Category: Lunch Reviews

Cafe Steamers so far are my favorite heat and eat meal.  The General TSO chicken is right up there with the rest.

You don’t get a lot of chicken, but the portion size is similar to the rest.  It’s not immediately spicy but does have a bit of a kick after the fact.

If you like General TSO Chicken then you’ll probably like this.   It cooks fast too, 4 minutes as opposed to 5-6 for most other meals.

Would definitely eat again.

Cafe Steamers (General TSO Spicy Chicken

Category	Rating (1-10) with 10 being the best.	Notes
Portion Size	7	Overall a decent portion size, though not a lot of chicken, this serving had 4 whole pieces.
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	Actually better than expected.
Over ALL Score	43	out of a possible 50 isn’t too bad.

Today’s lunch is South Beach Meat Loaf.

This is your standard 2-item heat and eat meal.   Preparation is simple, pull that sucker out of the box and zap it.   No cutting, poking, slicing or venting required.

The depth of the tray would lead you to believe you’re getting more to eat than you are.   You’d also think given the depth, they’d be able to keep the veggies where they belong. 

Taste is OK, but not great, portion size is deceiving.  I’m not sure what this costs but I’d pick the Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine over these meals.

South Beach Living Meat Loaf and Green Beans

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	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.  5 Minutes to Lunch.
Preparation	9	Drop dead simple, just cook it.
Food Quality *Taste*	6	I realize taste is subjective, but the meat was rather bland.
Over ALL Score	40	out of a possible 50 isn’t just barely tolerable.

The specimen today is Healthy Choice Beef Pot Roast (Meal). 

These Healthy Choice meals tend to be pretty good.  This one isn’t any different.  Cook-ability and the burning of the desert remains an issue with these meals.  Other than that, they are good to go.

Healthy Choice – Beef Pot Roast

Category	Rating (1-10) with 10 being the best.	Notes
Portion Size	8	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	8	The time indicated on the box is spot on.  2 Minutes to soup.
Preparation	8	Peel cover over this, slice over that…  Pfft, again the desert was cooked to a burnt rubbery crisp.
Food Quality *Taste*	8	I realize taste is subjective, but these meals are generally pretty good.
Over ALL Score	41	out of a possible 50 isn’t too bad.

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.