Could it be? A steamer product she doesn't like??

It might seem as though I’m a sucker committed entirely to any “steamer” meal Healthy Choice or Marie Callendar can offer me.  Well, I’ve found one that is not a favorite, proving that I may not be as much of a sucker as you think I am!

The meal of which I am speaking is Healthy Choice Café Steamers Chicken Pad Thai.  Now, I love pad thai, as a general rule.  But this meal doesn’t taste like what I expect pad thai to taste like; it tastes of more ginger, basil, and curry and no peanut flavor.  This experience caused me to second-guess my expectations of pad thai, which led to my search for pad thai recipes online.  What I learned was: a) pad thai does include peanuts and b) I am happy to just let the frozen food companies and Thai restaurants make pad thai for me – don’t think I’ll be cooking it anytime soon!  So many specialty items that could only be found in an Asian grocery store! 

In addition to the flavor, another unexpected, unwelcome element to this chicken pad thai is the type of pasta.  On the ingredient listing on the package, the pasta is identified as linguini, and this pasta definitely does have a thick, linguini texture to it.  It seemed to me like pad thai noodles are usually thinner and perhaps even glassy.  A quick glance through some of the online pad thai recipes indicated that the pasta generally used in pad thai is identified as “rice stick noodles” or “Thai rice noodles.”  I would certainly frefer the Asian noodles over the linguini. 

So there you have it.  My first not-so-favorable review of a steamer product. 

Details

Calories:  270
Fat:  3.5 g
Sodium:  540 mg
Notable good nutritional content:  40% Vitamin A / 35% Folic Acid
Notes on cooking:  one 3 ½ - 4 ½ minute single shot
Notes on packaging:  clear bowl and colander, reusable/recyclable