Kashi started out with some good cereals and bars, then they were sold to another company ten or so years ago. New cereals coming out had a fair amount of sugar so I stick to my oatmeal. But I did try their frozen individual black bean burrito meal and it was tasty, if expensive for the amount. So when I saw this "steam meal" I had to try it, even if the price $4.79 was well, still high. But look how big the bag is for one serving.
This is the picture on the package (and on their website, kashi dot com)
This is what I got (I separated out the ingredients so you could see).
A cup of noodles in some "sauce", 1/4 cup of limp veggies (and I cooked at the minimum time on the package), and about three and a half anorexic strips of chicken. The noodles were whole grain but the "Parmesan sauce" tasted like salt, mixed with salt with a dash of salt.
click to enlarge photos, hypothetically speaking
The chicken was as tender as a parking meter and apparently whatever they painted the "grilled" marks on the cover picture with must have washed off during the steaming process. They advertise it as "natural" but it tasted just like those"brined with rib meat" breasts that you can buy at Big Box Mart in 20 pound bags. But their website says the "natural" means "minimally processed" with "no artificial sweeteners or preservatives", which simply means they didn't take the chicken out for a couple of martinis and Cirque du Soleil, before turning it into chicken bits.
I've had much worse tasting pre-packaged meals but mixed together, the contents of the bag wouldn't cover 1/4 of a normal size plate.
Frankly folks, this was about twenty cents worth of food, for which I paid close to $5.
I spent the majority of the day in tabletop exercises that involved neither a table or exercise. I donated blood with the Indiana Blood Center on my meal break. I washed and vacuumed the Bat Truck, which is roughly the size of Delaware. I wanted something that would fill me up.
It was like expecting THIS
Creamy Chicken and Noodles
In a pan on medium heat I sauteed a little chunk of an onion and a heaping half teaspoon of minced garlic, until softened, then added a couple leftover chicken breasts, sliced and just let it sit on warm for the flavors to mingle while I made the sauce and noodles (a small package of thick home style dried noodles).
The sauce was made from what was in the refrigerator.
Sauce:
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
- 1 (8 ounce) package light cream cheese, cut into cubes for easier melting
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic in a jar (or use a teaspoon of garlic powder)
- 1 cup milk (2% was what I had)
- 1 cup half and half (or unsweetened whipping cream)
- 3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
- 3 ounces grated Romano
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- heaping 1/4 teaspoon Italian Seasoning blend
- dash of red pepper flakes (less than 1/8 teaspoon)
While this is cooking, microwave or steam a couple of cups of fresh or frozen bagged veggies til tender crisp
Toss cooked sauce with hot pasta, chicken mixture and veggies. Serve with grated cheese and extra red pepper flakes.
Expect visitors to the table quickly.
She'll never notice me here.
