Eating Right Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce

March 4, 2008 | Reviewer: Adina

Eating Right Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce Price: $2.50
Serving: 1 meal, 8.5 oz.
Calories: 280
Fat: 11%, 7g
Cholesterol: 12%, 35mg
Sodium: 20%, 480mg
Protein: 19g
Carbs: 11%, 34g
Fiber: 9%, 2g
WW Points: 6 Points

Eating Right says: White meat chicken and spaghetti in a rich basil cream sauce.

Adina says: This meal had a lot of things working against it. For one, it had been sitting in my work freezer for over 6 months. When I opened it up, there was quite a bit of frost 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 babies with a microwave meal. Weird, but true.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by the taste and nutritional facts of this meal. The chicken was tender, surprisingly tenderer than the Café Steamer chicken. It had a nice texture and was seasoned well. The basil was a subtle yet present accent to the cream sauce. I love basil in cream sauce, I think it pulls out flavors that you wouldn’t normally experience in a cream sauce. The noodles were slightly mushy, but I blame the layer of frost for this shortcoming. The peppers didn’t punch a lot of crunch or flavor, but they also didn’t suck. So better than most microwave meal veggies, if you ask me.

The only shortcoming is that this is a fairly small meal, weighing in at only 8.5 oz, where the Chicken Tuscany weighed in at 10.6 oz. You’re definitely going to have to supplement this meal with a warm piece of whole wheat bread or a giant candy bar (whichever one is closer), but is that such a bad thing? Candy bars go with everything.

Overall, it wasn’t a completely mind altering experience, but it was definitely much better than other frozen entrees I have sampled. The nice thing about this meal was that it had more impressive nutritional facts than most. Low fat, low carbs, and definitely lower sodium compared to other microwave meals. Plus, it accounts for 38% of your daily protein, which is a huge selling point for me, considering most of my protein consumption comes from looking at cows when I drive through the country and from greasy medium-rare cheeseburgers from Good Dog Bar (best burger in Philadelphia, possibly the world).

I am pretty sure these sell for $2.50 at Genuardi’s and Safeway, which is cheaper than most microwave meals off-sale, so that is also a plus. In conclusion, this was not a bad meal. It didn’t hurt me to eat this food. I even enjoyed the time I spent eating it, all two seconds of it. Yes, I might be eating a super pretzel later, but what else is new? I could eat a 7 pound burger and still eat a super pretzel for dessert, that is how much I like super pretzels. So I give this meal 4 stars, although it is more of a 3.5 star meal. I am rounding up so that one day God will take pity on me and send me a pasta microwave meal that is 100 oz and zero fat and zero carbs. I am waiting for that day, God.

comments

10 Responses to “Eating Right Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce”

Molly on March 4th, 2008

Lean Cuisine makes a chicken in basil cream sauce meal that was well liked in my livejournal group. Here is the link- http://community.livejournal.com/micro_eats/38954.html
Sarah on March 4th, 2008

I love Adina’s reviews.

The only thing lacking in this review was the profession of her exuberant noodle love.

A new reader might not know just how much she loves noodles.

I do though. I am an avid HER reader.

Do you know why I read HER so avidly? Maybe it’s because I eat a lot of frozen meals.

It’s not. I abhor frozen meals. If I have the time I make my own noodles from scratch, because I really like fresh food.

I read your reviews because you people are hilarious. Keep up the good work!
Strawberry Girl on March 4th, 2008

Haha same here. I don’t actually read the reviews to see what food to buy. I read them because they’re usually very well written–and so entertaining. Thanks for all the great reviews!

I discovered this site by accident over winter break when I had to feed myself, and I found out that I really can’t cook. So I did use the helpful advice on this site to buy myself some frozen meals to last me a week. But even though I don’t have to do that anymore, I bookmarked this site, and I check it all the time just for fun. And who knows? I might need to apply this knowledge again during summer break.
Mogget on March 5th, 2008

Ha! I have to admit, I read this *all* the time, too, and I rarely eat frozen meals. I love to read it because it is well-written, entertaining, and so much more enjoyable than actually *doing* the work I’m supposed to be doing. Keep on keeping me entertained, and one day, if I need a frozen microwaveable meal, I’ll know where to turn to make sure it’s money well spent!
Katie on March 5th, 2008

Although some of the Eating Right meals are okay, never EVER EVER eat the Sesame Chicken dinner (very similar to the Lean Cusine Version). The chicken in that is made of stuffed animal, I swear to God. I felt like I was eating Fozzie Bear.
christine on March 5th, 2008

I like the Vegetarian Masala meal from Eating Right. I have had a few others and they are pretty good as well. By me they sell for $2 and that is not bad considering LC and HC are nearly up to $4!
Anna on March 6th, 2008

I tried the Eating Right poblano chicken a few months ago and was surprised at how good it was.
Kituria on March 11th, 2008

So I brought that meal over from our other office thinking it belonged to you. OOPs, but something good came out of it, you got a free lunch and note worthy review. Although I am not COMPLETELY sold on the Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce.
Dottie on March 26th, 2008

I eat one of the Eating Right meals at work almost every day. Now almost all of our office personnel are eating these frozen meals at lunch. I am not a young person and have tried all of the frozen meals out there and can say (and all of my co-workers agree) that these are one of the best frozen meals out there!
Abby on March 28th, 2008

My one eating right comment is that some of the meals are 2 servings. Tread carefully weight watchers.