Marie Callender's Creamy Parmesan Chicken Pot Pie

Made By:  ConAgra Foods Inc.
Required to Prepare:  oven, baking sheet, aluminum foil
{OR:  Microwave}
980 calories per package

This review is a special request from my sweetie!  We usually have my home cooking for dinners here, but before I came along, she used to have a lot of convenience dinners like this.  I can relate; when it's just you, you sometimes just want something easy.  Anyway, it had been a couple of years since she had one of these and the craving struck, so off to the store I  went to get dinner!

These can be prepared one at a time in the microwave, with a roughly 10-minute cooking time.  Since I was making two, we went with the "for flakier crust" oven directions--remove the pie from the box (but not the cooking tray), place on a baking sheet, shield the crust edges with a bit of aluminum foil, and bake at 400° for around 65 minutes.  Not exactly a quick dinner, but still rather easy and convenient.  I let the pies cool for around five minutes, and then we dug in!

Although the picture on the box shows the pie sitting pleasantly on a plate, I actually don't know how you'd get it out of the tray in one piece like that; we just left them in the little paper bowls.  The crust is really rich and buttery, and has a nice crisp texture.  The sauce has a nice flavor; the parmesan flavor is actually a bit subtle, I mainly notice a roasted pepper flavor, but it's definitely not bad.  The chicken is tender without being too soft, and the veggies were firmer than expected, almost a little too firm (but not quite).  I can see why my sweetie asked for these!  The calorie count is a little high, I suppose, but it's filling enough to be the meal all by itself, so it's not really too outrageous.  And, it's good enough to feel like a treat, at a really reasonable price. I don't think it'll be two years before we have the next one!  :D

Pagoda Express Chicken Fried Rice

Distributed By:  Schwan's Consumer Brands Inc. [Product of USA]
Required to Prepare:  Microwave Oven
680 calories per package

Last week I found myself in possession of a Safeway coupon good for $5 off any "New" frozen products.  So, of course I cruised the freezer aisles looking for "New" things to spend my coupon on!  I finally settled on three of these Pagoda Express frozen take-out style meals, and I am reviewing the first of them today!  I decided to try the Chicken Fried Rice first, as it seems like a direct competitor to the Tai Pei Chicken Fried Rice product that I've already reviewed (and enjoyed).

To prepare, we pull back the corner of the lid a little to vent, and microwave for four minutes; then we rip the lid off, give it a stir, set the lid back on top, and microwave for another two minutes or so.  Just like that, lunch is piping hot and ready to eat!

Comparing this to the Tai Pei product, I notice that the volume doesn't seem to have cooked down as much here, and the rice is a bit less soft, probably because this product doesn't use the steaming film.  Actually, I think I prefer the texture of this product; although the rice seems a bit on the dry side, the meat is much less soft and spongy--I think the lack of steaming is probably good for the chicken.  On the other hand, I think the Tai Pei fried rice may have been a bit more flavorful; I especially noticed the baby corn pieces being very bland and watery.  That is really my only real criticism with this, though, so overall I guess I thought it was good, if not memorable.  I'd probably get it again... if I get another coupon. :|

Nong Shim Chapagetti

Made By:  Nong Shim America, Inc.
Required to Prepare:  saucepan & range, strainer,  2-1/2 cups + 3 tablespoons water
560 calories per package

Available online through Amazon.com

Today we have a pack of Nong Shim's Chapagetti for review!  This is an instant version of a very popular Korean dish called chajangmyeon, which (according to Wikipedia) consists of noodles topped with a salty black-bean paste.  They should be interesting to try!

Inside the package is a disc of the puffy-looking noodles like the ones in Nong Shim's Neoguri, along with a packet of dried 'Vegetable Mix', a packet of soup base, and a small pouch of oil.  We are supposed to boil 2-1/2 cups of water, add the noodles and veggie packet and cook for five minutes, then drain the noodles well.  We put the drained noodles in our bowl, add the oil, soup base, and 3 tablespoons of water, and stir thoroughly.  Since the soup base seemed a bit coursely ground, the stirring was easier said than done, but eventually the noodles are coated with a thick, dark sauce and are ready to serve!

The star of this show, of course, is the chajang sauce, so we'll start with that; it has a deep, nutty, almost coffee or cocoa-like flavor, and isn't nearly as salty-tasting as I expected based on the description of chajangmyeon that I read.  It definitely doesn't taste like it looks like it would taste, if that makes any sense.  The vegetable mix seems to be mainly toasted onion with some carrot and faux beef bits; they are present and accounted for but don't seem to assert themselves above the sauce that much.  The noodles are spaghetti-like in consistency (hence the "pagetti" part of the name), soft but not mushy.

I didn't find these all that exciting, but they do seem to have a comfort-food vibe going on.  Although I am a bit curious now to taste some "real" chajangmyeon to compare, I doubt if I'll be seeking them out on a regular basis. :|

Nong Shim Shin Ramyun BLACK

Made By:  Nong Shim America Inc.
Required to Prepare:  Water, saucepan & range (or bowl and microwave)
560 calories per package

Available online through Amazon.com

So, it's been a while... did y'all miss me?

Today I finally tried a package of the infamous "Shin Ramyun Black" by Nong Shim.  The infamy, by the way, stems from the fact that Nong Shim of Korea got hit with a false-advertising fine for stating that their new Shin Ramyun Black was nutritionally "the perfect food."  I was unaware of all the controversy when I purchased them (although I do find it amusing), and honestly I'm much more interested to see how the flavor compares to Shin Ramyun 'Red'.  So, on with the review!

Inside the package is a disk of noodles that looks just like the ones in normal Shin Ramyun, along with three packets; there is a "Beef and Vegetable Mix" which has the usual dried veggies but also some dehydrated beef chips including some dried mushrooms, a plain "Soup Base," and something called a "Sul-Long-Tang Soup Base" which is apparently a bone soup of some sort.  We boil 550cc [2-1/3 cups] of water, then add everything to the pot and cook for five minutes.  Then we just transfer the soup to our bowl and serve!

The broth is very creamy-looking, and the little chunks of beef mushrooms are easily visible.  Like the other Shin Ramyun, the noodles have a nice texture, and are flavorful from cooking in the soup broth.  The broth itself has the expected spiciness, although it does seem to be a bit milder than regular Shin Ramyun... maybe the creaminess from the Sul-Long-Tang stuff is toning it down a bit.  There is a much deeper beef broth flavor here than in the normal Shin Ramyun, too.  The rehydrated mushroom pieces stay a bit tough and don't seem to have a lot of flavor on their own, but I'm imagining they've contributed their flavor into the broth instead, and it's not like they really detract or anything.  It seems a bit more "premium" than adding powder mushroom extract, anyway.

I think I may have actually enjoyed the flavor of these more than regular Shin Ramyun; the extra flavors from the beef bone extract seemed to provide some welcome complexity to help the flavor not be quite so one-sided.  However, the premium price on these makes the question of value a bit harder to answer... but I will say that I'm more interested in having this product again than I am the regular Shin Ramyun.  :)

Soup it Up:  Most times we enjoy this soup, we do add a soft egg to it, to balance the spice level with a bit of richness and creaminess.  There's no huge need to add other items because of the 'premium' nature of the included add-ins, but some thin slices of beef could be a thing.
Also, my wife decided to try adding some sour cream to hers, as a different variation to 'cool down' the spice, and I thought that was a worthy option as well, the sourness brings forward a different set of flavors than with the ultra-creamy egg yolk.

{5/15/15 edit: I've recently realized that what I had thought were strange little pieces of beef were actually mushrooms.  They make much more sense to me now. ^_^; }

Butterfly Bento #3: Leftover Steak

Back to making lunches after a round with a bad winter cold!  Today's bento is some sliced leftover steak on a bed of rice flavored with a little steak sauce (and parsley for garnish), with some snap peas, cheese cubes, and half of a satsuma mandarine.

Butterfly Bento #2: Smoked Salmon Sushi

Another work week, another set of hers & hers bento boxes!  This one has nigiri sushi with some smoked salmon slices for topping, along with sugar snap peas, carrots, Havarti cheese cubes, and nuts.  (Mine has wasabi & soy almonds, and she doesn't like those so hers has plain mixed nuts.)  ^_^

(If you're interested in practical bento making, be sure to check out Makiko Itoh's Just Bento blog for all you could ever want to know about the subject!)

Safeway Select Chicken Bacon Alfredo Pizza

Distributed by:  Safeway Inc.
Tools Required:  Oven
600 calories per 1/2 pizza

I debated with myself as to whether to include store-brand products like this one, but I decided that Safeway is a national chain, after all, and I imagine there are people who would like to know if the store-branded products can compare with the more-expensive name brands.  Now that that's settled, it's time for the Butterfly to review!

Out of the package, the pizza doesn't look too bad; there is a fairly generous sprinkling of bacon bits and cubes of white-meat chicken.  It kind of looks like there isn't much sauce, but that could just be because it's a white sauce and blends in with the crust.  I preheat the oven to 425°, fix the positioning of the chicken cubes a bit, and bake it for 13 minutes (the package says 12-14).  Let it cool for a bit, and it's time to serve!

The pastry-style "Pizzeria Crust" isn't too bad, although I think the Red Baron crust was better both in texture and flavor.  I think this one could have stood a little extra time in the oven to crisp up, and maybe then the texture would have compared better.  The chicken pieces have a nice "real-meat" texture and flavor and stay tender and moist, and there is a nice balance between chicken and bacon. The sauce, though, seems a bit off to me; it doesn't come across as quite rich enough to be true alfredo sauce, and especially with the black pepper sprinkling, it ends up tasting a bit more like country gravy to me--which makes the whole thing taste kind of like one of those 'breakfast' pizzas.

Overall, I think it did seem like a quality product and a decent value; it might not be quite as appealing as the name-brand Red Baron pizza I tried last time, but it wasn't bad by any means.  I will be interested to try one with a normal pizza sauce for a better comparison.  As for this particular flavor, my sweetie said she liked it, but I'm probably going to try something else next time.  :|