Banquet Pot Pie Recall

October 10, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

Proper disposal of Banquet Pot Pies:
If your Banquet Pot Pies (chicken or turkey varieties) has the code P-9 printed near the ‘Use By’ date, you need to toss the pot pie and take the empty box to your grocer for a refund.

Do not eat the pot pie!

(1:52:49 PM) Abi: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21214391/
(1:53:25 PM) Nicole: I never get the turkey, just the chicken
(1:56:16 PM) Abi: the recall is for chicken and turkey both
(2:00:17 PM) Nicole: oh. sucks
(2:00:25 PM) Nicole: luckily, i have none right now
(2:00:33 PM) Nicole: so if i got part of the bad batch, i already ate it
(2:00:53 PM) Abi: well, salmonella doesn’t affect most healthy adults. I think.
(2:01:03 PM) Abi: we probably get it all of the time. sad, eh?
(2:02:02 PM) Nicole: i think “healthy” would be an exaggeration for me

At this time, all I can tell you is that the recall is at the point where Banquet has shut down production lines for both chicken and turkey pot pies. ~~The salmonella cases are confined to the Midwest, so those poor folks are getting double-whammy of unsafe frozen foods and horrible weather.~~

UPDATE: ConAgra, the maker of Banquet Pot Pies is now requesting that stores pull the pies from shelves. The recalled pot pies have now sickened over 150 people in 32 states, fortunately nobody’s met death by pot pie.

UPDATE #2 (Oct. 18, 2007): You should now by now not to eat these. And the folks sickened count is up to 174 in 32 states with dozens hospitalized. Do not eat the pot pie.

Need other non-pot-pie Banquet? Check out our category of Banquet Frozen Meal Reviews. They were mostly written by Nicole, which gives some context to the above IM conversation.

Filed Under Announcements, Banquet Frozen Meal Reviews | Leave a Comment

Stouffer’s Chicken Parmigiana

October 10, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

Stouffer’s Chicken Parmigiana Price: $2.00 on sale
Serving: 1 package, 12oz.
Calories: 450 per serving
Fat: 25%, 16g
Cholesterol: 12%, 40mg
Sodium: 31%, 750mg
Protein: 22g
Carbohydrates: 18%, 54g
Fiber: 22%, 5g
Sugar: 10g
Weight Watchers Points: 10 Points

Stouffer’s says: Breaded chicken breast with rib meat topped with marinara sauce & mozzarella cheese with spaghetti

Abi says: I have a brain tumor.

That’s the only way to explain why I keep purchasing Stouffer’s products. This chicken parmesan was visually appealing, consisting of a bed of spaghetti, a breaded chicken breast, marinara sauce and a layer of gooey cheese. With the AC in the office at full blast, I looked forward to this meal as a respite from an unusually cool afternoon.

Then Stouffer’s Chicken Parmigiana revealed its true colors: mushy chicken, spongy noodles, and wimpy sauce (mmm, tomatoes and pink water!). I’m not fazed by bland meals. I’ve endured flavorless sauces and suspect chicken (there is a Healthy Choice section on here, after all). This time was different: I encountered gristle. It wasn’t a one-time throwaway encounter. No, this was four separate bites displaying enough non-meat material that I had to reach for the nearest kleenex over and over again.

I understand that connective tissue is part of the meat-eating experience, but I also expect that by the time a Stouffer’s chicken pattie gets to me it has been killed, butchered, filleted, breaded, fried, and frozen. Tendons shouldn’t be an issue.

Why am I such a wimp about this? Because every bite with gristle not only induces my gag reflex, but conjures up memories of memories of Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Which nightmare to I imagine? Oh, just the one where a man’s veins are pulled from his body and used as marrionette strings.

Yeah, I bet you’re hungry now. I was going to find a video of the scene on YouTube and post it here. But then I realized that I’d actually have to watch all of the Freddy Krueger videos to find that right one and I completely wimped out.

Filed Under Stouffer's Frozen Meal Reviews, Two Stars | 6 Comments

Simply Enjoy Sesame Ginger Chicken

October 8, 2007 | Reviewer: Jess

Simply Enjoy Sesame Ginger Chicken Price: $2.00 on sale
Serving: 1 package, 10.58oz.
Calories: 360 per serving
Fat: 12%, 8g
Cholesterol: 7%, 20mg
Sodium: 28%, 670mg
Protein: 18g
Carbohydrates: 19%, 56g
Fiber: 8%, 2g
Sugar: 11g
Weight Watchers Points: 7 Per Serving

Simply Enjoy says: A delicious medley of vegetables - red peppers, sugar snap peas, and carrots, mixed with white chicken tenderloins seasoned in a honey ginger sesame sauce. Our Sesame Ginger Chicken is served over crisp and delicious Chow Mein noodles for a sweet and savory flavor. This is a meal bound to be a favorite with every member of your family.

Jess says: I’ve been pretty skeptical of the Simply Enjoy brand. For one, they are always dirt cheap. Well, not as dirt cheap as a Lean Cuisine on sale, but these things usually hover at about $2.50 a pop. Now I’m no economist but I think the rules of supply and demand state that no one else is eating these. Or maybe they are just trying to build hype? For two, the box is very unassuming. They make almost no bold, sales statements long the lines of “this meal will cleanse your soul” or “eating one of these meals a day will protect you from regret”. Staying true to their motto, they just seem to want you to Simply Enjoy. That’s weird. I’m just not getting their simplistic motivation.

Upon heating this particular sucker up, I noticed that the noodles were a frightening radioactive shade of yellow. Abi tried to assure me that I was just crazy and that the noodles were a standard microwavable hue but I was not convinced. You can be your own judge but I think that there is definitely some excessive amounts of yellow-40 up in that piece. But the sauce is so gingery delicious that once I got busy eating, I couldn’t care less about any of the dye toxins I may have been consuming. I’ve seen microwave meals try to flavor things with ginger and normally it just tastes slightly, unidentifiably spicy but in this meal the ginger flavor really does come through. Also there were plenty of water chestnuts and they were fun. So crunchy, but also chewy! So texturally interesting! And the water chestnuts pair nicely with the ginger sauce and day-glo noodles. The chicken was fine. I really can’t remember much about it because it didn’t add or take away much. I can safely say that its coloring was not alarming.

I was quite happy with this and will come back to it again. At this price, this may end up being one of my rotating staple items, until, of course, my skin looks jaundiced and the poison-induced facial ticks start. That’s when I guess I’ll have to move on to something new.

Filed Under 7 WW Points, Chicken, Four Stars, Simply Enjoy Reviews | 9 Comments

California Pizza Kitchen Thai Chicken Pizza

October 5, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

California Pizza Kitchen Thai Chicken Pizza Price: $4.99 at Target
Serving: 1/3 pizza, 4.3oz.
Calories: 280 per serving
Fat: 15%, 10g
Cholesterol: 7%, 20mg
Sodium: 33%, 780mg
Protein: 15g
Carbohydrates: 11%, 34g
Fiber: 8%, 2g
Sugar: 9g
Weight Watchers Points: 6 Per Serving

California Pizza Kitchen says: Pizza crust topped with spicy peanut sauce with roasted peanuts, white chicken,
mozzarella cheese, carrots, bean sprouts, green onions, cilantro.

Abi says: I’m moving to California tomorrow. Also, my workplace (my real, actual job, not HeatEatReview.com) is launching a eCommerce system this month. Oh, and I’m sleeping on a couch. Well, not last night (my host is currently on a business trip) but tonight I will be back on the couch. Fun, eh?

So, when you have to leave behind your friends and idyllic Washington, DC life because a certain someone that you love is now in grad school on the other side of the country, you don’t cook. I love to cook, but I stopped doing it approximately 2 months ago. It was as though a little switch flipped in my head and said “The minute you start living out of a suitcase you are not allowed to actually prepare food. You may assemble meals, but you may not make anything from scratch.”

Fortunately, frozen pizza is allowed.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had a single decent frozen pizza this week. It is as though I’ve been cursed by some evil freezer fairy. I have to admit that I’m quite boring when I eat at California Pizza Kitchen. I get the Jamaican Jerk Chicken pizza or a salad. And a glass of overpriced Pinot Grigio. (Tip: if you eat at the bar and you’re nice to your server you will probably get a great pour) I am in love with Jamaican Jerk Chicken Pizza. It is mouthwaterlingly sweet and spicy and is topped with bacon. It is a hands-down winning pizza for people who do not adhere to kosher restrictions or the Koran.

Fortunately for people of all religious backgrounds (except for strict Buddhists), there are non-bacon pizzas. I just haven’t tried them. Before this frozen food experience, I’d never had the Thai Recipe Chicken Pizza and now I may never order it. If I’m with someone who orders it, I will probably request a bite of theirs to see how it really tastes, but at this point I will never pay money for it again.

This pizza starts with decent dough and degrades from there. It is topped it with watery peanut sauce, a mish-mash of veggies, and an unholy amount of cilantro. I am a cilantro lover and I took one look at the pizza and thought ‘That is too much cilantro’. I took one bite of the pizza and had to read back through the ingredients list. Are they positive that it comes with cheese? Really? On a plus note for you cilantro-haters, the flavor is completely baked out of the cilantro. Oh, and those vegetables? A textural note only. I know, I’ve been watching too much Top Chef. But we could all learn some lessons from Top Chef:

Don’t give your sous chef all of the credit
Don’t use salmon roe on EVERY SINGLE DISH
Put your Asian heart and soul into food and you will be a winner. It also helps if the other people self-destruct.

It would take destruction of the entire pizza aisle to get me to eat this again.

P.S. Target has the best prices on frozen pizzas. Their selection may be a bit limited, but I dare you to find lower non-sale prices.

Filed Under 6 WW Points, California Pizza Kitchen, Chicken, Frozen Pizza Reviews, Two Stars | 13 Comments