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.

Price: $2.00 on sale
Serving: 1 tray, 9.75oz.
Calories: 320 per serving
Fat: 14%, 9g
Cholesterol: 19%, 55mg
Sodium: 33%, 790mg
Protein: 21g
Carbohydrates: 13%, 40g
Fiber: 13%, 3g
Sugar: 11g
Weight Watchers Points: 7

Eating Right says: Oven-roasted turkey and gravy, with carrots and cornbread croutons

Abi says: Turkey frozen dinners are one of the more pathetic things in life. They're generally worse than a turkey sandwish and feature unappetizing versions of Thanksgiving classics, minus butter.

Now that I think about it, butter is the key to just about every wonderful thing on a Thanksgiving table, turkey aside. For instance, the bland, half-dry, half-mushy cooked carrot coins would have been aided greatly by some butter. And some brown sugar. And probably a bit of finely grated ginger. Or maybe just butter and a bit of maple syrup. Basically, doing anything to these carrots would make them better flavor-wise. Alas, nothing can alter the stubborn texture of a poorly designed meal assemblage.

The stuffing serves as barrier between the carrot side of the tray and the Turkey and Gravy side of the tray. This is beneficial because it keeps the gravy where it belongs (away from the carrots) but also a tragedy because it leaves the eater with a mound of stuffing that is sopping wet on one side and completely dry on the other. Being stuck with only the worst examples of stuffing, I felt much like Goldilocks, but without the blondness and choice of Baby Bear's perfect item (chair, porridge, bed, etc)

The Turkey, resting on the upstream portion of the stuffing dam, is more appetizing than the slice shown in the box photo (when does that happen? NEVER) but when it comes down to it, this is just sliced turkey in gravy. It is not turkey medallions or turkey chunks or turkey tenders. No, this is a short stack of deli meat.

Yeah, yeah, it is only 320 calories, but for the same number of calories, you could have the Kashi Sweet and Sour chicken meal or if you’re fine with an additional 90 calories, you could treat yourself to Boston Market's Honey Roasted Chicken, both are significantly tastier lunch options.

Price: $2.50
Serving: 1 tray, 9oz.
Calories: 300
Fat: 10%, 6g
Cholesterol: 9%, 30mg
Sodium: 23%, 550mg
Protein: 16g
Carbs: 14%, 43g
Fiber: 11%, 3g
Weight Watchers Points: 6 Points

Eating Right says: Corn tortilla stuffed with chicken tenders, onions and green chilies, with Mexican Style rice and sprinkled with cheese

Abi says: I’ve been burned by other ‘healthy’ chicken enchilada meals. I’ve suffered through the bland sauce of Lean Cuisine’s Chicken Enchilada. I’ve endured the mystery meat much of Smart Ones’ Chicken Enchilada. And I’ve been fortunate enough to experience the rapture that is Trader Joe’s Chicken Enchiladas en Salsa Verde.

After trying Eating Right’s Chicken Enchilada, I thought I’d have to admit that I’ve reformed and can now admit a love of healthy enchiladas. That is, until I realized that this meal isn’t really ‘healthy’ at all.

It is simply a small portion size. And with that small portion size comes a complete lack of fullness. Sure, the chicken comes in nicely identifiable chunks and the sauce is well seasoned and creamy and while eating this I kept thinking over and over again ‘Wow, this diet enchilada is fantastic’, but all of the supposed ‘health benefits’ that come with this meal are based on less food and a flavorless side of rice. Bland starches shouldn’t make up the bulk of a meal, but Eating Right seems to think otherwise.

I gave this meal 4 stars because it is significantly better than comparable diet enchilada meals. But you’d be better off just eating the Trader Joe’s chicken enchiladas. That way you’d get to skip the waste-of-space rice and you won’t be tempted into consuming an unhealthy afternoon snack. Why? Because you’ll be full.

Now, that’s a feature that Eating Right just can’t match.

Price: $2.50 (sale)
Serving: 1 entreé, 9 oz.
Calories: 260
Fat: 9%, 6g
Cholesterol: 8%, 25mg
Sodium: 23%, 550mg
Protein: 16g
Carbohydrates: 12%, 36g
Fiber: 10%, 3g
Weight Watchers Points: 5 Weight Watchers Points

Eating Right says: Tender beef with mushrooms served with roasted potatoes and broccoli

Lindsy says: Now, I’m not your typical meat and potatoes girl. That’s my dad’s schtick and I had enough of it while I was growing up. However while I was perusing the freezer aisle of my local Safeway the word ‘portobello’ spoke to me when I scanned past this box and into my cart it leaped.

As I stood in the kitchen, I couldn’t say that these meal gave off any definable smells and I wondered if I had gone astray in my food choice. Once I removed the tray from the microwave, I was disappointed to see a paltry three broccoli florets inhabiting that section of my tray. Instead of devouring the broccoli immediately, I decided I would begin by tasting the beef. I was pleased when it turned out rather delicious and beef-like. It was not too chewy, not to hard, but instead had a nice medium-well (what more can you expect from the microwave?) flavor. Goldilocks would have enjoyed the beef. The gravy was also pretty delicious, a little on the salty side but good nonetheless. HOWEVER, there were no portobellos in sight! By the end of my meal I think I had discovered one tiny (read: the size of a pencil eraser) morsel of mushroomy goodness.

As for the potatoes, I don’t know if roasted is the appropriate definition for them. To me a roasted potato is deliciously crispy on the outside with limited inside soft potato texture. These potatoes were neither crispy nor roasted. They were more like mysteriously golden potato chunks. They had the grainy microwaved potato texture to them and were pretty mushy. In retrospect, I should have turned them into mashed potatoes using the left over gravy from my beef. Hindsight, alas.

Overall, this was a pretty decent meal, with lots of different flavors and a good amount of food. I got 30 percent of the recommended daily value of iron and 50 percent on the vitamin C. Not too shabby