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.

 

 

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.

 

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).

 

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.

 

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 Lunch – Porcupines in Tomato Sauce

I had a Porcupines in Tomato Sauce meal in the freezer at work so I just cooked this one up.

First, a word about our microwave.  This is the crappy microwave we have at work.  I always need to add 1 minute to 90 seconds on top of the required cooking time.

God knows where we got this thing from

So this is the pack I pulled from our freezer at work…

Porcupines in Tomato Sauce

After 9 minutes in our crappy oven, I’m confident the meal is cooked through.  Here’s how it turns out…

Porcupines in Tomato Sauce

OK, at the risk of disappointing those expecting a dish filled with porcupine, I can confirm that there is no porcupine present.  What there is is carrot, peas, mashed potato and beef balls that are mixed with cooked rice.  There’s also a tomato sauce which doesn’t taste like it’s been sweetened.

Yeah, this dish is alright.  You can’t really go wrong on this one.  It won’t make a menu item at The Fat Duck but it’s good for a quick dinner.

3.5 outta 5 thumbs.

 

Saturday’s Lunch – Spaghetti Bolognaise

It was a little rainy here where I live so I wasn’t too fussed heading outdoors for my lunch.  Instead, I cracked open a spaghetti bolognaise meal.

The good ol’ spag-bol.

What can I say?  This is a pretty standard meal that everyone should love.  You really can’t get it wrong.

After 8 minutes in the Panasonic, this is what I got…

Spag-bol after 8 minutes

There’s plenty of bolognaise sauce and the bottom layer is spaghetti strands.  There’s a sprinkling of cheese to top it off.

Firstly, I felt the spaghetti was a little soft but I do prefer a firmer pasta.  However, the sauce was pretty meaty and rich.  As I said, you really can’t this dish wrong.

I would get it again, but really, this could be made quickly and easily in the kitchen.  It’s a no-nonsense dish that everyone will enjoy.  3.5 thumbs out of 5.

 

Today’s Lunch – Curried Beef Sausage (Wednesday)

For lunch today I decided between the Porcupines or the Curried Beef Sausage.  The sausages won. I’ve never had this one before because I thought I wouldn’t like curried sausage but, as per usual, I was surprised in how tasty it was.  Here is the skinny on the sausage.

119 Curried Beef Sausage

 

The dish called for 9 minutes in the microwave but I stuck it in for 10 minutes neat.  It came out perfectly heated through and after removing the lid, I found this…

119 Curried Beef Sausage

The curry sauce had a much richer yellow colour than it appears in this photo taken with my Nokia Lumia 920.  I think it must be turmeric or something like that.  The sauce was not overpowering and it certainly wasn’t burn-your-arse-off spicy.  It had a just a hint of kick which is good.

The sausage was cut into pieces as shown in the picture on the box.  The sausage appeared to contain lean meat and was a firm but a little bland.  It wasn’t completely flavourless but the curry sauce definitely is needed.  Also, the little piece of sausage in the bottom left was a little rubbery.  Maybe this was because it wasn’t covered in the curry sauce during cooking.

To complete the dish, the bangers are complimented with mash potato and carrots and beans – standard fare.

I’ve never been big on curried sausages but I did like this and would get it again.  However, it would be a little lower on the list than some of the my favourites.

3.5 out of 5 thumbs.

 

 

Thursday’s Lunch – Braised Lamb Shanks

Today, I pull out another tasty dish for my lunch and see how it turns out.  Today it’s Braised Lamb Shanks from Lite ‘n’ Easy’s Modern Australian range.

At least one of the guys from work was pleasantly surprised when he saw this dish so let’s get stuck in…

Braised Lamb Shanks outta the freezer.

The pack says to nuke for 9 minutes but, again, the work microwave calls for 10 minutes.  What came out of the microwave looked like this:

Braised Lamb Shanks after microwaving.

Again, it uses the familiar placement of the meat, the mashed potatoes, and the vegetables.  I would hazard a guess and say this placement is purely intentional to achieve the best cooking performance.

To the left is a generous portion of lamb pieces with a rich, tomato-based sauce.  In this meal it is a different sauce accompaniment from the other dishes I’ve had.  The lamb has no bone so the shank part of the meal isn’t strictly accurate.  However, the meat looks, feels and tastes as though it was cooked on the bone.  It’s soft and juicy and delicious suggesting a slow-cook process.  The sauce works well and is thick and hearty; perfect for cleaning up the mashed potato.

Next along is the standard mash with some seasoning, peas and a piece of pumpkin adorn the lamb.

This is a brilliant dish.  The food is packed to the brim in the container and the whole meal is really hearty.

A definite candidate for re-ordering.  4 out of 5 thumbs for this one.

So far, any dish like this from Lite ‘n’ Easy has little chance of being rubbish.  Meat sided with potato and vegetables in a hearty sauce – it’s a proven format.

Now, what shall I have for dinner tonight?

 

Wednesday’s Lunch – Chicken Tikka Masala

Today I decided to have the Chicken Tikka Masala dish.  I am not disappointed.  Let’s check it out…

Chicken Tikka Masala dish before I fully opened it.

usually, I take a photo when I get the dish out of the freezer but I accidentally opened this straight after removing from the ‘fridge and stuck it in the microwave.  I took the photo immediately after removing from the micky-wave.  In this case, the meal called for 8 minutes of nuke-time but as I used the work microwave, I set it for 9 minutes.

Chicken Tikka Masala after being cooked and opened.

Looks good but obviously not like the packet which has, no doubt, been put together by a food stylist.

This dish is great.  There’s plenty of chicken, the sauce is very tasty and the rice and vegetables are cooked well and not limp.  The addition of sultanas adds a little bit of sweetness to contrast with the savoury goodness of the sauce.  One of the boys at worked said it smelt very delicious.  The aroma wafts through the tearoom and the fragrance is quite authentic.

I certainly would order this again.

4/5 thumbs for this one.