Healthy Choice Café Steamers Chicken Tuscany

February 5, 2008 | Reviewer: Adina

Healthy Choice Café Steamers Chicken Tuscany Price: $2.99
Serving: 1 meal, 10.6 oz.
Calories: 300
Fat: 12%, 8g
Cholesterol: 8%, 25mg
Sodium: 23%, 560mg
Protein: 21g
Carbs: 11%, 34g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
WW Points: 6 Points

Healthy Choice says: We broil lean chicken tenderloin chunks, combine them with a colorful medley of zucchini, spinach and sun dried tomatoes and serve over linguini pasta tossed in a flavorful Parmesan sauce.

Adina says: I am not someone who likes my food steamed. I like it breaded, deep fried, saturated in fat, glazed, covered in gravy, chocolate sauce, bits of bacon, etc. I accept that some food must be boiled (noodles) in order to be married to less healthy mediums (alfredo sauce) to create one, harmonious meal. Rarely will you find me saying “Ohh, let’s steam dinner tonight” or “I’ll take the healthy steamed option please, with a side of broccoli.” And when I say rarely, I mean you can just go ahead and shoot me when that day comes because my life will so be over.

But (and this is possibly the hugest “but” since Baby Got Back hit record stores in 1992), this meal was sort of definitely a delightful dining experience. Dare I say that Healthy Choice finally did something right? God, that feels so wrong to say and yet . . . my mouth doesn’t lie. This meal, it was unbelievably tasty.

The zucchini was perfectly steamed. It tasted much like how I would imagine zucchini would taste if I ever steamed it and then ate it. It was tender on the inside and faintly crisp on the outside. It looked so green and fresh that I actually ate it first. Before the noodles. I KNOW. To me, eating vegetables before noodles is sort of akin to choosing a Brazilian bikini wax over napping. It is just plum crazy. And yet, it was my reality this afternoon as I pushed the noodles to the side to find that last bite of zucchini yumminess.

Not to say the noodles weren’t good. Oh they were good. Especially considering that the sauce was FedExed from HEAVEN. Seriously, the taste is so zesty and unexpected.

It was flavorful and bitey and the picture on the container actually doesn’t do the spices justice. Has that ever happened before? Where the food was actually BETTER than how it looked in the picture? WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY HEALTHY CHOICE?

The chicken was a little dry, but it tasted like dry REAL chicken. As far as white meat goes, this was probably better than any piece of white meat I can cook. I truly believe white meat has like a 2 second window of tenderness and then BAM it’s dry. Anyway, it didn’t matter if it was a tad dry because it just complimented the texture of the melt-in-your-mouth veggies.

So yes, I am giving this Healthy Choice meal 5 full stars. I back this meal with my life. Steaming your food separate from the sauce is brilliant. The steaming locks in the individual flavors, and the sauce accentuates rather than overpowers the meal. Congratulations, Healthy Choice. You have moved from “sucks so bad” to “edible and sort of delightful”. Be proud, be very proud.

comments

12 Responses to “Healthy Choice Café Steamers Chicken Tuscany”

Laura on February 5th, 2008

Do you happen to know how many calories are in the sauce in this meal? Meaning, if I didn’t use it (or all of it) how would that impact the overall 300 calories of this meal? Thanks!
Abi Jones on February 5th, 2008

We have no clue about the calories in the sauce. Sorry
Crow on February 5th, 2008

Zucchini = zero stars.
MaryAnne on February 5th, 2008

They’re currently on sale at Target for 2/$4. I’m going to try this one- the nutrition doesn’t seem bad, although I might use half the sauce for my lactose-intolerant stomach.
Sarah Clayton on February 5th, 2008

Why do I get the feeling the 5 stars is mostly due to the fact that it got Adina to eat her veggies, but she still got to her lovely noodle favorite-children? I can imagine her going “My God…. The vegetables…. THEY ARE GOOD! AMAZING!”
Chaviva on February 5th, 2008

Oh man. I LOATHE those steamer things. It all tastes watery and benign to me. I’m glad someone likes them, though?
Shann on February 5th, 2008

I want to eat this. It looks so good. I showed this to my friend she agreed with me.
Amber on February 5th, 2008

This is the one flavor I’ve been looking for and can never find. Now I’m slightly angered that my local Wal-Mart cannot find it in its heart to stock this particular steamer.

I can find the other flavors that either sound gross or are actually gross, based on personal taste tests (the basil chicken whatever…it’s flavorless)
Happy on February 8th, 2008

5 stars for Healthy Choice?!?!? Sorry, but my brain just refuses to process that.
Anna on February 23rd, 2008

Well, thanks as always for helping me choose my lunch, but I’m going to have to give this Tuscan flavored steamer only 2 stars. One star is for the zucchini, which seemed to be cooked right. I hate zucchini and picked it out, but I could tell by stabbing it that some food scientists had worked overtime getting it just right. But maybe they spent more money on research and less on chicken because the chicken had a weird texture and a gamey flavor. Worst of all, one bite dissolved into fat in my mouth prompting me to reconsider vegetarianism. The sauce wasn’t great either. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t as good as the cream sauce Lean Cuisine uses on their basil chicken with cream sauce.

I did enjoy the concept of steaming lunch and throwing it all together in a bowl, so I’ll check out some of the other flavors. Plus, I could have just gotten a bad part of the chicken.
Lindsey B on February 25th, 2008

I just had this two days ago before I read this review. I was totally surprised by the tastiness of this item as well. Normally microwaved chicken and veggies aren’t very good but I think mine was as perfect as a frozen meal could get. As a veggie snob, I’d have to say they were quite impressive. The sauce was also very enjoyable and plentiful. I highly recommend this too! Totally deserves 5 stars.
Eating Right Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce : HeatEatReview.com on March 4th, 2008

[…] covering the food. Two, I ate a very similar dish from Healthy Choice’s Café Steamers line (Chicken Tuscany, which I also reviewed) and that dish made me seriously consider leaving my husband so I could make […]