manufacturers and their PR companies. HeatEatReview.com has a terrific national reach, but our shopping is limited to the Mid-Atlantic. Accepting these meals lets us try and review new things and even get reviews to you before the items are in stores.

Plus, we love to play with dry ice.

In case you’re worried, please rest assured that we’ll never sell our opinions for free food. In fact, point #3 on our review policy firmly states:

We reserve the right to be honest in our reviews. If you’re willing to send us something, then you’re probably pretty confident in the deliciousness of your product, right?

Yes, we’ll still have ads on the far right sidebar, but these ads will never interfere with the articles.

In the coming weeks I’ll publish a sample rating methodology and rubric so that both reviewers and readers have a better idea of just what constitutes a 3 star meal. Also, the Kid Cuisine Deep Sea Adventure Video Review is in production. I have a ton of video to wade through and still need to buy some music off of iTunes. Also need to figure out how to make myself look hot even though I actually weigh 300 pounds. I kid, I kid.

I hope that all of you are having a terrific July and I can’t wait to hear your opinions on this decision.

Sincerely,
Abi Jones
Editor, HeatEatReview.com

Filed Under Announcements | 13 Comments

Eating Right Beef Portobello

July 13, 2007 | Reviewer: Guest Reviewers

Eating Right Beef Portobello Price: $2.50 (sale)
Serving: 1 entreé, 9 oz.
Calories: 260
Fat: 9%, 6g
Cholesterol: 8%, 25mg
Sodium: 23%, 550mg
Protein: 16g
Carbohydrates: 12%, 36g
Fiber: 10%, 3g
Weight Watchers Points: 5 Weight Watchers Points

Eating Right says: Tender beef with mushrooms served with roasted potatoes and broccoli

Lindsy says: Now, I’m not your typical meat and potatoes girl. That’s my dad’s schtick and I had enough of it while I was growing up. However while I was perusing the freezer aisle of my local Safeway the word ‘portobello’ spoke to me when I scanned past this box and into my cart it leaped.

As I stood in the kitchen, I couldn’t say that these meal gave off any definable smells and I wondered if I had gone astray in my food choice. Once I removed the tray from the microwave, I was disappointed to see a paltry three broccoli florets inhabiting that section of my tray. Instead of devouring the broccoli immediately, I decided I would begin by tasting the beef. I was pleased when it turned out rather delicious and beef-like. It was not too chewy, not to hard, but instead had a nice medium-well (what more can you expect from the microwave?) flavor. Goldilocks would have enjoyed the beef. The gravy was also pretty delicious, a little on the salty side but good nonetheless. HOWEVER, there were no portobellos in sight! By the end of my meal I think I had discovered one tiny (read: the size of a pencil eraser) morsel of mushroomy goodness.

As for the potatoes, I don’t know if roasted is the appropriate definition for them. To me a roasted potato is deliciously crispy on the outside with limited inside soft potato texture. These potatoes were neither crispy nor roasted. They were more like mysteriously golden potato chunks. They had the grainy microwaved potato texture to them and were pretty mushy. In retrospect, I should have turned them into mashed potatoes using the left over gravy from my beef. Hindsight, alas.

Overall, this was a pretty decent meal, with lots of different flavors and a good amount of food. I got 30 percent of the recommended daily value of iron and 50 percent on the vitamin C. Not too shabby

Filed Under 5 WW Points, Beef, Eating Right Reviews, Four Stars | 7 Comments