Critique: The shrinking Smart Ones Salisbury Steak meal!

This must be the sixth or seventh Salisbury Steak  entree offering that I've critiqued over the last few years. Why I missed this one from Smart Ones is beyond my understanding, so today I am making amends!

This meal came with mac and cheese, so it was a shoo-in at $2.79, (in 2016 I got it for $2 on sale). As one of the Weight Watcher's group of meals, I figured I was making a pretty smart choice!

At just 270 calories per meal deal, I was very tempted to add a side or two to sort of 'round out' the total eating experience. [But, then I realized that I'd already been doing that for some time. One look at my expanding waistline was enough to dissuade me.... this time]. Note also, that by 2016, the meal was just 250 calories... hmm.. the portions must have shrunk!

Preparation was actually pretty straightforward. I've found, from experience, that the smaller the box, the more likely it will be to prepare without much mental effort on my part. I like the smaller boxes a lot for that very reason!

The instructions indicated this to be a 'peel back the corner' class of meal. You peel one corner, nuke it for four and a half minutes, pry open that corner even more so you can stir the contents and then nuke again for about another minute and a half! See! Easy! No mental ability required. That was right down my performance envelope alley!

I got through the requested microwave operations, while pouring myself a glass of ice water. In a few minutes I had an appetizing abet small meal sitting invitingly in front of me at the table.

The Salisbury steak tasted a lot like meatloaf, something I've found to be true in other labeled products by the same name. The mac and cheese was also a real savior because who doesn't love mac and cheese! I gave this meal a sold 7 on a scale of ten and hope to enjoy these more often. Now, I only had 14 hours to go before breakfast..... arrgh!

Update: May 2016 - Circa fast forward and now this meal deal is in separate compartments! So, on one side were the noodles and the other was the 'steak'... My initial take - the cheese side +5, the 'steak' -4. The cheese mac tasted like it should have, while that steak think.. I wasn't sure what the fuck it was... a hard version of a meatloaf? OK, at the sale price of only $2 it was still a pretty good deal. and I found that a breaking up a slice of white bread to use as a sop for the leftover gravy made for a most excellent finish!

Critique: Marie Callender's Salisbury Steak!

To date, I've written 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 what's historically been 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, just depressing. About 420 calories with a small

mountain (1100 mg) 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 a solid 7. Maybe I'll go back to cooking my food again from scratch...

Critique: Banquet's Chicken Fried Chicken Meal!

I'm very surprised that over the past few years of critiquing Banquets cheat meals, that somehow I'd missed one!

This vintage offering from the folks at Banquet costs about a buck in early 2015 and thus makes it very eligible for someone on a limited food budget such as myself. Seriously! What can you buy for a buck these days? (I stopped at a small convenience store recently and could not find anything other than a local paper for less than a buck – and you can't eat that)!

Inside the box, I noticed you get some chicken (a thigh?) in a white gravy sauce, mashed potatoes and some corn! A mix that reminded me of dinner while growing up on a farm in Central Missouri back in the 50's – only everything back then was very fresh and had zero preservatives. Hell, the chicken was still moving! These days, I guess you have to give up some things in order to live in the wonderful techno-gizmo world of today – like freshness! And, anyway, how could all those chemicals they use to preserve food be bad for you? Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate is an ingredient in this meal and it certainly sounds interesting, doesn't it? After all, the EPA backs these companies and we all know the EPA is like some super mom whose only reason for existence is to protect and nurture her slightly retarded children. The fact that scientific findings that are now becoming well established and indicate a diet of processed food is a certain ticket to all sorts of cancer, while troubling to ponder, just cannot be true – after all, your government wouldn't intentionally lie to you or hurt you, now would they?

So, in spite of some questionable risks, I elected to pop one of these little 340 calorie beauties into my microwave oven. After all, what choice did I have? I was hungry! The directions on the box were pretty easy. All you had to do was to cut the plastic cover from over the potatoes, nuke it on high for 3, stir them pertaters and the nuke it again for another 3 minutes. (Man, If I had a nickel for all the meals I've prepared that same exact way)! Ding ding sing – the sumptuous chicken repast was ready and I dug right in!

OK, so the loads of salt (910 mg) probably did help to make the meal tasty – after all we humans crave salt so much that most anything tastes better when it saturated with good ol' NaCl. The fact that a high salt intake, over time, is directly linked to hypertension and heart disease is not germane to the taste conversation we're having right at this point! I enjoyed the experience and damn the consequences!

I gave this a solid 7 on a scale of 10 and would recommend that any of my non-friends stock up and eat them often!

Critique: Tony's Supreme Crispy Crust Pizza for One!

In general, my experiences with so-called 'single' servings of pizza have not gone very well (see my critique on Freschetta pizza). Those little boxed items, found in the freezer section of many grocery markets, are oftentimes an impulse purchase for me. (This is especially if you happen to be an old bachelor who is looking for a 'quickie' meal that incorporates some form of junk food, which is the best food there is, in my view)!

As I had never tried a Tony's pizza before, I was looking forward to the experience. At a cost of only a buck on sale, this 221 gram meal still manages to pack a hefty 500 calories! And, if you guessed that it's also loaded with fat, you'd be right on the money!

Preparation is not the simple sort of deal I would have liked. You have to heat your oven up to 400F, then place the pizza on a rack for 16-18 minutes. This would normally turn me off, as I would rather do a quick nuke-it and eat-it meal, instead. My other objection was a nutritional one – the sodium content was at 930 mg! (That's a warning signal – in general the more salt added the less tasty the product would be without it)!

So, with those cravats in mind, I 'did the time', removed it from the oven, snapped a picture and then dug on in.....

Well, my first impression was 'not too bad'. The crust was crispy, as advertised, and the toppings were cooked and pleasant to the taste. The sauce they use was tangy and good, also. My only complaint was I felt that their crust was a bit too crispy for my tastes. Other than that, I gave it a 7 on a scale of ten. It would have scored higher if they could find a way to cut back on the salt a bit!

Note: For young children, this could easily be a pizza for two!

Critique: Michelina's Fried Chicken Fritter

I'm a real sucker for any TV dinner (no matter how minuscule it might be) that can be had for just a buck, so I sprang a moldy dollar out of my wallet and bought one! I was a little concerned about that word 'fritter', however and so looked it up as soon as I got home...

Fritter – def: a small piece of food that has been coated in a flour and egg mixture and fried.

Well gee, that didn't sound too bad! Although, that word 'small' concerned me to some extent. At just 227 grams for the entire meal, including the mashed potatoes, I had the distinct impression that my culinary brush with poultry would be somewhat fleeting! Also, the nutritional panel indicates the meal is practically swimming in salt! Twelve hundred milligrams is about half the recommended daily intake, and that's for a young healthy adult! The other parameters didn't bother me so much and the measly 310 calories for the whole meal indicated that I might need to supplement it with some sort of side dish.

Like many meals of similar elk from Michelina, this is a peel the edge up, nuke, stir and nuke again meal to prepare. The stir part is the potatoes and occurs after 3 ½ minutes on high – then you nuke it again for another minute and a half. Not to difficult. I just wish they could figure out how to sell mashed potatoes that don't require the mixing.

Commercial picture. Well, it looks pretty decent!

My amateur picture!

For a side, I elected to add a small amount of green beans, mostly for added bulk. I then compared my preparation against the commercial picture they have on their web page. Hmmm...

Comments posted on their site were few with most saying that while the flavor was rated as good, some felt that the portion was too small while others felt the salt was an issue also. How did I feel about this dollar dish? I gave it a 7 as I thought it was fairly tasty! But, I really felt that this might be better served to really young kids. There's just not enough there to satisfy even a smallish adult!

Critique: Chicken Alfredo Florentine entree!

This frozen TV dinner style entree by the Michelina folks is one of their 'Lean Gourmet' meal a deals with pasta and chicken swimming bravely in a 'creamy Alfredo sauce' amongst bits of floating spinach.

Any dish with the moniker 'Alfredo' as part of the name is traditionally a pasta dish made from fettuccine pasta tossed with Parmesan cheese and butter, which all sounds pretty good, right? So, it was with no small amount of eagerness that I took this entree out of my freezer and inspected the microwave preparation instructions. They were pretty basic; just lift up a corner to vent, nuke on high for three minutes, then remove and stir the contents. Finally, cover it again (harder to do than it sounds by the way) and heat for an additional 1 to 1 ½ minutes! Easy greasy for a 260 calorie part of a complete meal!

Here's a serving hint! Make sure that you scoop out the contents and place them on a plate with some other more interesting sides; say like green beans and toast, for instance. (This will go a long way to diverting your attention from something that looks a lot like vomit).

Ding! The meal is ready!

So, here is what everything looked like when it came serving time. The sides really do help to make it more appealing and it still came in at just a tad over 500 calories! I felt that the initial nutritional information for the entree was augmented in a more positive direction by the green beans and toast. Other than the sky high sodium content, this meal wasn't all that bad – (just as long as you

can purchase it on sale like it did)! I gave the entree, itself, a score of 7 while the add-ons pushed up the overall experience to a solid 8!

The bottom line...

Meals like this one from Michelina are pretty much a dime a dozen. They are the frozen counterpart to some of the fast foods that will also kill you over time, if you make them part of your regular diet. Still, what with food prices for fresh produce, fruits and meat going through the roof under the Obama Administration, many of us have little, if any, choice.

Critique: Banquet’s Charbroiled Patty meal!

Back in March of 2011, I did a review of Banquet’s Zesty Smothered Charbroiled Patty Meal which also included some meat, potatoes and corn. This version (from the darker side), has substituted pasta noodles swimming in a dull brown gravy. Still costs only a buck, though, even in 2015!

This meal, at 227 grams, is comparable to the 2011 version by weight and the meat was also about the same size (and taste). This meal deal, however, was by no means either zesty or really smothered by anything more than a salt-loaded brown 'gravy'. (Perhaps it’s a recent casualty of the new ‘change’ our President has been talking so much about).

Nutritionally, you’re getting 310 calories, 26% of your daily fat, 40% of sodium and close to a 20% dose of cholesterol. A real winner, this one. Eat enough of these meal a deals and you’ll wind up on a cold slab in some morgue someplace. Other than that sobering news, this is not a bad dalliance if you happen to be starving. I actually liked the taste of the mix of pork and machine separated turkey mixed in chemicals and found the pasta to be just right. I gave it a 7 on overall taste and a -2 on healthy eating. Still, it’s only a buck man! I did think to try and improve the appearance of this meal by moving it to a regular plate and by adding a slice of toast!

Critique: Aunt Jemima's scrambled egg entree!

For a couple of bucks you get granular eggs, mushy hash browns and a couple of limp bacon strips! So, what’s not to love?

This 149 gram entrée from the folks at Quaker Oats would not seem that appetizing at first glance. It’s also a nutritionally challenged meal coming in at 310 calories of which 200 of those calories are derived from fat! To add misery to madness, the cholesterol does is 92% of the daily recommended allowance for an average person and there’s enough salt present (36%) to make you crave a glass of water afterwards. And don’t even get me started on the saturated fat content of this little puppy….

So, why do I buy and eat junk food like this? Call me crazy or perhaps just a bit off center, but this stuff does really taste pretty darn gooood!

Maybe it’s the fat content and maybe it all that salt. Whatever the reason, I like to make Aunt Jemima part of my breakfast plans one or twice a month. I scored this a solid 7 on a scale of 10. (The score would have been higher, but hey - this stuff will kill you)!

Critique: Healthy Choice Lemon Herb Chicken

I figured it was high time for a change in the manner in which I score and rate frozen TV dinners! It suddenly came to me that the way I was going about things before were ambiguous in terms of sidestepping the truly important issues; that being the taste, smell, texture and overall appearance of the meal in question. So, from now on, I’ll drop the cost and package art scores from the scoring panel (which no one gave a rat’s ass about anyway)!

Today, I will be savoring, devouring and otherwise rending apart, the hoped for goodness of a creation from the folks at Healthy Choice! This time the lucky winner (and focus of my culinary lust) is an entrée by the name of Lemon Herb Chicken! According to the HC site, this meal consists of ‘tasty chicken tenderloins are prepared in a savory herb lemon-Chardonnay sauce and are mixed with firm whole-grain pasta, juicy cherry tomatoes, and succulent green beans!’ Wow! Now, who could resist that? They then go on to tell me that I will be ingesting only 210 calories. (Hold up a minute! The box plainly states 200 calories. Well, perhaps it’s just a misprint…)

Upon opening the package I had a strange discovery – whole frozen cherry tomatoes. Why golly gee, how Californ-i-a is that? Upon reflection, this whole meal deal does reek of all things San Francisco! (For some reason the tune, ‘Do you know the way to San Jose? I’ve been away so long…’ popped in my head) Well, it was a great song, so maybe this entree will be too! (Feel free and play the song by Diane Warwick on another tab while reading the rest of this mess)!

Nutritionally, I’ll score one for the owner of the company as he has lead the charge to keep the sodium levels down in this line of products! This one comes in at only 480 mg. Awesome! As I mentioned earlier, the calories are good to go at just 200 and both the cholesterol and carbohydrates are very low! From this standpoint, what we have here is a ‘diet quality meal’! See that my jelly belly – I’m looking out for ya! (My belly promptly rumbled in what I will assume was an affirmative response). Now, on to the scoring:

Category                    Score                              Comments

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Appearance:                  6                Lots of veggies complete with eyeball tomatoes!

Smell:                            7                Mildly appealing! Fresh, at any rate!

Texture:                          8                I was somewhat surprised! Pasta was al dente!

Taste:                             8                Much better than I was hoping for! It's da sauce!

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Average:                        7.25           Good taste at a fair price! Go out and buy some!

Seeing as how you can prepare this meal (and others like it in the line) in just about four minutes in a microwave, justifies it as a good bet for a low calorie lunch candidate at work! I plan on keeping a few in my fridge at home also.


Disclaimer: All content in this post is the sole opinion of the author and may not reflect that of other readers.