Rebecca

Rebecca used to teach chemistry and therefore has an unhealthy obsession with reading ingredient lists while her food is in the microwave (she does not recommend it - -it makes the food taste much less delicious). After a brief stint in the HeatEatReview headquarters, Rebecca now works in an office with no usable microwave. She hopes that someday this problem will be fixed but since she works in education, she does not expect change will happen anytime soon.

Latest Reviews by Rebecca:

Michael Angelo’s Chicken Parmesan

April 11, 2007 | Reviewer: Rebecca

Michael Angelo's Chicken Parmesan

SRP: $3.69
Serving: 2/3 tray, 8.11 oz.
Calories: 260
Fat: 15%, 10g
Cholesterol: 13%, 40mg
Sodium: 23%, 540mg
Protein: 18g
Carbohydrates: 8%, 25g
Fiber: 12%, 3g

Michael Angelo says: Our family’s version of an Italian classic begins with tender whole breast chicken covered in our delicious, authentic Italian breading. We set it on a bed of our 100% durum semolina spaghetti pasta then smother it with our classic tomato sauce made from vine-ripened tomatoes and imported olive oil and finish with a hearty layer of our premium mozzarella cheese.

Rebecca says: Good and bad things happen when you have to cook your lunch for six minutes. In this case, the good thing was that the smell of the chicken parmesan wafted out the microwave and into the kitchen area. It in fact smelled so good that even though it looked relatively nasty as I took it out of the microwave, I was still excited to eat it. The bad news was that I got bored and read the entire box, including the nutritional information. Why are companies allowed to produce meals that contain 1.5 servings? Do they think I am going to stop 2/3 of the way in and save some for later? Why do they lie to us? Suffice to say, I ate the whole thing. I gave the box to Abi to record the nutrition information and I forgot that I was supposed to stop and just ate the whole thing. I dare you to stop at 2/3 of this meal.

The chicken was well cooked-not overdone, moist and juicy. And it appeared to be a nice cut of breast meat. There was only one bite of chicken veiny-gristlely-grossness. The best part of the chicken (and, of course, the purpose for buying such a meal as this) was the breading. It was not too mushy, not to crunchy, not too thin. If I were Goldilocks I might say it was just right. It was a little salty and crumbly and there were green specks (which according to the ingredient list were fresh basil but I couldn’t identify the taste of those specifically). Altogether, it was relatively delicious.

The accompanying spaghetti and sauce was nothing to write home about. It tasted mostly like the spaghetti dinner one pulls out of the big warming tub on the buffet. Unlike most buffet spaghetti, however, there a good sauce to noodle ratio. The sauce may have been bland but it was not watery (close to tomato paste in consistency) and there was not too much of it left in the bottom of the tray. Don’t get me wrong-the spaghetti wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good. But don’t buy this meal for the spaghetti-buy it for the chicken parmesan, which is the title ingredient, and really the most important part.

Filed Under Chicken, Michael Angelo's Reviews, Three Stars | 8 Comments

Lean Cuisine Ginger Garlic Stir Fry with Chicken

March 26, 2007 | Reviewer: Rebecca

Lean Cuisine Ginger Garlic Stir Fry with Chicken

SRP: $3.19
Serving: 1 meal, 9 7/8 oz.
Calories: 290
Fat: 6%, 4g
Cholesterol: 10%, 30mg
Sodium: 27%, 640mg
Protein: 17g
Carbohydrates: 15%, 46g
Fiber: 16%, 4g
WW Points: 5 Points

Lean Cuisine says: Snap peas and broccoli with white meat chicken and whole grain rice in a ginger garlic sauce

Rebecca says: The first time I took a bite of chicken and it tasted strange I thought it must have been a mistake. The next time I took a bite of chicken and it tasted strange I thought “Really? The chicken tastes funny?” I purposely picked up a piece of chicken and subjected myself to yet another piece of chicken-it still tasted funny. It turns out I must be as nice as Jess claims I am because I kept thinking “no, there’s no way the chicken tastes funny. I like Lean Cuisine usually and usually the chicken doesn’ taste funny” and so kept eating the chicken. Some of it tasted good but the majority tasted strange.

I thought it could be the sauce - maybe the sauce only works with the rice and the vegetables but somehow doesn’t mix with the chicken. I’ve since decided that’s as farcical as the idea that any well respected spa would actually serve a meal like this. Because the sauce was good, it worked with the brown rice and all the vegetables. It should have worked with the chicken.

The box advertised twice as many vegetables and sure enough there were so many vegetables that I was able to smell the pepper steaming as I heated it even though they weren’t advertised on the box. There were definitely lots of \nice crispy snap peas, carrots sticks, and way more peppers than I would have expected. I can’t really tell the difference between snap peas and snow peas so I checked the box again and discovered broccoli was a featured vegetable. I have no memory of consuming the broccoli but I may have eaten them in between chicken bites. The rice was your straight up brown rice cooked in the microwave. In comparison to the strange chicken and the excess of vegetables, it hardly seems worth mentioning.

I admit that I may have just gotten a bad batch of chicken so please correct me if you have consumed this meal and gotten some tasty chicken. But extrapolating that all the ginger garlic stir fry with chickens have chicken like this, I give it one star.

This meal was sent to HeatEatReview.com by Lean Cuisine’s Public Relations company. HeatEatReview.com will always disclose the source of free products. Questions about our reviews? Check our our review policy or send us an email.

Filed Under 5 WW Points, Chicken, Lean Cuisine Reviews, One Star | 15 Comments

Kashi Pesto Pasta Primavera

January 3, 2007 | Reviewer: Rebecca

Kashi Pesto Pasta Primavera

SRP: $4-5.00
Serving: 1 tray, 10 oz.
Calories: 330
Fat: 17%, 11g
Cholesterol: 2%, 5mg
Sodium: 33%, 790mg
Protein: 12g
Carbs: 31%, 93g
Fiber: 28%, 7g
Weight Watchers Points: 7 Points

Kashi says: Yellow carrots, sweet red peppers and peas, multigrain penne pasta, basil pesto sauce with shredded parmesan cheese

Rebecca says: There are three things I always enjoy: (1) Pasta (2) Pesto and (3) Free food. When Abi offered me the opportunity to review Kashi’s new Pesto Pasta Primavera, I quickly agreed.

The most important part of pesto pasta is the pesto sauce itself-here, the sauce was a bright friendly green and had decently mellow pesto flavor. I usually enjoy my pesto with a more of a fresh garlic kick and a burst of basil; this version was a bit less flavorful than I would have liked. The garlic and basil were identifiable, but not particularly distinctive. With most pesto sauces, I just want to slather it on everything (crackers, pita, veggies, pasta, etc.) but I wasn’t so hooked on this one that I wanted to keep eating it with a variety of starches.

When I first removed the tray from the microwave, the Kashi’s pesto seemed a bit soupy. However, more thorough mixing distributed the sauce to the pasta as a whole and decreased the soupiness. As a result of soaking in soupy sauce, the pasta was quite soggy. Kashi’s pasta is a special multigrain penne, but I could not taste the extra multigrain-ness (not that I really missed it). Maybe the multigrain taste was missing because the pasta was just a bit overcookedâ€”more like regular American-style we-don’t-know-what-al-dente-means pasta than hearty, chewy multigrain pasta.

By far, my favorite part was the vegetables (a.k.a. primavera). The peppers and peas were bright, nicely cooked, firm and actually tasted (and resembled) real peppers and peas. Plus, there were enough vegetable bits to have some veggie in every bit. I was surprised that the vegetables were perfectly cooked because the pasta was a little overdone. By overdone I mean mushy.

If you like a mellow pesto sauce and your pasta ‘well done’, then you should try this meal for the tasty vegetables too. If you like pesto with sharper flavors and pasta al dente, you might want to find that combo somewhere else. Just remember to add some vegetables, they were so delicious.

Filed Under 7 WW Points, Kashi Frozen Meal Reviews, Three Stars, Vegetarian | 2 Comments

Trader Joe’s Ginger Peanut Noodle Salad

November 30, 2006 | Reviewer: Rebecca

Trader Joe's Ginger Peanut Noodle Salad

Price: $2.99
Serving: 1 container, 10 oz.
Calories: 420
Fat: 29%, 19g
Sodium: 34%, 820mg
Protein: 11g
Carbs: 19%, 55g
Fiber: 12%, 3g

Trader says: Ginger Peanut Noodle Salad. Keep Refrigerated.

Rebecca says: I bought these noodles because I was craving something cool and refreshing on a hot day. I chose Ginger Peanut noodles because I have usually had good luck with Trader Ming’s.

The noodles, after being in the fridge, were quite refreshing and provided me with some temporary relief for being stuck in an office with no air conditioning. I thought that they would be tangy and full of dynamic favor (I’m a big ginger fan). However, they were not very tasty. I found one peanut in the entire container and did not even taste a smidgen of ginger. I was expecting something delicious but instead just had some bland cold noodles. In its defense, I might argue that it was nice to eat something cold and the noodles were well cooked and not gummy.

However…

In my haste, I did not realize there was a nutrition label at the bottom of the container until I could see the bottom as I was eating. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this tasteless wonder I had been consuming turned out to have 19 g of fat! If only I had noticed it before eating the whole thing, I would have returned it to the shelf I grabbed it from and would not have given it a second thought.

If these noodles had been flavorful and delicious, I might have attempted to justify the excessive amount of fat. However, the ginger peanut noodles were mostly blah and were simply not worth it. I bet I can find better ginger peanut noodles somewhere else with more flavor, less fat and about the about the same price. I’ll let you know when I find it.

Filed Under One Star, Trader Joe's Reviews, Vegetarian | 3 Comments