Friday’s Lunch – Tandoori Chicken

On Friday, I had Tandoori Chicken for lunch.  I love a good Indian dish so I figured I’d try this one.  It’s another World Classic so let’s see how it eats.

Tandoori Chicken

The picture on the packet and the Lite ‘n’ Easy website never really grabbed me.  I think the yellow cauliflower turned me off.  I don’t mind cauliflower but the colouring (probably turmeric) doesn’t work for me.

After cooking it in the work microwave for 9 minutes, I get this…

Tandoori Chicken

I reckon they’ve just slapped into much cauliflower.  You can see there’s plenty there.  I don’t know how cucumber freezes but that or capsicum would’ve added a little more variety to dish.  Soy beans… yeah, I can handle that and then there’s some rice.  They have, however, put in a fair amount chicken.

My gripe with this dish is there’s just not enough tandoori sauce.  I know it’s more of a dry curry, but a little more would’ve just made the meal feel more satisfying especially as the tandoori chicken is really just chicken in a a bit of tandoori.  I’ve made something similar before, but I needed to either grill or BBQ the marinade onto the chicken which isn’t the case here.

I’ll give this a 3 out of 5 thumbs.  I’d rather head down to the local Indian restaurant.

 

 

Thursday 7th February’s Dinner – Homestyle Macaroni Cheese

On Thursday the other week, I decided to try the first meat-free dish – Homestyle Macaroni Cheese.  I don’t know, but I’ve always loved meat so I was sceptical but I ended up really impressed with this dish.  If you love cheesy macaroni, you’ll definitely love this one.  Just be aware, it’s not like the four-minute packet macaroni cheese you buy from Colesworth, it’s much more authentic.

Homestyle Macaroni Cheese

After 7 minutes in the Panasonic, this is what comes out…  If I recall, this dish really should’ve been in for another 30 seconds, even on my Panasonic.  Nothing was frozen but the top left was just warm.  It did feel cooked through but I’ll double-check the temperature again next time.

Homestyle Macaroni Cheese

I reckon with minimal styling, some studio lighting and a decent camera and lens, you could easily make the contents of the packet look like what’s on the picture.

Firstly, this has got plenty of cheese.  I don’t know how Lite ‘n’ Easy got so much cheese and sauce into a meal that contains fewer than 2000kj.  There’s plenty of pasta and to just add a little extra flavour, there are three tomato slices.  The tomato cooked OK without going soggy.  Similarly, the pasta was OK except for small warm area. The pasts didn’t go hard as it looks like it’s been covered with all that cheese and sauce.  If you like the flavour of the Kraft stuff, you’ll find this isn’t as salty and hasn’t go that artificial tangy cheese flavour.  I reckon Lite ‘n’ Easy have found a solid recipe and modified it only slightly to suit the concept of delivering frozen meals to households.

Yes, I will get this again but not for the next order.  I will be getting some of the other meat-free dishes.

4 out of 5 thumbs.  Great work.

 

Tuesday 5th of February’s Dinner – Sweet & Sour Chicken

Again, I apologise for the delays in bringing you these taste tests.  However, the other week I had the Sweet & Sour Chicken.  I remember originally I did really want to try this but for the exercise, I ended up ordering this item from Lite ‘n’ Easy’s World Classics range.

Sweet & Sour Chicken

I think the picture on the packet looks quite appetising but after cooking for the recommended 8 minutes, I got this…

Sweet & Sour Chicken

What Lite ‘n’ Easy have got here is a generous portion of what is fried rice on the right.  You can see in the middle is some chicken but there’s also a little more under than sauce.  Overall, it doesn’t too bad.  But I have to pull up the sauce on this review.  It just didn’t taste like sweet ‘n’ sour sauce.  I can’t really describe the flavour but if you’re looking for that rich tang of the sour and the sweet, delicious pineapple flavour, you won’t find it here.  The sauce tastes like savoury-type sauce.  It’s nothing like what you’d find at the local Chinese restaurant.

I feel that maybe I just got a dodgy batch and the cook just forgot to throw in some “tang” or he/she just had a crappy day cooking this batch.  To be fair, what I might do is order this again either this week or next and try again.  Would I get this again otherwise?  Probably not, especially with butter chicken coming out.  I will get the butter chicken this week and check it out.

For the meantime, I’ll give the Sweet & Sour Chicken a 3 out of 5 thumbs.

 

 

A word of warning!

A few days ago, I had the Chicken Enchilada dish again.  Again, it was tasty as ever, but I found a small piece of stone pit from an olive.  I didn’t break any teeth but it could’ve been nasty if I’d bitten down on it.

Just be careful of this one.  It may have been a one-off chance of happening but I am cautiously eating another sample of the chicken enchilada as I type this.  So far, so good.

Chicken Enchilada – seriously a “World Classic”

 

Monday 4th of February’s Lunch – Spaghetti Marinara

The next day at work, I tried the Spaghetti Marinara.  As I’ve said, I’m always wary about seafood but this dish comes through to my liking.  Let’s take a look…

Spaghetti Marinara

You can see the sample image there appears to be heaps of seafood pieces; lots of prawns, lots of whatever.  It’s all there, right?

Spaghetti Marinara after cooking.

You can see it looks more like a spaghetti bolognaise than anything.  I did put this in for a minute more for a total of 8 minutes but it requires only 7 minutes in a decent microwave.

I’m of tow minds on this meal.  On the one hand, there’s plenty of tomato sauce which is rich and generous.  There’s lots of spaghetti pasta.  But on the other, there’s only a few prawns (which would appear to be the frozen ones) and even fewer fish pieces and one or two squid rings.  The squid rings were pretty tender for a frozen meal.  It just needed more.

Overall, definitely one to put back on the list so I give this one 3.5 out of 5 thumbs.

 

Sunday, February the 3rd’s Dinner – Shepherd’s Pie

I apologise for not having put through some more posts on this blog but I haven’t been trying many new dishes recently.  I’ve mainly be going over some of the older ones.  However, back on Sunday the 3rd of February, I decided to try the Shepherd’s Pie.

Here’s what the pack looks like…

Shepherd’s Pie

This looks pretty good so I put this into my microwave oven for the 8 minutes specified.

Shepherd’s Pie

You can see the mash looks more like it’s been groomed like they do down at Perisher.  It doesn’t have the golden colour to it which one would expect.  Also, the mashed potato was cool.  It simply didn’t cook through enough despite feeling hot underneath when I puled the dish out.  I would probably add another 30 seconds to this dish next time.

In this dish, you’ll see a lonely piece of cauliflower, a few pieces of pumpkin and a three-veg mix consisting of beans, peas, and carrot.  This is standard fare and I believe this was cooked through OK.

Overall, there’s plenty of pie but I can’t really score this until I’ve retested it again.  I’ll be placing my order again this week so standby for a retest.