Price: Free to us, $5,00
Serving: 1 package, 10oz.
Calories: 300
Fat: 14%, 9g
Cholesterol: 15%, 45mg
Sodium: 26%, 620mg
Protein: 19g
Carbohydrates: 10%, 29g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Weight Watchers Points: 6 Points

for taste
for chastity

Kashi says: Grilled chicken breast with spinach, sweet red peppers and baby portobello mushrooms. Kashi 7 whole grains and sesame with orzo pilaf. Garlic Wine sauce topped with shredded parmesan cheese.

Jess says: Do you sense the oncoming trouble of a budding office romance? Does someone get a little too close in the Xerox line? Is this someone being a little too generous with emoticons in email exchanges? Does this someone tell you when the coffee has been brewed so you get a fresh cup? Abort! Abort! This spells nothing but trouble. Animals don’t masticate where they defecate, you shouldn’t grind at the grind. So get thee this meal (once it’s for sale, which I don’t think it is yet). Essentially this is an oral chastity belt. Eating this meal is like drinking a garlic milkshake with garlic powder garnish. No one is making out with you after you’ve eaten this. It is three days later and I’m still not sure I’m fit for the bars. Abi claimed, upon receiving a taste, that it burned her mouth.

This is not to say that the meal is bad. Au contrare mon frere! Garlic adds a punch of taste to any food concoction. And as other Kashi meals have proven, that mix of fiberrific grains is recipe for microwave magic. The cream sauce is kind of nasty pre-microwave, sitting all globularly condensed in the center. But once you mix it in mid-heating cycle, it looks more than edible and that’s when you get the first whiff and start to realize, crapola!, I’m about to set off a garlic firecracker in the office kitchen! The portion is smaller in this meal than the other meals, but the spinach abounds. We all know spinach=power (or E. coli). Most also know that spinach and cream sauce are a great pair (like Popeye and Olive Oyl). Also, Kashi gives you some quality chicken strips in their meals. No fatty cubes here. Thanks, Kashi. That extra effort is almost worth the $3 extra I’ll have to spend on your meals (except not really - for $6 I can get a chicken sandwich, from, like, a real grill). In conclusion, this is great treat if your goal is to stop office temptations and it’s surely tasty, but this is not Kashi’s best production.

Price: $2.00 (on sale)
Serving: 1 package, 8 3/8 oz.
Calories: 390
Fat: 22%, 15g
Sodium: 34%, 820mg
Protein: 19g
Carbs: 15%, 44g
Fiber: 12%, 3g

Stouffer’s says: Roasted chicken breast tossed with al dente rigatoni pasta and flavorful basil pesto made with extra virgin olive oil,garlic,pine nuts and aged Parmesan cheese.

Jess says: I made an important life discovery today. If you are really really hungry, then whatever you heat will probably taste incredibly delicious. My stomach was making these sick nasty gurgles at my desk before I cracked open the freezer and released this orange boxcicle from its icy home. And let me tell you, I popped out of my office chair as soon as I heard that microwave go “ding, ding, ding”. I didn’t even wait those 2 minutes of radiation toxin resting time. I was hungry. So I pretty much inhaled this garlicky, pestoey magic and was more and more impressed by its taste with each not properly chewed swallow. The sauce was well distributed, the pasta portion was enough to satiate, and the chicken cubes had a robust surface area (for a microwave meal).

When it was all over I realized that I didn’t take the cute little ‘how I look in real life’ picture that Abi likes. I was beyond thinking of even you, H.E.R. readers, I was THAT hungry. But I decided to write this up anyway while I was still awash in a belly-full glow, since you will tell me if I’m again grossly over-rating a meal and this is actually a pest-no, not a rigaton-si. (I nearly edited that out but stopped myself)

Still I’d place my bets on tastiness. Has pesto and pasta ever really done you wrong?

Readers - Fortunately for you, I managed to procure this meal for myself and take a picture. Apparently, the flourescent lights at school react strangely to the Stouffer’s box. That’s a problem. -Abi Jones, Ed.

Price: $1.29
Serving: 1 bowl, 2.8 oz. plus water
Calories: 330
Fat: 15%, 11g
Sodium: 42%, 1000mg
Protein: 11g
Carbs: 16%, 49g
Fiber: 10%, 2g

Betty says: Ribbon pasta in a rich Cheddar cheese sauce tossed with broccoli

Abi says: I have to admit that I was originally drawn in by the lovely broccoli images on the package. I imagined nestling into the couch with a steamy bowl of cheddary pasta studded with still-crisp bits of broccoli. Then, I realized that this was a shelf-stable item and I needed a reality check.

Earth to Abi. Come in Abi, come in.

Holy crap, I just ate 42% of my sodium for the day. Sodium aside, Betty Crocker’s Bowl Appetit Cheddar Broccoli Pasta isn’t so bad if you

a) like dehydrated cheese
b) like dehydrated broccoli

While I greatly enjoy dehydrated cheese (or cheese in any form), I cannot claim the same love for dehydrated broccoli. To make matters worse, it isn’t even listed as ‘dehydrated’ on the package. It is ‘dried broccoli’. Nothing says appetizing like some dried vegetables. Why is it that we’re so willing to eat dried fruits, but we don’t go near dried vegetables? I think the reason could be that when you reheat dried broccoli in the microwave, it spreads an otherwordly* odor throughout the office.

*Zombie breath

Price: $2.99
Serving: 1 entree, 255g
Calories: 370
Fat: 23%, 15g
Sodium: 21%, 500mg
Protein: 16g
Carbs: 28%, 85g
Fiber: 16%, 4g

(Veggie but not Vegan)

Amy’s Kitchen says:For those who don’t eat cheese, organic elbow macaroni in a smooth sauce made with soy cheese. Lactose free/no cholesterol.

Heather says:Hmm, what to say about this item? First, let me say that I love macaroni and cheese. But this product is not macaroni and cheese, dear readers. No, for it is made with cheeeezzze. Note the “z.” Ridiculous. What is it with soy and vegan items that cause manufacturers to start throwing around weird apostrophes and silly lettering: ch’kn, cheeze, chreese. I mean, really. We’re adults. Stop trying to fool me into thinking your soy product is something it’s not. Silly spelling makes me think of children’s toys (Bratz, for example) and the language of too-cool-for-the-letter-’s’ teenagers. It does not, however, make me think of socially responsible eating and healthy food.

About the product: For all intents and purposes, it tastes pretty much like standard form frozen mac and cheese, but with an aftertaste that might best be described as-um-soy. Honestly, I wouldn’t buy it again. But if you’re lactose intolerant and are dying for some mediocre frozen macaroni product, you might enjoy it.