South Beach Diet Garlic Parmesan Chicken with Penne

August 15, 2007 | Reviewer: Andrew

Price: $2.50 on sale
Serving: One tray, 11 oz.
Calories: 290
Fat: 17% Daily Value, 11g
Cholesterol: 18%, 55mg
Sodium: 34%, 820mg
Protein: 29g
Carbohydrates: 8%, 24g
Fiber: 32%, 8g
Weight Watchers Points: 6 Points

Kraft says: Breast strips with rib meat, penne pasta, broccoli, red bell peppers and asparagus in garlic parmesan sauce.

Andrew says: Kraft needs to work on their flavor text for South Beach meals. They all have the same lame note from the author of the diet and no real exposition on the meal you’re about to eat. In any case, I felt kind of bad that I had to go and drop that zero star rating on the South Beach wraps a while back, so I got a couple other meals of theirs that I expected to be more satisfying.

The first thing I noticed about this meal was the watery sauce. And then I realized that the penne pasta is whole wheat. The South Beach Diet must be pretty big on whole wheat, since Kraft uses whole wheat in their pizza crusts, the tortillas for those awful wraps and the pastas. The pasta isn’t bad, though it could be a little more al dente. By now I’ve come to realize that any frozen food pasta is a mini disaster waiting to happen, so any half-decent pasta is somewhat miraculous. Kraft’s South Beach pasta is half-decent.

Also I’d like to direct the readers’ attention to the inclusion of asparagus here. This is the first time I’ve ever had asparagus in a frozen meal and it turned out pretty nicely. It had a good buttery flavor to it and it wasn’t overly rubbery. It was my favorite part of the meal, actually, because the chicken (usually the highlight of frozen food for me) was both sparse and small.

The garlic parmesan sauce is mostly cheesy with some herbal notes, but it’s really not that garlicky at all. That said, it’s pretty smooth and kind of buttery (maybe that’s where the asparagus gets it). Also, sherry wine is in the ingredient list: Classy!

All in all, the meal was kind of forgettable. Certainly not one I’d avoid, but I could see myself buying this again in a month or so thinking I was trying something new, then starting to eat it and saying “hey, I HAVE had this before!” and feeling kind of let down.

I’m only 25, but this has happened more than I’d like to admit.

comments

10 Responses to “South Beach Diet Garlic Parmesan Chicken with Penne”

Crow on August 15th, 2007

Is this a esoteric salad, or some sort of advant garde stir-fry?
Crow on August 15th, 2007

a > an
Andrew on August 15th, 2007

It’s just a pasta dish with asparagus, peppers and broccoli. Can’t really call it a salad because it’s hot. Can’t really call it a stir-fry because it’s got the pasta. It’s really even more unremarkable than the 3-star rating would suggest, but it is edible and perhaps even enjoyable in some ways.
Abi Jones on August 15th, 2007

Happy belated birthday, Andrew!

I should clarify that the meal was initially rated 2.5 stars, but after a lot of reviewer abuse of the 1/2 stars (I’m looking at you, Jess and Nicole), I don’t allow half stars anymore. So, I read Andrew’s review and changed it to 3 stars. Yes, I know that I still need to develop a rubric for all of this. You can see the place where I semi-officially banned half stars on Nicole’s review of Bob Evans’ Sausage Gravy and Biscuits.

It does look like a pasta salad from the picture.
Marvo on August 16th, 2007

Yes, half ratings complicate things.
Julie on August 16th, 2007

I could get creative with this thing by cooking it up at home, then put it in to a container, stick it in the fridge, chill it, then put it on some type of greens and voila a chilled pasta salad.

But my reality is i’d probably be too lazy to go through the effort.
Crow on August 16th, 2007

If half ratings are a problem with a 0-5 star rating system, why not just use a 0-10 star rating system?
Abi Jones on August 16th, 2007

Because this isn’t Olympic gymnastics.
Andrew on August 16th, 2007

I admit I’m a bigger fan of 10-grade rating systems because it gives me the option of the Perfect Middle. BUT I will certainly conform to the non-half-star reviews in the future, no problem. I think it’s fair to say this is a weak 3 stars, but it’s not as bad as 2 stars.
anonymous on August 17th, 2007

yeah, i like 10 stars much better. there’s a big difference between a 7 and an 8 for example. . .i’m about twice as likely to go buy an 8 than i am a 7. I’ll bet you could rank-stack all the “fours” for example and find a HUGE disparity between them. . .rubric or not. I vote for precision (not that there’s any kind of reader poll here).