07/29/2015: Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers General Tso's Spicy Chicken

This is what the box says the meal will look like!

Taste: This meal is full of flavor and is actually almost spicy. It's loaded with red peppers and carrots and peas and there is a lot of chicken, most of which is edible. This is the place for taste!

Cooking: Microwave 4 - 4 1/2 minutes, stir steamed food into sauce bowl.

Filling level: 3.5/5

Nutrition: 290 calories, 3.5 g fat, 16 g protein and 580 mg sodium

This is what the meal actually looks like!

Overall: You'll be hard pressed to find a better Asian chicken and rice meal.  

Grade: A

07/24/2015: Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Kung Pao Chicken

First Impression: Pao!

This is what the box says the meal will look like!

Taste: This dish isn't spicy, but the sauce is very flavorful. There is quite a bit of chicken - hence the 17 g protein - and it's pretty good, although I did run into a texture issue with a couple pieces. Lots of broccoli and red pepper pieces. Tasty!

If you hate water chestnuts - and you should, because water chestnuts are nature's most useless vegetable - I recommend picking these out after cooking before you stir the rice into the sauce. That way, they're slightly easier to spot. 

Cooking: Stick in microwave, cook 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 minutes, stir steamed food into sauce bowl, enjoy.

Filling level: 3/5

Nutrition: 280 calories, 4.5 g fat, 550 mg sodium, 17 g protein

This is what the meal actually looks like!

Overall: This is a good Asian chicken and rice dish. 

Grade: A-

07/21/2015: Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Chicken Fried Rice

First Impression: Smells like eggs.

This is what the box says the meal will look like!

Taste: It's alright! It needs about a gallon of soy sauce to make it taste like real fried rice, but the flavor is nice nonetheless. The edamame is a nice touch. Chicken is plentiful, but the texture is suspect and after biting into a less than desirable piece, I did not eat much more chicken. This had a direct effect on how full I felt, I'm sure.

Cooking: Stick in microwave, cook 4 - 4 1/2 minutes, stir steamed food into sauce bowl, enjoy.

Filling level: 2/5. This could have been slightly higher if I'd been able to choke down more chicken.

Nutrition: 310 calories, 6g fat, 580 mg sodium, 22g protein. Full specs from Healthy Choice.

This is what the meal actually looks like!

Overall: This meal succeeded in making me hungry for real Chinese food, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be snacking all afternoon. Not the worst thing you could eat, but you could do better.

Grade: C

07/20/2015: Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Asian Potstickers

First Impression: Yummo.

This is what the box says the meal will look like!

Taste: Yummo! The potstickers are so stuffed with cellophane noodles and other goodness that you won't even miss the meat. There are four potstickers and a decent amount of rice, which is sprinkled with carrots, peppers and peas and tossed in a tasty sauce.

Cooking: Stick in microwave, cook 4 - 4 1/2 minutes, stir steamed food into sauce bowl, enjoy.

Filling level: 3/5

Nutrition: 330 calories, 3.5 g fat, 560 mg sodium. See what Healthy Choice has to say.

This is what the meal actually looks like!
It ain't pretty, but it tastes damn good.

Overall: I heart this meal. The first time I had it I was 100% convinced that it was going to suck and could not have been any more surprised. It's decently filling and fresh tasting.

Grade: A

07/13/2015: Amy's Mexican Casserole Bowl

This is what the box says the meal will look like!

First Impression: None, really.

Taste: It tastes fine! Cornbread chunks are topped with black beans, corn, olives (allegedly - I detected none) and covered in enchilada sauce and cheese. 

Cooking: Cut 1-inch slit in overwrap, microwave five minutes, enjoy. It heated through pretty thoroughly.

Filling level: 3.5/5

Nutrition: 380 calories, 16 g fat, 780 g sodium. Click here for the full specs from Amy's Kitchen. 

This is what the meal actually looks like!

Overall: This is a fairly tasty dish that is decently filling. There is more fat and sodium than I try to eat in frozen meals, but if it makes you feel satisfied and not running to the vending machine five minutes later you might be willing to make that sacrifice (the American Heart Association recommends consuming fewer than 1500 g of sodium daily, so this is just over half the daily limit). 

Grade: B+