Another noms review

We kicked off dinner tonight with a new product, at least to me that is, by rockstar.  It's the rockstar sparkling energy cherry citrus.  This is a zero sugar, zero calorie drink with"natural caffeine."  The caffeine is derived from green coffee beans.

I will say this the first few sips were extremely crispy.  The bubbling spring of nom nom nom didn't disappoint.  Unlike my tradition sugar free rockstar, this blue can of awesome kept it's fizz.  Another huge contrast is the lack of smell.  Most of my rockstar drinking experience there has always been a strong, sweet stench that reminds my mother of a medication... What medication she doesn't know but still a medication.  The sparkling energy has a sweet scent but, it doesn't linger.

As for the taste, the sparkling energy is pretty sparkly.  The carbonation was so strong that the bubbles were almost anoying as they seem to block flavor at first.  Once I overpowered the bubbles, the flavor was very light but more citrus than cherry, seeing as I love cherry this was a bust.

All in all if you like the sugar free line, this is a cleaner option... But it's still soda.

Moving on to the meal... I settled on another lean cuisine honestly good, what can I say? I had a sick three year old...

So this was the pomegranate chicken recipe.  A whole chicken breast, pomegranate glaze, green beans, yellow beans, ribbon cut carrots, and a whole grain pilaf with currants on a plate of yum.  This obviously turned out better than my beef experiment.

First the chicken was juicy and tender, almost falling apart on the fork.  The sauce, and I'm no fan of pomegranate, was a bit too sweet.  It was almost candy like which was sad because the chicken really was a nicely prepared cut.

The vegetables were fresh tasting and the yellow beans were a pleasant addition to the traditional carrot and green bean medley.  They were in need of a seasoning but after a few bites of the sweet sauce the bland beans were a welcome change.

The pilaf and currants, well they end up dredged in the candy sauces and feels like a clunky starch shoved under the chicken.

Now I have to admit it was pretty good, but as far as good for you?  The beef dish gets the upper hand.  This has 9 grams of fat and 390 cal, but the killer is 19 grams of sugar.  Even with 23 grams of protein the huge counts of carbs just seem to blast any hope of a truly good meal.  Bummer... Still better than a burger and fries.  

 

Lean and looking lousy....

This weekend I purchased a new Lean Cuisine “Honestly Good” meal.  It seems to be their new line with all natural ingredients, no preservatives and minimal processing.  The picture on the box alone was making me hungry in the frozen food section of Target.  I selected a few flavors and todays happened to be pineapple black pepper beef.

The photograph, don’t worry I posted one on the bottom so you can look at what sounded so absolutely divine, inspired the idea of tender beef and chunks of luscious pineapple.  What transpired… well, let’s just say microwave is a cheating, lying, whore!  That picture is also included at the bottom of this disaster.

Pushing beyond the unappealing look to this culinary abortion was something I had to do, not for the betterment of my review, for the fact that it was noonish and I was starving!  Swiping up a fork full of long grain rice and veggies I held back a moment.  With a stiff upper lip I chomped in.  This was not bad.  I mean it wasn’t in five star culinary heaven, more like 3 star I can deal with this as an alternative to fast food (which is generally disgusting anyway).

With only 8g of fat and 320 cal don’t expect epic portions but, with 23g of proteins and 26g of whole grains you are looking at something that is a lunch time experience that won’t leave you regretting a decision.   I did like the use of uncommon veg like wax beans and yellow carrots, but the slivers of almond just seem sporadic and unnecessary.  The beef itself was over cooked but, I think that was my microwave and the fact that the dinner had been sitting and thawing before I nuked it for a like 2 hours because I was too busy to shove it in the freezer.   I think some of this was major user error… The sauce that pulled in a lot of pineapple flavor but the black pepper was clearly lost in the mix somewhere, which was a shame because I love black pepper.

What I really loved about the meal was the “Honestly Good Giving.”  This is a program that honestly good does with local farmers to donate a portion of the vegetables grown for these meals is donated to local communities.  This is in addition to their “partners” program.  The ingredients for the dishes are supposed to be grown from local farms like George Chiala Farms in Morgan Hill, Ca.  I like the idea of local growers, not sure that it is true but the idea is lovely.

All in all I will try it again in an effort to discern if it was my microwave or if this is really a halfway-decent tasting, unappealing-looking mother trucker.