Month: August 2008

Microwavable, in the container soup.  The specimen today is Progresso Minestrone.  Which is a Betty Crocker product.

Serving size is 15.x ounces, of which 14.x ounces is broth/water, so it’s not all that filling.    This isn’t a Chunky soup, so maybe my view is a little skewed.  If this is all you have you’ll still be hungry.

Would I eat this again?  If I had too, it’s not my favorite.  But I’d certainly eat it before I’d skip it.  I would willingly try other flavors in the future though.   This small thing of soup contains 930mg of Sodium, which seems like a lot to me.

Progresso Minestrone Soup

Category	Rating (1-10) with 10 being the best.	Notes
Portion Size	6	Overall a decent portion size.  But could be a little better.
Portability	9	Fits fairly well in a small soft sided thermal lunch box.  You still have room for snacks and what-not.  Nice and compact.
Cookability	9	The time indicated on the box is spot on.  2 Minutes to soup.
Preparation	9	Drop dead simple, pull the lid off, open the can, replace lid.  Zap.  Lid keeps the stuff from blowing up in the Microwave.
Food Quality *Taste*	6	I realize taste is subjective, and if you didn’t like Minestrone you wouldn’t buy this.  For me the taste was simply OK.
Over ALL Score	42	out of a possible 50 isn’t just barely tolerable.

These all-in-one meals are tough.   Remove the covering from the ‘desert’, slitting the covering over the meal and/or veggies as required.

They never cook right.  With Healthy Choice meals the desert is always cooked to death to get the main portion cooked right.  Cooking inconsistencies aside, this isn’t too bad.  Would I eat it again?  Sure.

Healthy Choice – Meatloaf

Category	Rating (1-10) with 10 being the best.	Notes
Portion Size	7	Overall a decent portion size.  But could be a little better.
Portability	7	Fits fairly well in a small soft sided thermal lunch box.  You still have room for snacks and what-not.
Cookability	7	The time indicated on the box is spot on for the main course and veggies.  Ruins the desert though.
Preparation	7	Remove covering from desert, slit over meal and veggies.   Removing the covering from the desert whilst not breaking the seal on the other compartments is easier said than done.
Food Quality *Taste*	7	I realize taste is subjective, the meatloaf is better than some cafeteria meatloaf I’ve had in the past.  There is certainly cause for speculation that this might not actually be meat.  It’s still edible though and that’s a plus.  Veggies are usually good with these meals.  Desert, is burnt apple mush.
Over ALL Score	35	out of a possible 50 isn’t just barely tolerable.

So a while back I wrote about my efforts to lose weight.   Nothing super fancy, more like fixing my diet and eating ‘more right’.  That primarily includes:

Eating breakfast, which makes you hungry for lunch and then not skipping lunch, and then snacking when you’re hungry on good stuff.    Basically getting your metabolism going and no longer starving yourself so your body stores everything it eats.

So far this is working for me.   Its had its up and it’s downs though, Primarily in the ‘Lunch Category’.

When possible, Claudine packs me a lunch of good home-made stuff, a turkey sandwich or a pork roast sandwich.  But when she’s busy, or we haven’t eaten anything the night before that I care to eat again, I get one of those ‘package lunches’.

So far we’ve tried numerous things and I will eventually get around to rating them all so you don’t have to suffer as I have.

First up is the Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers…

Far and away these are the most consistent cooking of all the microwave lunch in-a-box type meals.  There is a reasonable portion, and most of them taste pretty good to boot.  

I’ve had the Beef Merlot, Cajun Style Chicken & Shrimp, and the Grilled Whiskey Steak.

They so far have been the only meal that you put in the microwave for the indicated time and they actually cook properly.

So here’s how I’m going to rate this stuff on a scale from 1-10.

Cafe Steamers (only applicable to the 3 that I’ve tried thus far).

Category	Rating (1-10) with 10 being the best.	Notes
Portion Size	8	Overall a decent portion size.
Portability	8	Fits easily in a small soft sided thermal lunch box.  You still have room for snacks and what-not.
Cookability	10	The time indicated on the box is spot on, in the different microwaves I’ve used.  Very Consistent
Preparation	9	Drop dead simple to cook, open the box, put it in the Microwave.  No poking, or slicing.  When done peel of the top, dump the food into the sauce and eat.  Comes with it’s own bowl*
Food Quality *Taste*	9	So far all have tasted great or better than expected.  I realize taste is subjective, but this is good stuff.  The quality of the meat has been good too, no hard rubbery steak, etc.
Over ALL Score	44	out of a possible 50 isn’t too bad.