DallasNews.com: Lunch Ladies

Lunch Ladies: Hormel Microwave Trays

09:08 PM CDT on Monday, March 12, 2007

By KIMBERLY DURNAN and GRETCHEN PERRENOT / Staff Writers

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The Lunch Ladies dish every other week about healthy dining options for the office.
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Roast beef and mashed potatoes sitting on the store shelves next to the canned goods? How bizarre. But there they were, Hormel Microwave Trays in a variety of options: chicken and rice, spaghetti with meat sauce, turkey and dressing, and many more. The pictures on the boxes looked OK, and you sure can't beat the convenience of comfort food that doesn't have to be refrigerated and heats in 90 seconds. But convenience often has a cost, and in this case the cost was quality. We kept that in mind going into this tasting.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

DallasNews.com

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Tomatoes, enriched spaghetti, cooked beef, sugar, corn oil, salt, flavoring, citric acid, spices, olive oil, mushroom flavor

Portion size: 10 oz.

Looks/smells: It looked like a lump of noodles with brown tomato sauce. Hmm, tomatoes are red, aren't they? Guess the preservatives didn't quite do their job here. It smelled like canned tomato paste.

Texture/taste: The sauce had a pasty texture, but the taste wasn't too horrid – similar to canned spaghetti. This was the best of those we tried, and that's not saying much.

Kimberly: Have you ever licked the spoon after digging tomato paste out of the can? That's what this tasted like.

Gretchen: If I were really, really hungry and couldn't leave the building, and the cafeteria was closed, and I didn't have any cash for the vending machine, and the break room fridge was either completely empty or everything was covered in mold, then I would have no problem eating this for lunch.

Score: 2 out of 5 lunch bags

PER SERVING: Cal 270 (60 calories from fat); Fat 7 g (3 g sat; 0 g Trans); Chol 15 mg; Sodium 980 mg; Fiber 4 g; Carb 41 g ( Sugar 18 g); Calcium 8%; Protein 12 g; Weight Watcher Points® 5

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GRETCHEN'S CORNER

I have a new favorite snack – the Hostess 100 Calorie Pack. They come in three flavors (chocolate cake with chocolate icing, yellow cake with chocolate icing, and carrot cake with cream cheese icing), and each has the brand's signature creamy filling. My favorite based on flavor alone was the golden cake with chocolate icing. But the overall winner was the chocolate with chocolate, because it was just 1 Weight Watchers Point, while the other two were 2 Points. Perfect little snack – and I mean little, because these cupcakes are little-bitty.

* * *

The good news is that Freebirds has published their nutritional information. The bad news is that I can no longer pretend that my favorite burrito isn't 823 calories (and 18 Points) – and that's for the smallest size they have, the half bird. At least now I can track the Points value when I splurge.

NEXT ON OUR PLATE

• On the Border

• Dinners Ready

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KIMBERLY'S CORNER

I just tried a new product line of allegedly nutritious snacks called G.O.A.T., which is an acronym for Greatest of All Time. The food stuff, which is a product of Muhammad Ali and Peter Arnell is promoted with a boxing theme and touts names such as Shuffle, Jabs and Rumble. Jabs are vitamin-powered energy crisps that looks like packing material. It's tastes like a processed, unhealthy mess. I passed it around to some co-workers in the newsroom and one said "It left residue on my fingers." It's 120 calories per ¾ cup. A packet of Shuffle, a vitamin-powered energy crunch in the slammin' salsa flavor tasted like Kix cereal with a peanut inside. One pod-mate said, "It tastes weird." It's a 150 calories per packet or 1.24 ounces. The colors look like the snacks sold at PetSmart. A fruit-crumble snack tasted like a chemical cereal bar. The bar has 140 calories, but most likely you will only consume 50 calories after you spit up your bite and throw the rest away. The residue critic complained the fruit snack made his hands greasy. Each treat includes a long list of ingredients that's difficult to read off the silver packaging. This food attempt probably won't make it. Who's idea was it to call it G.O.A.T., anyway? In the press packet the marketing folks including a cloth bracelet with the G.O.A.T. acronym. A more accurate marketing description could be "it's so bad even a goat wouldn't eat it," then they could show a photo of one of those fainting goats. This stuff is bad. Stay far, far away.

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LETTERS TO THE LADIES

Re: Kashi frozen entrees

I love the Kashi frozen meals. All of them. Would you know how to duplicate any of these in your kitchen especially the Black Bean Mango or any of the others? I would appreciate any help in getting these recipes. Thanks ever so much. – Peggy

The Ladies' response: I have not tried to duplicate any of these meals in my own kitchen. My kitchen is very busy holding the cartons of leftovers I've accumulated from Eatzi's, Central Market and Whole Foods. However, you should check out the Kashi Web site. They are encourage reader participation and seem accessible to the public. You can phone them at 858-274-8870 or write them at P.O. Box 8557, La Jolla, Ca. 92038. – Kimberly

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Re: Soy milk

Loved the column about the soy and rice milk. Keep up the great work. You should have tried the Almond Milk "Almond Breeze" in chocolate;it's pretty good. I haven't tried the other kinds yet. When I want something sweet, I reach for the Chocolate Almond milk. – Alicia

The Ladies' response: You are right. The almond milk does sound intriguing, as does anything chocolate. We will have to give the chocolate milks a turn on the chopping block. – Kimberly

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