Smart Ones Spicy Szechuan Style Vegetables & Chicken

February 26, 2008 | Reviewer: Becky

Smart Ones Spicy Szechuan Style Vegetables & Chicken Price: $1.52 + tax
Serving: 9oz
Calories: 240
Fat: 8%, 5g
Cholesterol: 2%, 5mg
Sodium: 37%, 900mg
Protein: 11g
Carbohydrates: 12%, 36g
Fiber: 16%, 4g
Weight Watchers Points: 4

Smart Ones says: A delectable Asian sensation of crisp, color vegetables and tender white meat chicken, simmered in a sweet and spicy blend of hoisin and soy sauces. So delicious, so satisfying . . . and another little way you can be good today.

Becky says: My husband and I swear on the Chinese buffet as being one of the best hangover cures. In our ‘really poor’ years, we lived on stir-fry, and sushi is my absolute most favoritest food in the world. Basically, it takes a lot for me to not like an Asian dish, fresh or frozen, and this meal teetered on the edge.

All in all, the components of this dish were all there, it’s just that the proportions were just a tad bit off . . . where were the veggies? The meat? All I got was a pile of noodles drenched in a salty, sweet, mildly spicy sauce, with a few pitiful-looking veggies thrown in haphazardly. On the label, they claim to include carrots, red bell pepper, zucchini, water chestnuts, celery, bok choy and bean sprouts. Well, what I saw were some carrots, a few pieces of zucchini and water chestnuts, some red mush (red bell pepper?), some green flecks (bok choy?), mushy greenish goo (celery?) and what looked like broken noodles (bean sprouts?). Add to that a couple pieces of finely diced chicken, and you’ve got yourself this meal.

The noodles, while too plentiful, were good, I’ll admit that. They cooked to the perfect consistency and temperature, even when a small personal crisis took me away from my desk for a few minutes, and I had to re-cook it for 30 seconds.

All in all, this dish reminded me that there is such a thing as bad Asian, and I’m not talking about the buffet. I take that back. This dish wasn’t horrible, it just wasn’t good enough for me to get it again. But if Smart Ones added more vegetables and cut down on the salt in the sauce, I’d add this one to my shopping list.

comments

2 Responses to “Smart Ones Spicy Szechuan Style Vegetables & Chicken”

Red Icculus on February 26th, 2008

It seems that the consensus about Smart Ones is that they get lukewarm to poor reviews?
Abi Jones on February 27th, 2008

Smart Ones = No

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