Price: $2.75 (4/$11 sale, Safeway)
Calories 920
Total Fat 54%, 35g
Saturated Fat 35%, 7g
Cholesterol 42%, 125mg
Sodium 39%, 930mg
Carbohydrates 24%, 71g
Dietary Fiber 5%, 6g
Sugars 34g
Protein 34g
Weight Watchers Points: 21 WW Points

Hungry-Man says: Fried chicken patties coated in a floured buffalo style seasoning with french fries, corn & a brownie.

Nicole Says: If chocolate milk comes from chocolate cows, where does chocolate corn come from? At some point in its short life, my Hungry Man meal must have defrosted pretty well, because not only did I have a significant portion of corn enter my brownie section, but some of the kernels were actually frozen in. So I had no choice but to bake them in. And that’s after 5 minutes of digging conglomerated frozen corn out of said brownie section.

The cooking is also less-than-straightforward. Remove film over all except corn, five minutes cook time, remove brownie (not so easy to scrape it all out) and then back in to nuke for two more minutes.

I went into this with some skepticism. Buffalo Chicken and a Brownie? Is this for overweight pre-teen males (1 LB. OF FOOD)? Although, hey, I’m excited about the brownie.

So beginning with the safest route, the fries are good, not too soggy, but they could use a touch of salt (and why, oh, why, don’t I have a small ketchup bottle at the office?) There are a lot of fries here - maybe a McDonal’ds Medium? But thick and crinkle-cut, like classic frozen fries.

The corn is buttery in flavor without being in a soupy pool of buttery water. There’s also a slight sweetness to the corn, but that could be bits of brownie mix baked on. In the brownie-to-corn direction, this is not a tragedy. The serving size is slightly larger than your average section-meal’s veg serving.

Four chicken strips sit atop my fries, each about the size of two McD’s nuggets - looking sort of splotchy red-and-yellow and … crispy?! Upon closer inspection, there is some visible sogginess on the bottom of a couple strips. Perhaps they should be flipped at the cooking-interruption point where the brownie is removed to crisp on both sides? Because the tops and sides are actually crispy, and I’m totally impressed. I think it’s the fact of cooking atop the fries that helps this out - on the undersides, the soggy sections were only those touching plastic during the cooking process rather than resting atop french fries.

(It’s too bad country/chicken-friend steak/chicken goes so well with smashed potatoes. Otherwise we could cook that atop fries, too, and make Nicole’s world complete.)

The “buffalo” flavor of the strips is questionable. I was expecting a sharp, tangy vinegar-hot sauce experience, but the tang isn’t really there. However, there is a subtle, slowly building spice and heat flavoring the strips, and it’s damn tasty. If you like REALLY spicy food, well, you’d better have your bottle of hot sauce handy.

After chicken-strip-happiness began, I decided to interrupt for a mid-meal dessert, out of fear that a less-than-great brownie might leave me on the wrong foot. The brownie (corn and all) is very so-so. It is chocolately but not very sugary (slightly towards bitter), pretty moist in texture. I think that chocolate lover (not connoisseurs, but lovers) would be very pleased. I, myself, am glad I have some crispy spiciness left.

Surprise, surpise, this meal is quite filling. I think that the spiciness of the chicken combines with the 1 LB. OF FOOD to make me . . . full . . . and happy . . . I will absolutely buy this meal again, but I may save it for dinner, because I might just be ruined as far as working goes for the next 30 minutes.

[Nicole, there’s another one in Kitchen 2. -Ed.]

Price: $2.00 (sale)
Serving: 1 meal, 16.5 oz.
Calories: 690
Fat: 54%, 35g
Sodium: 78%, 1880mg
Protein: 49g
Carbohydrates: 16%, 48g
Fiber: 19%, 5g

Hungry-Man says: Rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes, green beans, and a brownie

Abi says: One of the things I like about Hungry-Man is that they don’t try to gussy up their meal descriptions with words like ‘delectable’ and ‘fragrant’. This is obviously man-food (or Nicole-food, depending on audience) and needs nothing more than a listing of what the box contains.

I don’t like so much that the chicken is bone-in. Some people dislike bone-in chicken because they don’t like to be reminded that they’re eating animals. Please, people. If you can’t deal with chowing down on some feathered friends, get the heck out of Hungry-Man’s kitchen.

My personal dislike of bone-in chicken in microwaveable meals stems from the fact that I’ll either need to introduce another piece of silverware to the dining occasion (in this case, a knife) or I’ll need to eat microwaved chicken with my hands. Neither of these options could be described as ‘fabulous.’ Both could be described as ‘inconvenient.’ Fortunately, my chicken could not be described as ‘frightening.’ If you want to be scared by frozen chicken, please check out this news from North Dakota.

Hungry-Man’s chicken, sodium aside, tastes pretty darn good for something that came out of the microwave. It is juicy and tender and more than filling. The mashed potatoes were once again a disappointment (Marie Callender does them about 15x better) and the green beans were floating in an absurd amount of butter-dotted water. I don’t know about all of you, but I find it rather disheartening when my vegetables are floating in a pool of anything. Well, anything but ranch dressing. Mmmmm, ranch dressing.

Due to removal partway through the cooking process, the brownie becomes something of a mess. I have come to accept this because it is made of chocolate. Also, it is a brownie.

Today’s Guest Reviewer is Marvo from The Impulsive Buy.

Price: $3.00 on sale
Serving: 1 tray, 16 oz.
Calories: 720
Fat: 46%, 30g
Cholesterol: 20%, 60mg
Sodium: 78%, 1880mg
Protein: 37g
Carbohydrates: 25%, 75g
Fiber: 28%, 7g
Weight Watchers Points: 16 Points

Hungry-Man says: Hearty chicken parmigiana with spaghetti in marinara with a garlic bread stick.

Marvo says: I thought a Hungry-Man dish would be perfect for me to review. After all, I was hungry, I am a man, and they were on sale at the grocery store where I shop. Oh wait a second, let me double check that “man” part…

Yup, I’m an outie not an innie.

My love for mediocre Italian food was the reason why I decided to pick up the Hungry-Man Hearty Chicken Parmigiana out of all the other Hungry-Man choices. Sure, I could get one of those ‘healthy’ microwave Italian meals with vegetables, less fat, and the ability to make me hungry an hour later, but the bold banner on the lower left hand corner of the Hungry-Man box that said “1 LB. OF FOOD” called to me, much like the ghosts did to Carol Anne through the television in the movie Poltergeist.

While I watched my meal rotate in the microwave for five and a half minutes, because the “1 LB. OF FOOD” banner on the box told me to, I wondered if the noodles would be too tender, like a Lifetime Channel movie. The noodles turned out to be just right, but the marinara sauce tasted like a particular bottled pasta sauce. I’m just not sure which one.

As for the two pieces of breaded chicken, the breading didn’t make them crispy and the edges were a little tough, but they were good when combined with the spaghetti and the mozzarella cheese on top of each piece of chicken.

The bread stick included in the meal was in the microwave for only 45 seconds, but those 45 seconds turned a frozen piece of bread into a chewy piece of bread. Also, the bread stick had a lot garlic grease around it, which made it tasty but also made it kind of slippery. So if you’re in prison and in the shower with it, you might want to think about putting a rope around it.

Overall, the Hungry-Man Hearty Chicken Parmigiana was a tasty meal and filling for this formerly hungry man. Although, there proportionally wasn’t enough spaghetti for the two pieces of chicken and I felt there could’ve been more mozzarella cheese on top of the chicken because I like calcium. Despite these minor issues, I would probably eat it again, but only when my blood pressure goes down, since it has enough sodium to possibly turn me into a salt lick.

Price: $2.00 (on sale)
Serving: 1 meal, 16 oz.
Calories: 820
Fat: 60%, 39g
Cholesterol: 35%, 105mg
Sodium: 111%, 2670mg
Protein: 33g
Carbs: 26%, 79g
Fiber: 28%, 7g
WW Points: 19 Points

Hungry-Man says: Beer Battered Chicken Patties and Potato wedges with Cheese Sauce

Nicole says: A Hungry Man likes his chicken like he likes his women - battered.

Oh, wait, no. If you’d like do something about violence against women, please check out www.Vday.org and support the events and services in your community.

On a lighter note, this meal kicked ass. I did have some ketchup with the chicken, since it’s really not right to have chicken nuggets or chicken fingers without sauce. Damn, 111% of my RDA of sodium tastes good.

Before I ate this meal, Abi mentioned that it might be good from the oven. I have mixed feelings about doing oven reviews, though - yes, it would be HEATing, EATing, and REVIEWing, but I feel like the general vibe here is ADHD microwave addiction/cheap, busy professionals at work. So I microwaved it. Hence neither the fries nor the beer battering were crispy at all.

The hearty helping of salty cheesy potato wedges are fabulous, though soft, and I have decided this might be the best meal to have hanging around in the freezer for those Saturday nights when you stay out late but don’t get a chance to go to Ben’s Chili Bowl for a chili dog or to Jumbo Slice for a piece of pizza bigger than your head and greasier than Danny Zuko’s hair.

The chicken is tasty and properly textured for chicken fingers. Yes, it’s reconstituted meat, but they did it right. As mentioned, no crispiness, but good flavor to the batter. 100% perfect when lightly dipped in ketchup. Or catsup. I prefer ketchup. I got one tiny gristly bite. That was not 100% good.

If you are looking for a filling, tasty meal and have no major concern for your weight or your heart (note: your liver is fine - “This meal contains trace amounts of alcohol for flavor. Most burns off in the cooking process”), then look no further. This is a meal that really eats like a meal. Eat your heart out, Campbell’s Chunky Soup. Being satisfied until dinner is worth taking some statins (note: bad for your liver) later down the road, right?