Critique: Banquest's Salisbury Steak Meal circa 2017!

It took me quite some time before I came to the realization that TV dinners actually evolved and changed. What existed in 2015 was not what was offered in 2017! Only the price of $1.29 seemed to remain somewhat constant.

One of the changes was the masked potatoes, or what I would better describe as baby vomit. The texture was wrong and the taste a bit on the grainy side. Not cool.Even repeated nuking in the microwave did not improve that mush. Likewise, I never got a good look at the Salisbury steak as it was covered by an annealed mass of sauce. But, unlike the mashed potatoes, it tasted OK.

Gag me, totally!

On the better side of things, the corn tasted like corn (duh) with the desert being the real star of an otherwise very disappointing late afternoon encounter. Other insults that came from this 350 calorie mess were the extremely high doses of saturated fats (23%) and the completely insane load of sodium at 1340 milligrams. (Were I a much younger man sponging off of poor parents, and that was all they could afford, I could live with it. But, as an older and hopefully smarter person, I elected to dump most of it into the trash...).

I scored this a 3 on a scale of 10 and would not recommend it... well, maybe I would to my enemies.

Critique: Banquet's Zesty Smothered Charbroiled Patty Meal! Fail!

(Hence forth, this meal will be referred to as ZSCPM by moi) – Or hey! What ya want for a buck a meal deal?

Seriously I fully understand that producing anything that looks remotely like an American dinner for a buck is a challenge in mid 2015. [A time in my country's life that has seen a progressives party best efforts at killing the best country in the the world over a seven year period].... Seems more like a hundred years to me...

And, I suspect that even as I endured this strange form of culinary rape, by willingly indulging in what was an obvious assault on sensible nutrition - That there were possibly tens of thousands of other unfortunates in similar circumstances. All of us, sitting at our homes, dully watching TV and eating certifiable crap on a hot day in August... Where, I wondered was that 'champion of all things good to eat' – the formerly vocal Ms Obama? Scored it a 3, and that was being kind.

Critique: Stouffer's stuffed Pepper entree!

At $4.65, I felt that I had really splurged when I bought what had always been a favorite in days gone by. The packaging looked just the way my homemade peppers looked when I made this recipe from scratch! At just 150 calories per serving, it sure seemed to be a good deal. Even the microwave instructions were a breeze – cut a slit in the plastic cover and nuke for thirteen minutes on high.

That said, this meal did not meet with my expectations, not by a country mile. The pepper was mushy, the meat and rice filling tasteless and that sauce – what what the hell was that? Suffice it to say that I was not pleased. I gave this creation a 3 on a scale of 10. Avoid it and make you own at home! For a hint of what the real thing is like, please check out my post on Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers!