South Beach Living Savory Beef

August 19, 2008 | Reviewer: Guest Reviewers

Photo of South Beach Living Savory Beef Price: $2.00 (on sale at Schnucks)
Serving: 1 package, 9.4oz.
Calories: 220 per serving
Fat: 12%, 8g
Cholesterol: 13%, 40mg
Sodium: 39%, 930mg
Protein: 20g
Carbohydrates: 5%, 16g
Fiber: 12%, 3g
Sugar: 3g
Weight Watchers Points: 4 Points

South Beach Living says: Braised seasoned beef steak dices in a sauce with mushrooms, onions, celery & carrots with broccoli florets in a cheese sauce.

Rebecca L. says: “Savory” is one of those words that turns me off.

When I was in 6th grade, I had a huge crush on the guy who sat in the desk across from me. Really, it was fate. And I was twelve. One morning I woke up with a headache and wasn’t feeling too hot in general. I took some Tylenol, ate some leftover Stove Top Savory Chicken stuffing, downed a glass of orange juice and jumped on the train.

Two hours later, I started feeling a little queasy. You can only guess where this is going. I ended up getting sick ACROSS our desks. Needless to say, the emotional pain and sheer grossness of throwing up stuffing on my 6th grade crush makes the word “savory” a little hard to accept.

But South Beach, you tempt me. You were on sale! And have cheesy broccoli in the package! How could I resist?

When I opened up the box, I noticed that the tray’s white, the first white microwave-food tray I’ve ever seen. Was this done on purpose? Is frozen food subliminally racist? Are white tray less well suited for the job than the traditional black tray? Important questions to answer, people.

One semi-annoying feature of the South Beach is stirring. You’re expected to nuke for 3 minutes, then stir, then nuke for 4. I hate stirring. I buy frozen food because I’m lazy and want to fly on autopilot – open, microwave, peel, eat. Anyways, I noticed this entrée was super watery when I stirred it. It ended up being a little dry and goopy in the end, so who knows which is its true texture.

South Beach’s Savory Beef includes 4 medium-size chunks of beef. Each chunk is enjoyably meaty and satisfying. They actually taste like beef, not beef flavoring, and have a little fat on them but no gristle. Everything’s sort of salty (39% of my sodium RDA?!??!) and the beef is a little tough, but it’s microwave beef so that’s not really surprising. The beef sauce that looks so marvelous on the box is a no go. I think they micro-chopped the chunks of veggies because I found a grand total of zero mushrooms. The sauce isn’t un-tasty; there are onions in there, and carrots, and I can taste the celery. However, it’s the consistency of baby food. Chewing while on South Beach is apparently a toughie.

Moving on to the Broccoli Florets in Cheese Sauce: South Beach is using a very deep tray. Surprisingly, the broccoli portion is pretty generous and almost fills the entire compartment. However, it falls victim to the dreaded ’soggy & disintegrating’ broccoli character flaw. Also, cheese sauce? Lies. There is a melted cheese smear that got on, like, ¼ of the broccoli. It tastes slightly of cheese but, sorry, this is not cheese sauce. Good thing I like the way broccoli tastes.

Overall, the beef section is pretty good. If it wasn’t so salty, it would be the best frozen dinner beef I’ve ever encountered. The broccoli is OK, not amazing. But another thing is – this is a HUGE amount of food for 220 calories – this sucker weighs in at a whole 9.4 ounces! I credit all the veggies and the beef chunks have a little bit of fat on them, so they are tasty AND filling. No thanks to you cheese sauce! I probably won’t be hungry until at least 4pm at this rate.

If Lean Cuisine doesn’t go back on sale next week, this will be in my freezer again. Veggies, protein, tasty beef, what more you ask for?

comments

3 Responses to “South Beach Living Savory Beef”

rob on August 20th, 2008

I don’t like “savory” either, imo it’s up to me, the consumer, to decide whether it is savory or not.
christine on August 21st, 2008

I have had this meal before. Its okay. Most SB meals are just okay to me.
tracy on August 22nd, 2008

I heard that everyone switched to black trays because there’s a chemical that leaches out of white trays when microwaved. The black ones have less chemical leach. But I haven’t been able to find proof (read: google articles) about it.

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