That's all the boring stuff, though.  Let's talk about today's TASTY LIE instead.  Because it looks pretty awesome.  Christen has been on a bit of an Amy's kick lately and I've got a few from her to add to the collection.  Today's is a fairly simple one that we've seen from a bunch of other companies, Enchiladas!  We've had lots of enchilada meals, from Banquet all the way to Kashi.  This is the first time we've had an Amy's Enchilada dish, though.  Not our first dance with Amy's Mexican dishes, though.  Our very own Derek reviewed Amy's Mexican Casserole, while Christen has also tackled Amy's Black Bean Tamale Verde.

How will Cheese Enchiladas stack up?  Only one way to tell, let's get to the meal!

Well, unlike the tamale meal, this one is just enchiladas.  No rice on the side.  However unlike the tamales, here you get two enchiladas.  And they look packed with goodness.  I spy what looks like onions and peppers mingling with the cheese inside the tortilla, and even a bit of cheese topping them.  A nice little bit of tomato sauce on top…This looks really good.  But this is the box, so who knows what it actually looks like?  We do!  That's right, let's take a peak inside.

Well…That's different.  This looks a lot closer to the frozen enchilada dishes we are used to seeing.  A ton of sauce drowning whatever else is in there waiting to be eaten.  It really doesn't resemble much of the dish on the box at all.  The dish on the box looked fresh and delicious…This just looks like a mess.  But hey, maybe it's delicious!  There's only one person who knows, and that's Christen…

Having tried several Amy's meals for the first time lately, I think the Cheese Enchilada is probably my least favorite so far. It was just too greasy and heavy feeling to rank as well as most of their other meals. There was also too much sauce. It was actually kind of soupy, which is definitely not good. The taste was still good – the sauce and cheeses were flavorful and the corn tortillas added that perfect authentic Mexican flavor. There were some onions, peppers, and olives in the enchiladas as well. Overall, though, it just didn't hit the mark. I probably will not buy this meal again because it's not worth the price. Organic or not, it just wasn't a very desirable meal. I would give this meal 1.5 out 5 stars.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

I thought I had gotten through all of the Banquet reviews I had in my holster, but it’s just not the case.  A couple were hiding.  It’s time to expose one of them to the harsh light of day.  We only have one other Salisbury Steak review on the site, and it’s one of our older ones.  That one didn’t work out well and it was a standard Lean Cuisine.  Cut the budget on the meal and surely it can’t get any BETTER, can it?  Let’s find out…

Well, it certainly LOOKS edible.   Some side dishes are very standard in Banquet meals.  Corn and mashed potatoes are those sides.  They’re in almost every single Banquet meal and they’re always the same.  The corn is good enough and the potatoes are watery and oddly-textured.

The big question is the steak, though.  It looks like the standard Banquet “MEAT PATTY” with some sort of sauce on top of it.  Let’s see the real deal.

Well, I’ll just get this out of the way: The potatoes and corn are exactly like they are in other Banquet offerings.  Corn is fine, potatoes are watery and gritty.  Pass.  The beef patty is one in the same with what you’ll find elsewhere, like in the Cheesy Smothered Charbroiled Patty.  That’s not a good thing by any stretch.  The sauce is very weird.  You can tell just by looking at the picture.  It’s very thin with weird little pockets of grease.  It’s NOT good at all.  It’s kind of gross, actually.  The only passable thing in this entire meal is the corn.  I can get corn anywhere, I don’t need to surround it with things I am disgusted by.

Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars

I’ve seen this one in passing before but have never given it enough thought to actually try it.  Cranberries are something I’ve only gotten into recently.  I always avoided them like the plague.  That’s no longer the case though, so maybe this meal won’t be so bad.  It looks like a weird Thanksgiving concoction.  You’ve got poultry and cranberries, sounds like November to me!  But this one zigs where Thanksgiving zags.  Apples and orzo pasta for everybody!  Not your traditional meal.  It’s even labeled part of Lean Cuisine’s “Spa Collection.”  It sounds fancy, light, and super healthy.  And it LOOKS fancy, light, and super healthy.  At first glance anyway, so let’s check it out.

This looks like a nice lunch.  There’s a lot of color, nothing looks bad for you, and it’s got a nice mix of different types of food.  The only thing really missing from it is dairy.  You’ve got your chicken for protein, cranberry and apple for fruits/sugars, green beans and carrots for veggies, and your wheat orzo pasta to cover grains.  Almost EVERYTHING can be found in this meal.  It’s awesome.

Hopefully all of these flavors come together to make a pretty decent lunch.  Let’s find out!

Well the colors don’t look quite as bright, but it’s all there and it all still looks pretty good to me.  A nice bit of the apple reduction sauce, some good chunks of chicken, lots of carrots… Everything in this thing looks pretty tasty.  Based on looks alone I’d definitely buy this meal.  What did Carol think of the taste, though?

Following directions it cooked perfectly and textures were all good. Good quality ingredients. Orzo was especially good and had a nice nutty flavor. Overall it tastes strangely reminiscent of licking the last bits of food from your thanksgiving plate. Chicken (in place of the turkey), green beans, carrots, cranberries… good combo. But ginger notes make it a little confusing…Stir fry/Thanksgiving hybrid? Be ready to taste each ingredient. If you are not a fan of something in this meal, you might want to make a different selection because each flavors stands out. Part of the Spa Cuisine line, it is about as “Spa like” as one could hope to expect from a frozen meal. This is actually pretty good and filling too. I would give it a 4 star rating.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

It’s like a taco, only not a taco at all!  Kind of like a Gordita from Taco Bell.  Only the Gordita is usually filled with a meatish substance, lettuce, cheese, and not much else.  Maybe a sauce.  This one’s got steak and mushrooms!  People LOVE mushrooms!  I’m not one of those people, but as I’ve said before I’m a strange one.  Unlike Heidi, who brings us today’s Tasty Lie.  She digs on mushrooms.

Even if you aren’t big on mushrooms, the promise of steak AND cheddar may be enough to make the effort with this meal…Provided it’s any good.  Let’s check it out!

That looks pretty rad.  Not your standard flatbread.  It looks heavily seasoned…Which is awesome.  Well, hopefully.  Who knows what the seasoning actually is?  I’m hoping for something garlicky.  This looks pretty delicious though, LOTS of cheese.  Lots of cheese is never a bad thing unless you don’t like cheese.  However, if you don’t like cheese I’m relatively sure we can’t be friends…Unless you’re a Vegan.  Then I get it.  Also seems to be a good amount of mushrooms and steak, but it’s hard to tell so we will see here right about…NOW.

 Well it’s a bit more steak than I was expecting in a frozen meal, so that’s pretty cool.  And that is a bunch of cheese, so that rocks.  Throw in a handful of mushrooms and you’re set.  This meal would be more my speed with onions instead of mushrooms but beggars can’t be choosers.  Let’s see what it looks like in it’s proper folded position…

Well it leaked a bit on my desk, but it looks pretty great.  The flatbread looks just as good in real life as it does on the box.  It doesn’t look as filled, but since we’ve seen it unfolded we know there’s a lot going on inside of that flatbread so that’s not really a letdown at all.  This meal looks solid, something I wish I had right this second.  The taste is another matter all together, though.  So let’s check with Heidi on that.

Sometimes I have to say NO to the Stouffers Mac n Cheese everyday and spice up my life a bit. So I grabbed this. I like steak and cheese and I think mushrooms are the bomb what can go wrong?  Turns out nothing this time. I enjoyed this meal. The flatbread tasted herby and was not soggy . I was doubtful about the the quantity of steak and mushrooms, turns out it wasn’t so bad when folded over. I would definitely pick up this meal again. I loved it!  If you are a big lunch eater, you may want to bring something along with this…I brought fruit.  Five stars!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

That’s what this is, really.  It’s just a simple chicken and rice dish.  Sometimes that’s ALL you need.  Chicken and rice is pretty delicious.  Wrap this meal in a tortilla and I will declare my undying love for it without having tasted a single bite.

We aren’t here to talk about how amazing burritos are, though.  Don’t misunderstand, they ARE amazing.  However, today is about Lean Cuisine’s Glazed Chicken meal.  And it looks good, so let’s get to it.

Yeah, that looks pretty great.  I like the addition of cashews and green beans to the rice, makes it more appealing to the eye and gives you different textures in your bite.  It’s nice.  Some really big chunks of chicken too!  It’s an incredibly simple dish and that’s why it works.  I like it.  I really hope this looks and tastes as good as they want you to think it is…

I’ll be honest, I didn’t even really notice the sauce on the box but it’s definitely there now.  Everything looks pretty good, though.  The chicken chunks are gigantic.  That is pretty awesome.  Give this thing a stir and I’m sure we’re in for a treat.  But only Marissa knows…

Even though this is one of the “new & improved” meals, I haven’t had the best of luck with them. I was excited that this meal didn’t appear to have any vegetables that I needed to pick out (YAY) and I really like lemon things so that was also a plus. The sauce is darker and heavier than I thought it would be, but it has a really good flavor. The cashews add a buttery, nutty extra crunch that’s nice and you can definitely taste them, so if you don’t like them, I wouldn’t get this. The biggest problem was the condition of the chicken. There was a lot of it, but there were literally inedible parts–gristle, muscle, I don’t know, but gross. Hopefully you wouldn’t have that issue in every meal and I just got unlucky.   3.5 stars (4 without the creepy chicken)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

It’s actually not too bad, but a good breakfast sandwich is hard to beat.  And based solely on the box this is one of the good guys.  It’s essentially an Egg McMuffin with Sausage.  TURKEY sausage.  That’s a great thing in my book and there’s even cheese!  Luckily you don’t have to feel mentally beaten down for caving into McDonald’s.

Once in a while McDonald’s breakfast is delicious…In fact, no it’s not.  McDonald’s breakfast isn’t delicious.  However you convince yourself it’s delicious and you stop in and afterward you usually don’t feel satisfied as much as you feel, well, greasy.  We’ve had a few frozen breakfast sandwich experiences.  Some have actually been pretty great.  Unfortunately that cannot be said for all of them, some just don’t work out.

Results with Smart Ones sandwiches have been mixed.  Marissa has actually experimented a bit with the instructions on one she reviewed to positive results!  Maybe her prior experience will work on this one, let’s find out!

Man.  See, that just looks good.  I’m going to throw out the disclaimer right away; there’s no grapes or orange wedge in the box.  I know that you know that, but the whole ‘serving suggestion’ thing still bugs me now and then.  Regardless, that looks like a good sandwich.  The sausage is thicker looking than I would have expected and the ol’ egg product patty doesn’t look gross.  Bonus!  The cheese is a nice touch.

Let me ask you something…This is an egg muffin sandwich with egg whites…Why is it yellow?  Is it that it’s not JUST egg whites?  It only says ‘with’ egg whites, but what else could that mean?  Surely they weren’t scared that some poor fool would assume it was an egg yolk sandwich, right?  If it’s only egg whites, just let it be white.  Anyways, onto the actual product!

YES.  See, that sausage patty looks great.  My big problem with the Smart Ones sandwich I reviewed was how pathetic that Canadian bacon (slice of ham) was compared to the box.  This one looks  right.  I don’t see a ton of cheese, but that’s because Marissa split it  and put half under the sausage.  Let’s look inside.

So yeah, the sausage is smaller than the muffin but still a good size.  Definitely better than I expected…But as we know looks aren’t everything.  The only way to know what it tastes like is for me to dig into my email and find Marissa’s review.  Give me a second to track it down.

There, found it.  Read on!

Man do I love breakfast sandwiches! I’ve tried A LOT of them and so far my favorite has been the Jimmy Dean D’ Lights one. Really yummy and not too terribly bad for me. I had the Smart Ones Egg and Cheese sandwich before and wasn’t very impressed, but sausage can go a long way in the flavor department. And it does. This is a good sandwich. I deviated a bit from the cooking instructions based on my last of their sandwiches when my cheese all but vaporized. Instead of the initial 1:30 cooking, I only did it 1 minute and then :20 after instead of :30.

The best part? These have a TON less sodium than the Jimmy Dean (~380 compared to ~790). That’s a big difference if you are eating more than one of these box meals a day. They might be the teeniest bit smaller, but with the abbreviated cooking time, not a single part of the muffin was overcooked or hard, the cheese was still there and melty and the sausage and egg were cooked through with a good texture. Hmmm….I may have just found a new favorite breakfast sandwich.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Kashi, as usual, classes the scene up though.  Just plain old mac and cheese isn’t enough to earn the Kashi label.  They want to make sure you get your money’s worth.  I’m thankful for that and I hope it can match up against my personal favorite frozen Mac and Cheese meal, the awesome Marie Callendar’s Smoky Cheddar Mac & Uncured Bacon.  It’s one of the best frozen meals I’ve ever had.  Let’s be honest, though…A big part of that is the fact that it’s Macaroni and Cheese with BACON in it.  Throw bacon at something and it automatically gets 200% better.  Yes, bacon is THAT magical.

Sadly there’s no bacon in this one, but that’s fine…This is for the vegetarian set.  Before I get too specific, though, go ahead and look at what we’re getting.

See, this looks pretty wonderful.  Penne pasta is great, a really nice alternative to standard macaroni.  And the three cheeses used aren’t a normal three cheese mix.  The feta really stands out to me.  That’s a crazy idea that I’m hoping will work out well.  Feta and Macaroni and Cheese seem like two things that don’t belong in the same sentence.  Let’s hope I’m wrong.  I usually am.

What Kashi does do, that I wish some others would, is add veggies to the dish.  I’m not a fan of mushrooms but I am in the extreme minority.  I love peppers, onions, and yellow carrots so I’m pretty sure even I could look past the mushrooms.  It takes this from a simple dish to a hearty meal.  What does it really look like, though?

First thing’s first.  The cheese sauce is a lot thicker than I expected and that rocks.  All too often frozen cheese sauce ends up a little watery.  This looks like a lot of sauce with a nice consistency to it.  So awesome.  I don’t see a ton of mushrooms but I do see a bunch of peppers.  Due to the color of the sauce it’s harder to see the onions and yellow carrots, but I do spot some in there.

This looks like a pretty good meal.  I’d say they delivered what they advertised on the box.  How it looks is only one piece of the puzzle, though.  What does it TASTE like?  Only Christen knows.

 The Three Cheese Penne meal from Kashi was really enjoyable! Of course, I’m a fan of the wholesome ingredients — whole grain pasta, shitake mushrooms, red onions, red peppers, yellow carrots, and a blend of asiago, feta, and cheddar cheeses. I thought that the flavors of the ingredients went together really well and gave a little twist to a simple mac ‘n cheese meal. Some reviewers on the Kashi website complained about the texture of the meal. They say it was gritty or mealy feeling. I would have to agree. I’m not sure if it was the cheeses or the whole grain pasta, but there was a bit of a gritty texture, which is odd for macaroni and cheese, so I can see why they complained. I still really like it, though. This meal has about 320 calories, 11g fat, 670mg sodium, 45g carbs, and 15g protein. I was really surprised to see that there’s actually .5g trans fat. I’m hoping it’s natural trans fat from the cheeses, but other than that, the nutrition content is pretty good for a meal basically made of carbs and fat. It’s probably one of the better frozen meal mac ‘n cheeses out there, so I would still recommend it. I would give this meal 3.5 stars out of 5. Deductions for texture, cost, and borderline healthy/not-so-healthy.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Luckily we’ve got companies like Smart Ones to take the foods we shouldn’t eat vast quantities of and package them into decent servings.  And even luckier we’ve got Marissa to review those meals for us so we know what we’re getting ourselves into!

I’m hoping it’s a decent find because I really enjoy a good omelet and what maniac would turn down homefries?  This one looks good so let’s stop wasting time and get to the food.

So simple, but great.  Just a cheese omelet.  You don’t need much else.  And it looks way more put together than my omelets usually turn out.  I cannot be trusted making an omelet because as much as I love them, they always turn out messy.

It looks like there’s a decent amount of cheese, and the potatoes (which aren’t advertised as such but look like O’Brien potatoes to me with those peppers mixed in) look delicious.  The egg looks like a ‘formed egg patty’ but really, it’s expected.  This isn’t from an omelet bar, this is a meal that was put together by machines on an assembly line.  So I can deal with that.  Let’s see the reality.

There are even more potatoes than I expected, which is a nice surprise.  It actually looks exactly like the box.  That’s very awesome.  I’d say Smart Ones did an excellent job of matching the box to the actual meal this time out, kudos to them.  But how does it taste?  Only Marissa knows…

The potatoes have a ton of flavor and are actually very spicy/super peppery, but they end up a little dried out (a little ketchup here would do wonders). The omelet isn’t very good. I don’t know how else to say it. The egg is a little rubbery and the cheese is kind of bland. You can eat it with the peppers and onions to make it a little better. The only flavor I get is residual spiciness from potatoes. Also, the sad looking layer of greasiness on the bottom of the container is a turn-off. In a word: disappointed.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

I’m very curious about this meal because I do enjoy myself a good tamale and sadly we’ve only reviewed one here and, OH THE HORROR, it was from Banquet.  Shockingly it wasn’t so great.  I’ll wait a minute while your head swims.  This tamale meal is made out of quality ingredients, though.  More than that, as evidenced by Derek’s review of Amy’s Mexican Casserole mentioned above, Amy knows how to do good Mexican food.  Or at least they did at one point, in one dish.  Still it’s enough to leave me hopeful for a decent meal.  Is it, though?

This looks pretty great.  The tamale looks stuffed pretty well with a lot of good ingredients.   There’s just a bit of sauce on the top, and a side of seasoned rice to boot.  I love the black beans over pinto beans and the fact that the sauce is a green sauce instead of what would normally be a red sauce.  It’s a nice touch.  I really hope this meal delivers.  Let’s check it out!

Looks pretty great, doesn’t it?  Everything seems as represented on the box.  We cannot see inside the tamale so we’ll leave that to Christen, but I think Amy’s has really hit the nail on the head with this meal.  The tamale is a good size for a lunch portion and there is a good amount of the green sauce.  I’m loving it.  But the taste is something I can’t tell from a picture, so let’s get to that…

The Amy’s Black Bean Tamale Verde was pretty much delicious and awesome. I think I bought it on sale for around $3. I try to buy Amy’s (and other organics) only when they’re on sale because they can get kind of pricey. I think the nutritional benefits are well worth it, though. This one is actually Vegan and gluten-free, as well. This dish has an organic corn masa tamale filled with organic black beans, tomatillos, corn, zucchini, and peppers served with a side of organic Spanish brown rice. This meal was so flavorful! The tamale was definitely impressive for being cooked in a microwave. The rice was flavorful and cooked well in the micro also. I would give this meal 5 out of 5 stars. I can’t think of any reason to criticize it.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

It’s not all down in the dumps, though.  The chicken nuggets weren’t so bad…  I really hope I can add today’s to the ‘unoffensive’ list because it’s a meal near and dear to my heart.  My love affair with pizza started as but a young tike who wanted nothing more than to be horrifically mutated into a terrifying green being who was then trained in the ways of the martial arts in an effort to rid New York City of a bunch of thugs and their very metallic boss.

Of COURSE I wanted to be a Ninja Turtle as a child and in the 80s and 90s that meant begging your parents for pizza at every possible opportunity.  I still look at pizza as one of a VERY few ‘perfect foods.’  In present day it ranks at the top, alongside tacos, as my favorite food.  Don’t get me wrong…I love a good steak, some delicious chicken, a steamed hot dog, and I will go to TOWN on a sandwich.  But a slice of pizza will probably win out every single time.  It’s just the way life is meant to be: AWESOME. So Banquet, don’t you ruin this for me…

First impressions?  It reminds me of elementary school pizza.  The kind of pizza that is literally made on sliced bread.  This doesn’t look QUITE like that, but it doesn’t look a whole lot better.  There’s enough cheese, some peperoni chopped really small (I prefer that over simply cutting a pepperoni into four wedges like some pizzas), and the toppings look like they at least cover most of the dough.  And hey, look!  Pudding!  Huzzah!  I promise I won’t dunk the pizza in the pudding this time.

Banquet may be a little sly here.  The meal can’t really disappoint when the box looks fairly mediocre.  Let’s see it!

Well…It kinda’ looks like the box.  In fact it looks a lot like the box if we’re being honest.  Thoroughly mediocre.  It definitely looks better than the elementary school pizza I mentioned earlier and the dough it’s on is definitely not just cheap bread. It’s somehow even greasier than I thought it would be and there’s less pepperoni than expected.  There’s a lot of cheese though and the right amount of sauce.  It tastes fine, I guess.  Definitely doesn’t feel like pizza, though.  It’s more like a flat bread with some melted cheese on top.  Not a bad thing, but calling it pizza seems incorrect.

That all said, it wasn’t awful.  I felt I definitely got my one dollar’s worth out of this meal.  If I had to have a Banquet meal, if the evil Doctor Cheap Food was holding a laser gun to my head (Doctor Cheap Food deals exclusively in laser guns, he is THAT evil) and demanding I choose a Banquet meal to eat, this one would be in the top 2 or 3.    It’ll get the job done.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars