To date, I've written several critiques
covering Salisbury steak offerings from; Healthy Choice (Score = 8),
Lean Gourmet (a 7), Michelina (a not so solid 7) and Banquet (also a
7). Other than price differences, these meals tested as OK to eat,
just nothing to go out of your way for. But, this day, I was going to
sample the offering from Marie Callender and I was looking forward to
the experience!
According to the box - “Marie
Callender's® classic Salisbury steak is worth savoring.
It's topped with a traditional brown gravy, and served alongside
oven-roasted red-skin potatoes. The meal also includes broccoli and
cauliflower smothered in a creamy cheese sauce. “ Sounded pretty
darn good to me. But, then again, every TV dinner I've ever tried
sounded good text-wise! The cost of this meal was $2.99 when I
purchased it at a local grocery store in the Forsyth Missouri area.
I'd eaten this brand before and other than the Healthy Choice series,
found it to be generally acceptable. The problem with the HC offering
is the high cost, even considering you get an upscale nutritional mix
that is generally low in salt.
The directions for preparing this meal
deal were straight forward. You remove the tray from the box, slit
the plastic over the veggies, nuke on high for 4, open and stir the
potatoes, re-close and nuke for another 3 minutes or so. Easy greasy
and just the right degree of difficulty for the slower minded among
us. That'd be me!
After the required amount of time in
the microwave, I sat down to enjoy yet another, in a long line of
frozen TV dinners. A history that began for me in the sixties, was
interrupted for a time after I learned how to cook, and then was
resumed when I became to lazy and too old to want to bother with
preparing really good nutritional foods.
Speaking of nutrition, the label wasn't
too shocking. About 420 calories with a small mountain of salt added
for taste. Salt, you know, is added to a food to help make it more
palatable. (Cave women used it a lot when they served what was, in
effect, rotting meat to their men). Today's modern man or women of
age who eat this stuff are practically begging for a good case of
hypertension....
here's the skinny on the contents; the
potatoes were helped out with a splash of A1 sauce and were OK, the
broccoli and cauliflower veggies in that creamy sauce were actually
pretty good and that Salisbury steak...well it's really not a steak
at all but just plain old meatloaf. Something to put into your mouth
and chew on.
I gave this $3 excursion into the
frozen food wastelands an 8! Hooray! It's one of the best of the lot!
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