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.

 

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.