Monday’s Dinner – Corned Beef

This is a traditional favourite according to the marketing people at Lite ‘n’ Easy so let’s see if they’re correct.  Monday’s dinner consisted of the corned beef.

A traditional favourite.

This was prepared in my microwave at home so the cooking time of 8 minutes was correct.

Corned Beef

This looks a little suss but trust me, this is the real deal.  As always, they’ve got the meat and vegetables in the familiar layout.  There’s a small scoop of mashed potato up in the top right and heaps of peas and carrots as well as some cauliflower.  I can’t fault any of this – these vegetables are made for freezing.

As you can see, there’s heaps of white sauce so it’s best to use the vegetables and mash to grab all that sauce.  My only complaint with the sauce was that its texture was a little powdery at first.  Mixing it with the other stuff removed that powdery sensation.  It’s not as tangy as the white-sauces I remember but it’s more-or-less balanced.

The gem of the dish, however, is the corned beef.  They’ve slapped in a fair amount and it came out soft and juicy and tasty.  I didn’t think corned beef would freeze but they’ve managed here.

3.5 out of 5 thumbs.  I would get this one again.

 

Monday’s Lunch – Rigatoni Pasta

On Monday I got stuck into the pasta range from Lite ‘n’ Easy and in particular, Rigatoni.

Rigatoni

This looks pretty good on the packet but I did need to cook it in the work microwave for 9 minutes.  Remember, this microwave is pretty rubbish and maybe I overcooked the dish in this instance.  Here’s what came out…

Rigatoni

What I found with this was the pasta that was exposed dried out a little, so you’ll find the bottom pieces and some up the top of the photo have become chewy to an extent.  I won;t hold that against this dish as I porbably cooked it for a little longer than I should’ve.

However, the meatballs were fairly juicy and tender and the tomato sauce wasn’t too sweet so I think they’ve cut the sugar from it.  It was rich and it did have the tomato flavour that doesn’t normally come out of a jar.  I would’ve liked a little more Parmesan cheese.  It looks a little meagre compared to the packet.

I will give this one a go again, but I’ll be more cautious with the cooking time maybe using my home microwave.

3 out of 5 thumbs (but I will retest at some stage).

 

Monday’s Dinner – Sausages with Onion Gravy

For the public holiday today, I decided to crack open the Sausages with Onion Gravy.  I swear I’ve had this one before.

Sausages with Onion Gravy

This one called for 9 minutes and 9 minutes was all it took.

Sausages with Onion Gravy

Now we’re talking.  There’s sausages, mashed potato pumpkin and peas.  There’s a also a piece or two of cauliflower.  In this instance, the peas failed the test.  They tasted chalky and had a powdery texture.  This is a first so I would let this slide.  Maybe the suppliers of peas had a bad season.  The pumpkin was a little squishy but acceptable.  The mash was tip-top and worked well with the gravy.  The gravy was just the standard offering with some onions it but it still tastes hearty and beefy.  There were three sausages included just like the picture on the pack.

The sausages felt they were down with something.  They weren’t 100% beef and looking at the pack, it appears I was right.  There’s sausage meal in there.  I guess it’s some sort of extender.  In any case, they were alright but I hope the sausage meal is more to cutr calories than to cut costs.

Give it a go but don’t expect snags like what you’d get off the barbie in this dish.

3.5 out of 5 thumbs.

 

Australia Day Dinner – Chicken & Satay Sauce

Australia Day was Saturday the 26th.  Unfortunately, my dietary intake on this day was not really my most healthiest.  I headed down to the Kiama Show and got stuck into a sausage sandwich for breakfast.  Morning tea consisted of a Dagwood Dog and a beer.  Lunch consisted of the same.  After lunch, I made my way to the bowlo to meet up with a mate so there were plenty of beers and also half a pizza consumed that afternoon.

I don’t remember what time I got home but I decided to crack open a Chicken & Satay Sauce meal.

Chicken & Satay Sauce

I can tell you, this looks pretty tasty and really healthy after a day of eating and drinking crap.  After 8 minutes in the microwave, I peeled back the lid and got this…

Chicken & Satay Sauce

Hmm.  There ain’t much sauce there but I reckon to keep the kilojoules down, they’ve had to crack down on the sauce.  Still, the sauce did have a mild peanut flavour and had the consistency you’d expect.  There’s plenty of stir-fry vegetables included and the chicken was cooked through perfectly.

Overall, I was pleased with this dish but it didn’t knock my socks off.  I reckon this would be better suited to a lunch meal.

3 out 5 thumbs.  I probably would get it again but with so many other dishes to choose from, this sits a little lower on my list of favourites.

 

Friday’s Dinner – Crumbed Fish

With the Australia Day long weekend, I haven’t had much of chance to post.  So here I am to catch up on a few of the dishes I’ve had over the weekend.

Friday night it was crumbed fish.

Lite ‘n’ Easy’s Crumbed Fish

This meal called for 7 minutes in the microwave and it came out pretty much spot-on.

Lite ‘n’ Easy’s Crumbed Fish after cooking.

I’ve got to admit, this doesn’t look that appetising – there’s a bunch of beans and some corn pieces and a a generous amount of potato wedges.  As I feared, they had no crunch so I would like to try this in a conventional oven at some stage.  The fish didn’t fare much better.  It was sitting on some beans and corn which made the crumbs on the underside side soggy.  The top side wasn’t much better.  However, I do like the crumb flavour – it has a buttery flavour to it but the texture doesn’t do too well coming out of the microwave.

This piece of fish itself was almost undetectable.  The fish flesh had not flavour and the crumbing felt a little too much for the size of fish there.  I would definitely like a thicker piece of fish.  Some of the fish had dried during cooking process making its texture like cardboard.  I reckon a little bit of tartare sauce would’ve spiced the dish up considerably.

I don’t see myself ordering this one again unless I was to try using the conventional oven.  It reminded me of a fish ‘n’ chips dinner I had on a CountryLink train to Canberra one Friday night but I reckon that was better than this offering.  As I’ve said earlier, I like my seafood but I’m really picky when it comes to how it’s been cooked.

2.5 out 5 thumbs.  Give it a go but maybe try a regular oven.

 

Thursday’s Lunch – Salt & Pepper Chicken

Thursday at work, I cracked open the Salt & Pepper Chicken.

Salt & Pepper Chicken

I think I did leave this in the work microwave for 9 minutes.  This is what came out…

Salt & Pepper Chicken

The rice was cooked to perfection so I’ll gloss over that.  The stir-fry veggies were varied and seemed fairly fresh.  There’s water chestnut in there which remained crispy, however, there’s only a couple of pieces.

As I look at the photo, I now realise there’s celery in there.  As I’ve said before, I believe celery should be classified as a noxious weed and eradicated.  However, in this instance, it didn’t particularly faze me.

I would’ve loved more chicken pieces – it was cooked well.  It was soft but not mushy.

Now the sauce is a little strange.  I didn’t pick up on the salt flavour.  The pepper flavour came through and to cut that down was a sweeter, ginger flavour.  It had a spicy heat from chilli to it but it wasn’t too powerful.

I might get this again, but it won’t be in the top ten.

3 out of 5 thumbs.

 

Wednesday’s Dinner – Meatloaf

Like a bat outta hell, I got home and promptly threw this meal into the microwave.

No, it’s not the singer.

The packet states 9 minutes and this was spot-on despite a similar layout to another meal that had cold mash.

Meatloaf after cooking for 9 minutes.

There’s the standard array of peas and carrots and what-not as well as a scoop of mashed potato.  This was cooked through completely.

There’s plenty of gravy and it’s full of flavour so make sure you use the mash to get that sauce.  The gravy conceals a couple of slices of meatloaf.  However, the meatloaf is not what you’re probably used to.  This has a tofu-like texture.  It doesn’t have the minced-beef sort of consistency of a meatloaf I’m used to.  The good news is it didn’t have a saw-dust texture!

Yeah, I could take it or leave it.  Would I order it again?  If my next order is 5- or 7-dinner order, then probably not.  There are other dishes better than this I’d order first.  But it’s better than some other dishes.

3 out of 5 thumbs.

 

Tuesday’s Dinner – Beef With Red Wine & Mushroom

After my delicious lunch, I decided to try the Beef With Red Wine & Mushroom.  It was good.

Beef With Red Wine & Mushroom

Now the pack says to cook for 8 minutes and I’ve had pretty spot-on results in my home microwave but when I opened it, this is what I got:

Beef With Red Wine & Mushroom

Essentially, everything was cooked perfectly by the microwave except just a little of the mash potato which can be seen in the top right was a little cold.  I did do the ol’ feel-n-peel and it did feel quite hot underneath.  Maybe this just needs another 15 seconds or so.

But aside from that, there was plenty of beef and mushroom and if you’ve ever cooked something like this, you’ll find the flavour of the sauce has that deep, rich beefy taste.  The sauce is plentiful so make sure you use the mashed potato to its full potential.  The beans and carrots can also be used to pick up the sauce.  It’s thick enough.  The sauce wasn’t overly salty and I have seen beef and red wine recipes that need a ton of salt.  I don’t add much salt to my food so this tasted right to me.

To be honest, I could make this at home and freeze it but for convenience, you can’t beat it.  I will get this again and try a slightly longer time in the microwave.

3.5 outta 5 thumbs.

 

Tuesday’s Lunch – Braised Chicken & Almonds

I’ll keep this short.  Place this meal on your next order.  It’s that simple.

Braised Chicken & Almonds

When I looked at the packaging, I thought “oh no, it’s got celery in it”.  I hate celery.  I mean, it is crap.  It should be classified a weed.

Anyway, I had to place this in the work microwave for 10 minutes neat.

Here’s what I got.

Braised Chicken & Almonds

The rice was perfectly cooked and came with a few peas and some scrambled-egg pieces.  Nice.

Then there’s the meat.  There’s plenty of chicken pieces which are perfectly cooked through also.  As the pack indicates, the chicken is braised so it too has the soft texture like the steak from the other day.  But the sauce that accompanies the chicken is what makes this dish come alive.  It is sticky, it’s sweet but has the nutty flavour of the almonds and there’s baby corn in there as well and what celery?  I may have eaten it but I certainly didn’t notice.  The rich sauce masked all the evils of celery in this dish.  There are other bits and pieces in there that really make this a top dish like carrot, bamboo strips, and almonds.  This has to be one on the best balanced dishes I’ve tried from Lite ‘n’ Easy.  When you mush the rice through the sauce, I guarantee you’ll love this.  It’s not bland and not over-the-top.  The closest I could describe this dish as is like the local Chinese cashew chicken (but without the cashew).  You’ll recognise the sauce from those Chinese take-away days.

4.5 out of 5 thumbs.  End of interview.

 

Monday’s Dinner – Steak With Creamy Mushroom Sauce

So last night I pulled out the Steak With Creamy Mushroom Sauce meal and was pretty impressed.  But I bet you I know how they made the steak so soft.

Steak With Creamy Mushroom Sauce

After 7 minutes, this is what I get:

Steak With Creamy Mushroom Sauce

As you will see, there’s plenty of carrots and beans and some potato wedges.  As always, they came out soft so I would like to try the oven method one time.

Then there’s the steak; it’s covered with heaps of mushroom sauce with actual mushroom pieces in it.  The sauce was fairly thick but wasn’t as rich as I would get at my local near where I work.

However, the steak was cooked through and I would bet they’ve braised it.  It was cooked pretty much medium well and was really soft.  Whereas my steaks I cook on the BBQ usually remind me of old boot soles, this was pretty soft and juicy.  It’s a decent sized piece of cow as well.

So this one’s a meal I’d definitely get again.  4 out of 5 thumbs.