Posts filed under '250cal'
(with gravy and garlic-herb mashed potatoes)
Directions: microwave on HIGH for 3 1/2 minutes, stir, cook for 1 more minute, let stand in microwave
Since when is meatloaf a Bistro selection? I thought it’d be a shoo-in for Comfort Classics.
This is a two-compartment tray. Once side is a meatloaf slice slightly larger than the palm of my hand. The other side is the mashed potatoes with green flecks which I believe are chives. The ingredient list reads like a chemistry lab. And although there are no red pepper chunks, the loaf and the “gravy” have red pepper in it.
The meatloaf has a pleasing spongy texture to it and I swear I taste a tinge of ketchup in it, which reminds me of home. The taters are decent too…a bit flat but the garlicky taste makes up for it. It’s not garlicky enough, though, to be a bad-breath-at-work issue.
Paired with a side salad and some carrots, it filled me up and made me happy. On its own this meal wouldn’t have.
250 calories, 8g fat, 5 POINTS)
June 18th, 2008
(Chicken Breast, Pasta & Broccoli Florets in Marinara Sauce)
Directions: DO NOT PUNCTURE PLASTIC. Microwave on high for 3 min, 15 sec to 4 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes. Remove steamer basket from outer sauce bowl. Stir steamed food into sauce bowl. Dispose of Steamer basket and serve in sauce bowl.
Kim’s warning: The steamer basket is VERY HOT when you pour its contents into the sauce.
Cafe Steamers Week continues!
Four pieces of chicken are steamed to perfection in this dish. And I’m not kidding. They’re hot and tender. I do see thin strings of mozzarella cheese too. Chicken, pasta, cheese and NO red pepper chunks? This is promising.
The gravy (I call spaghetti sauce gravy, shut up) is passably good jar-tasting stuff. I think it picked up a lot of the garlic and black pepper seasoning from the chicken chunks.
I think this is the best frozen dish pasta I’ve had yet. It must be the steaming system, which keeps the pasta (in this case, penne) from sitting in sauce and getting too mushy. The broccoli florets even have a crunch to them!
And it’s filling! Why can’t I make a 250 cal meal with this much stuff in it and it be filling?
I could eat this one again and again. Love, love, love it.
4g fat, 250 cal, 5 POINTS
May 28th, 2008
(barbecue sauce & beef rib tips with oven-roasted potatoes)
(oh, the potatoes feature corn, onion, and RED PEPPER CHUNKS!)
Directions: Cook on HIGH for 4-5 minutes. Let sit in microwave for 1-2 minutes.
There is a group of ladies at work who order out for lunch every single day. They eat at their desks then take their hour lunch to do other things. Sweet deal, huh? Anyway, today someone ordered a barbecue sandwich, and my tummy started grumbling. Luckily I knew I had this dish - part of the “Comfort Classics” collection - at home, so after a nice 4.5 minute wait in front of the microwave, I have my own BBQ lunch!
There are seven chunks of moist and delicious beef in this dish, each about the size of my thumb. The potatoes held up well through the nuking process, but the corn/onion/pepper mixture fell away from the potatoes to the bottom of the tray, where they soaked up the BBQ sauce. I think this tray should have had 2 compartments to it to combat that unholy commingling.
The sauce…is okay. It tastes like your typical Kraft BBQ sauce without any of the fluff. And while it’s a far cry from that BBQ place I went to in Memphis a lifetime ago (Rendezvous?) or even my favorite chain BBQ place, it’s passable for a quick lunch. On second thought, there’s almost too much sauce, even after liberally dipping the seven chunks.
This meal along with the accompanying diet iced green tea beverage in a beer pint glass filled me up! So the hearty garden salad I made up will come to work with me this afternoon as a snack.
More importantly, it knocked out the mild craving I had for BBQ.
5g fat, 250 cal, 5 POINTS
May 13th, 2008