Balducci's Stores: Rotisserie Chicken

The good thing about buying a whole rotisserie chicken at the food store is that it is hot and ready to eat. I generally like them, and Balducci's version is a notch above other stores. They put herbs and spices under the skin of the chicken before cooking it. This imparts a wonderful flavor to the chicken. The chicken itself was moist and very tender. The skin was browned perfectly. I have gotten them at other stores and sometimes the wings are dried out and inedible, but not this chicken, the wings were good too. Balducci's has locations on the east coast. I went to the one in Bethesda, MD.

Lean Cuisine: Chicken Fried Rice

One of Stouffer's Lean Cuisine "Cafe classics bowl". rice and white chicken meat mixed with crispy vegetables and eggs in a sesame sauce. Sometimes it is amazing how poorly the description on the box matches what you get. "fried rice?" nope, white rice. "crispy vegetables?" Well, the carrots had a little crunch, but the peas weren't crisp at all, and I still don't know what the other little green bits were, scallionsperhaps?

You get a bowl with white rice, chicken, carrots and peas. part way through cooking, you stir it, and mix sesame sauce in, giving the rice a light brown color. The rice came out gummy, most of the chicken was a bit hard, in fact, crispier than the vegetables, which it isn't supposed to be. The flavor was light. Overall, not a very good example of fried rice. (280 calories; 6g fat; 29g carbs; 17g protein; 29% sodium; 6 weight watchers points)

Michelina's Lean Gourmet: Chicken Alfredo Florentine

Fettuccine with creamy alfredo sauce, white chicken and spinach. The alfredo sauce is creamy with a light flavor. It tastes like it has more fat than it has. The noodles came out good, a little firmness, and not all stuck together. The chicken was ok, a little hard and too salty, and not enough of it. The spinach added a decorative touch, but there wasn't enough of it to have any impact in the flavor. This is another one of those budget tv dinners that you can get on sale very cheap and when you look at it that way, it comes out pretty well. I like having some of these in the freezer for when I need a little extra food, but it doesn't make a good full meal. (270 calories; 6g fat; 38g carbs; 14g protein; 30% sodium; 6 weight watchers points)

Trader Joe's: Spinach and Feta Pita Pizza

A pita crust pizza with spinach, feta cheese, and red onions. This is pretty tasty, The spinach isn't too watery like sometimes spinach pizza is, an dthe feta cheese flavor comes through well. However, there isn't much to it, for some reason it seemed like it wouldn't make a full meal, this is despite having 440 calories (lots of bread in this pizza. Beware, the serving size is only half a pizza, who are they trying to kid. Cooking time is 12-15 minutes in a 400 degree oven. (220 calories; 6g fat; 32g carbs; 9g protein; 24% sodium; per half package)

Cedarlane: Three layer Enchilada Pie

Vegitarian enchilada pie made with organic beans, tomatoes and tortillas. Cheesy and tomatoey. The tortillas, are not suprissingly, not crisp. And they are fairly thick. They absorb most of the juices in the container. There are lots of black olives mixed in, that seems to be the primary non-cheese non-tortilla ingredient. There is just a hint of spiciness to it, it really could use a little more spice. There are two servings per package but I don't see anyone eating just half of this. I was most of the way through the dinner before I realized that, so consider it as having 430 calories. Other than that it is pretty tasty and a nice change of pace from what I usually eat. I have seen other people comment that theirs didn't have many olives at all, so I guess it is a bit hit or miss. (215 calories; 7g fat; 27g carbs; 13g protein; 25% sodium; per half package)

Ethnic Gourmet: Chicken Biryana

Seasoned white meat chicken cooked with cauliflower, carrots, and green peppers, served over brown rice. The rice came out a bit gooey, I think because of the yogurt sauce on it. The chicken was ok, the vegetables were pretty good. I am pretty sure that one of the vegetables was yellow squash, but that wasn't listed on the ingredients, odd. I don't have alot of experience with microwave indian food, so I don't know how it compares, but I do know that it wasn't nearly as good as an indian buffet. Ethnic Gourmet lists this as All natural, no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives and minimally processed. (390 calories; 12g fat; 54g carbs; 16g protein; 45% sodium)

Lean Cuisine: Chicken Carbonara

One of Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Cafe Classics. Roasted chicken tenderloins with bacon and mushrooms over linguini. The sauce was creamy and there was plenty of it. I was a bit suprised at how much I could taste the bacon in it. The noodles came out fine, not mushy or stuck together. The tray has the sauce, chicken, and mushrooms on one side and the noodles on the other, you get to mix them together. The chicken was a disappointment it was tastless and mushy, not a good texture. I also would have like another piece of it. There also weren't enough mushrooms, I think there were only four slices. Overall, my feelings were mixed, good sauce and noodles, bad chicken. (270 calories; 7g fat; 33g carbs; 19g protein; 26% sodium; 6 weight watchers points)

Lean Cuisine: Ginger Garlic Stir fry with Chicken

one of Stouffers Lean Cuisine Spa Cuisine classics. snap peas & broccoli with white meat chicken & whole grain rice ina ginger garlic sauce. New! with Twice the Veggies! (of an average lean cuisine entree ((excluding dinnertime selects)) ). This microwave meal does have more veggies than most lean cuisine's (although most of them are pretty weak on vegetables) This has plenty. It also has a resonable number of chicken chunks. Chalk up two wins for them. The taste is decent, a little sweet and I really couldn't taste the ginger but it was an enjoyable meal. It comes in at a reasonable 290 calories, lots of protein and not much fat. (290 calories; 4g fat; 46g carbs; 17g protein; 27% sodium; 5 weight watchers points)

Lean Cuisine: Beef Portabello

One of Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Cafe Classics: Roasted beef with mushrooms and red skin whipped potatoes. This frozen dinner has a winner of a sauce. A good flavor that goes well with the beef and mushrooms. The beef is decent, it is tender but it doesn't have much flavor on its own, that's ok because it gets the sauce's flavor. The mushrooms were less impressive, not quite rubbery, but not quite the right texture for a portabello mushroom either. The potatoes were good, although a bit dry, mixing sauce in with them makes them much better. I also have problems with them being called whipped, more like smashed, there were large chunks of potato in them. I liked how they were done, but they're not whipped. It weighs in at only 220 calories, I would like it to have a few more. Overall, this is a good bit of frozen food. (220 calories; 6g fat; 25g carbs; 16g protein; 28% sodium; 5 weight watchers points)

Ventera Ranch: Stuffed Chicken Breasts

These Chicken Breasts come stuffed with white and wild rice, carrots, red bell peppers, and shitake mushrooms. There is also a separate packet of a hawaiian glaze sauce. I think that the most suprising part of this was that the chicken breasts were so big. You sort of expect lots of stuffing and not much chicken, but just the opposite was true, there was lots of chicken and not a whole lot of the rice stuffing. The chicken was moist and tender and the glaze had a hint of sweet, but not much. The rice was the weakest part, it didn't have much flavor, and as I noted above, there wasn't much of it. There were also a few places on the chicken where I had to cut fat off. Over all, not a bad experience, especially one that takes less than ten minutes. (140 calories; 2g fat; 6g carbs; 23g protein; 20% sodium; per 5 oz serving).