Lean Cuisine Chicken Ranch Club Flatbread Melt – Wow, surprising taste!
Written: Jun 28 '08 (Updated Jun 28 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Delicious, flavorful and enjoyable to eat!
Cons: None really, unless you over cook it!
The Bottom Line: This is a tasty flatbread sandwich and will become a favorite of mine!
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| Magick1's Full Review: Lean Cuisine Chicken Ranch Club Flatbread Melts |
What a stunning meal this was. I will start that up front! I was surprised by the taste, the texture and the preparation! The next great surprise was the calories! How can something taste this great and be pretty decent for you? That’s what I want to know.
The Product
This product comes in a box that opens around the length of the box. You will want to take some helpful tips that I will provide when you pack this for lunch sometime! Be sure to pack the box with the top of the box (where the picture of the flatbread sandwich is located) and be careful to keep this upright! The flatbread melt is packed in a flat package (not folded over) to aid in cooking of the meal! If you turn it upside down or sideways, as the day goes on, the toppings can thaw off the flatbread and when you go to prepare it, you will likely be picking up pieces from the wrapper and placing it on the flatbread before cooking it in the microwave. Save some time, pack it carefully in the beginning, and this won’t be a problem!
The cooking instructions are on the bottom of the box, wait until you take your flatbread melt out before trying to read the instructions. It’s fairly easy to prepare, take the flatbread out, find the pieces of plastic where it looks like a tab is and pull those apart. I had a bit of difficulty as these pieces felt very firmly attached! I ended up using scissors. You use the box as a base by flipping the top over and essentially it’s covering the bottom of the box. You put the flatbread on this, microwave it this way for 2 minutes 45 seconds, and you are basically good to go! Let it stand briefly and then fold it in half! I found that 2 minutes 45 seconds was a tad much since my lunch was in a lunch bag with an ice pack for roughly 5 hours and I had to cut back on this time with the others that I have had. It did not make the flatbread terrible, but it did make the edges of the flatbread a bit chewier and harder rather than soft and moist.
There was a nice selection of chicken present on the flatbread along with some delicious tomatoes, onions and cheese! There is also some bacon and ranch sauce included, but they were not overly loaded on this flatbread meal.
This product weighs 6 ˝ ounces. That sounds pretty small, but it was a decent sized meal. This is the only item in this box.
The overall toppings in this flatbread sandwich were great. The toppings were just right, in my opinion. The cheese was very nicely around the flatbread and there were decent pieces of chicken and tomatoes and onions, without anything being too much or too little. The ranch flavor was decent without being too little or too much for my taste buds, which says a lot, as I normally dislike ranch.
The Ingredients
Flatbread (enriched flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], water, soybean oil, isolated oat product, less than 2% of: yeast, glycerine, dough conditioner [guar gum, calcium carbonate, datem, wheat flour, ascorbic acid, enzymes], salt, calcium propionate, sugar, dough conditioner [monoglycerides, calcium sulfate, guar gum, sodium metabisulfite, ascorbic acid], dough conditioner [wheat starch, calcium carbonate, l-cysteiene hcl], whole wheat flour), cooked white meat chicken formed (white meat chicken, water, isolated soy protein, less than 2% of soy lecithin, rice starch, sodium phosphates, salt, glazed with: water, seasoning [modified food starch, salt, dried garlic, spices, dried onion, citric acid, parsley, less than 2% of partially hydrogenated soybean & cottonseed oil], canola oil, maltodextrin, caramel color), reduced fat mozzarella cheese (cultured milk & nonfat milk, modified cornstarch*, salt, vitamin A palmitate, enzymes [*an ingredient not in regular mozzarella cheese[), tomatoes, water, seasoning (nonfat milk, creamer, (sunflower oil, corn syrup solids, sodium caseinate, potassium phosphate), buttermilk [buttermilk, whey, sodium caseinate, lactic acid], modified cornstarch, cream [cream, soy lecithin], whey, buttermilk flavor [maltodextring, lactic acid, modified food starch, vinegar, buttermilk solids], sugar, flavor [salt, maltodextrin, modified food starch, natural flavor (contains sunflower oil, smoke), canola oil], dried garlic, corn syrup solids, yeast extract, potassium chloride, salt, xanthan gum, spice, lactic acid, flavor, soybean oil, parsley), light pasteurized process cheddar cheese (cultured milk, water, potassium citrate, salt, sodium citrate, whey*, sorbic acid, cream, apo cartotenal & beta carotene color, enzymes, sodium phosphate, lactic acid [*ingredient not in regular pasteurized process cheddar cheese]), green onion, bacon (cured with water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite), vinegar.
Contains: milk, soy, wheat ingredients.
Nutrition Facts
This is based upon the standard 2,000 calorie intake for your daily meals. It is also, like the ingredients, taken directly from the box:
Weight Watchers points (if you are watching these point values) measures in with 7 points!
Calories 330 Calories from fat 80
Total Fat 9g or 14%
Saturated Fat 3.5g or 16%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.5g
Monounsaturated Fat 2g
Cholesterol 20mg or 8%
Sodium 640mg or 26%
Potassium 450mg or 13%
Total Carbohydrate 41g or 14%
Dietary Fiber 4g or 17%
Sugars 4g
Protein 21g
Vitamin A 8%
Vitamin C 6%
Calcium 40%
Iron 15%
Overall Impressions
Let me finish up by saying, I never have been a huge ranch dressing person. I don’t loathe it, but I don’t really enjoy it either. If this is the only choice, I chose to go without. I don’t know really what prompted me to buy this meal, since it directly states that ranch is in this meal. But, I did. And, I am very happy that I ventured down another path not normally taken!
This meal is quick and easy to prepare (as are most microwave meals) and it holds a very special honor in being different from a lot of the microwave meals on the market and it tastes GREAT. The flavor is delicious. It does carry a bit of a zip from the onions and the ranch, but it should not overwhelm people. It’s mild enough, yet zippy enough to give you a great lunch with a great flavor that you will enjoy having time and time again.
I was pleasantly surprised by the flatbread in all of my ventures, as it was moist, held together nicely and tastes good. It wasn’t flat, dull or drab and it rounded out the meal quite nicely. If you like to take a taste bud adventure, this might be one ride that you should hop onto quickly, as they are wonderful to eat and I find it hard to find in the stores! They seem to sell these flatbread meals quite quickly in my area. If you try it, I hope you enjoy it, because it is a very nice dish!
~Thanks for spending time with me today!~
Other meals from Lean Cuisine that I have reviewed:
Chicken
Chicken Philly Flatbread
Chicken Chow Mein
Roasted Garlic Chicken
Recommended:
Yes
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