Smart Ones Pasta Primavera

April 11, 2008 | Reviewer: Abi

Smart Ones Pasta Primavera SRP: $3.33 (free from Smart Ones)
Serving: 1 meal, 9oz.
Calories: 280
Fat: 9%, 6g
Cholesterol: 4%, 10mg
Sodium: 29%, 700mg
Protein: 12g
Carbs: 15%, 44g
Fiber: 22%, 6g
Sugar: 7g
Weight Watchers Points: 5 Points

Smart Ones says: Tender bow tie pasta with broccoli florets and julienne-cut carrots in a creamy parmesan sauce

Abi says: Smart Ones sent us some coupons for free meals. I should have known better than to use one of them. Sure, brief look back at my dalliances with Smart Ones meals reveals that there are few items that I enjoyed: Smart Ones Thai Style Chicken and Rice Noodles and Smart Ones Chocolate Chip Muffins. But hey, I like almost all Thai food and muffins. Well, except Thai food with too much basil or muffins with blueberries. Or bananas. Or almond extract, which seems picky but still leaves a lot of muffins.

Uh, yeah. So about that frozen food that I don’t like as much as Thai food or muffins. Smart Ones, do you expect dieters to eat this and be satisfied? The pasta sauce is a big bunch of bland. For as long as I eat diet frozen food (which could easily be the rest of my life because they keep coming out with New! things) I will never understand why companies choose to ship bland items.

If I were on a diet, I’d want every single, little thing I ate to be a party in my mouth. This means flavors. This means spices. This does not mean ‘parmesan’ sauce without a detectable hint of cheese. A soon-to-be dietician friend and I were talking the other day and she was just flabbergasted at the way people try to diet and lose weight without flavors. Eating bland food won’t make you want less food, folks; it will just make you want tasty food. And those spices that make a difference in satiety? They don’t have calories. Its a miracle!

Resting in that bed of ‘parmesan’ sauce (which cooked up quite simply and beautifully, getting my hopes way to high) is the pasta. Bow tie pasta is a nice pasta to eat because it is easy to stab with a fork and the folds of the bow ties hold sauce well. If the sauce had been good I’d probably be raving about the pasta, but the sauce was not good, so all I can do now is wonder why they don’t just make the pasta out of whole wheat.

And the vegetables. Oh, vegetables. For me, ‘Primavera’ means one of two things: lots of vegetables or a bunch of naked women (okay, women draped in diaphanous silks) parading about in the forest and/or being kidnapped by Zephyr and then turning into some plants. This meal lacks vegetables, nudity, Federal offenses and metamorphoses, earning it an enormous FAIL.

Okay, so if it actually had nudity I’d be a bit freaked out., but still where are the vegetables? All I could find were the stalk parts of broccoli. Yes, the lame parts of the broccoli. If the front of the box says that your meal contains broccoli florets, then it is in your best interest to include the actual flower-like part of the broccoli. I felt like the frozen food world was playing a joke on me. And maybe it was playing a joke on me. When I went to read the back of the box to record the information for this review I found not one, but two typos:

Smart Ones Pasta Primavera Typos

How this meal escaped into the wild I’ll never know, but if Smart Ones took it back to the lab and added real broccoli florets and seasoning (cheese and garlic) then it could be four star material. Until then I will just be content in the fact that I don’t have any more coupons for free Smart Ones meals on hand.

comments

9 Responses to “Smart Ones Pasta Primavera”

Chavi on April 11th, 2008

I’ve had that one. It definitely did not COMPLEMENT my diet.
Angie on April 11th, 2008

I don’t understand why Weight Watchers pus their name on these frozen dinners. Everything else I’ve had that is by Weight Watchers (yogurt, English muffins, bagels and the like) have been a delightful surprise.

Smart Ones, though, have most distinctly not been delightful.
K. on April 11th, 2008

I actually like this one…then again I add copious amounts of salt and pepper. I found the amount of vegetables varies greatly with each meal.
Kristen on April 11th, 2008

I think this meal is actually pretty tasty. But I do tend to avoid really spicy food.
Janette on April 11th, 2008

Really? I like this one a lot. I always add some parmesan to it though
n. on April 11th, 2008

you’re nuts. this meal is yummy.
Heather on April 15th, 2008

I give up. What does the “HER” mean on the box and where are the 2 typos?
Abi Jones on April 15th, 2008

@Chavi - I thought you would like this one (the review and typos, not the meal)

@Angie - But not their ice cream. Yech.

@K - copious amounts of salt and pepper would have done this meal a world of good.

@Kristen - Then you should ignore all of my reviews. I am a spice lover.

@n. - Ah, but I have a name.

@Heather - HER stands for “Heat Eat Review” and it means that anyone who wants to review the meal can eat it. The two typos are “carrots slices” and “complimented” when it should be ‘complemented’.
Victor Hanson-Smith on April 19th, 2008

Personally, I was hoping the “HER” label was an indicator that A. and G. were labeling their food “his” and “her”. That’s so cute I want to puke.