Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers - Grilled Chicken Marinara - Wasteful, but not overly waistful.
Written: Oct 14 '09 (Updated Oct 14 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Tastes pretty good. Not bad, as far as nutrition goes.
Cons: Wasteful, for the environment. Could stand a bit more seasoning.
The Bottom Line: Not a bad lunch when you want something quick & easy. Tastes pretty good, and doesn't kill my diet.
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| ladyconsumer's Full Review: Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Grilled Chicken Marin... |
There are times when I just want to grab a quick lunch, without any fuss. I'd also like those meals to taste good, and to not completely kill my diet. So I've been trying some of the meals from Healthy Choice's Cafe Steamers line. In this case, I'm reviewing their Grilled Chicken Marinara meal.
This meal consists of chicken, pasta tubes, broccoli, cheese, and marinara sauce. I love pasta, with protein and veggies tossed in, so I was intrigued.
I was also intrigued by the cook method. Inside the cardboard box is a "dual tray steamcooker". The sauce is in the bottom portion, which also becomes the bowl from which you eat. The top portion contains all of the food, and acts as a steamer basket. Toss the entire thing into the microwave and the sauce heats, causing steam to rise, which heats the food above. When it's done, lift the steamer basket and pour the food into the sauce. This part is a bit difficult because the food is extremely hot at this point, and grabbing the basket is tricky. There's no handle to lift, you must grab the basket by its sides, and this means your fingers are awfully close to that very hot sauce and food. It also irks me that there's so much material waste with this product. Neither the bowl nor the basket are recyclable where I live; that's a lot to toss away for one lunch!
That minor issue aside, this is a very easy meal to prepare.
Once everything was mixed together, I was fairly impressed. The real deal matched the picture on the package pretty well. I was happy that there was plenty of broccoli, and an adequate amount of sauce and cheese. There were two large pieces of chicken, and one very small piece. I felt the amount of chicken was a bit stingy. At 10 oz. total, the meal is a decent size for lunch, especially if I add a salad or some fruit to my meal. But it certainly wouldn't be enough for a dinner.
The entire meal is one serving, which consists of 270 calories, 4.5g of fat, 550mg of sodium, and 5g of fiber. This is really not bad.
As far as taste goes, I'd call this meal "pretty good". It's not wonderfully delicious, but it's not bad, either. It tastes like your basic cheesy pasta with chicken and broccoli. It's not particularly spicy. The chicken is fairly juicy and tender, and the broccoli tasted fresh - definitely not soggy or overly processed. I guess if I could make one improvement, it would be to add a bit of spice to the marinara sauce. Some pepper, onion, and garlic would go a long way towards making this meal more satisfying. As it stands now, it's a bit bland. Not bad. Just not exciting.
The main ingredients include penne pasta, chicken tenderloin, broccoli, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and parmesan cheese.
Overall, this is a decent choice for lunch. It tastes pretty good, and isn't bad as far as nutrition goes. It's not overly exciting, but for an easy lunch-on-the-go, it's really not bad.
Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers - Sesame Chicken
Recommended:
Yes
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ladyconsumer
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