Stouffer's Macaroni & Beef

Apparently, this is a frozen food classic. Well, I'm sorry, America, but this is absolutely disgusting. It's not the quality that's the problem - the noodles are cooked fine, the portion size is fine - but the flavor is, in my opinion, 100% terrible. The sauce and the beef have a strange flavor: it isn't tomato sauce, it isn't cheese sauce, and it isn't a mixture. It's a bit like canned ravioli mixed with ketchup and chili sauce and some chunks of tomato. I won't be getting this again - but hey, some people like it!



Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 3/10

Lenders Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

First and foremost: these bagels have a "made in a nut free facility" notice printed on the bag, which is just delightful!

Anyway, I'm not sure if it's just childhood nostalgia talking, but these are my favorite store-bought bagel. They're frozen, which means they last way longer than fresh ones, and they're much smaller as well. I never manage to enjoy an entire fresh bagel without getting bored, so these are the perfect size. They're very fast to cook - either 25 seconds in the microwave or a minute or two of toasting. Chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside. They're good with butter or alone. These are great bagels! They have a decent amount of raisins and a good cinnamon flavor. (I also like the 'onion' and 'egg' flavors, if you're wondering).

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 8/10

Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail with Lime

I know that pretty much all drinks are peanut free, but I just bought this cranberry lime cocktail and thought it was surprisingly good, so I wanted to make a note of it. I really like cranberry juice straight, but sometimes it's a little too strong to guzzle down, and I'm not a big grape juice fan, which is basically in every cranberry juice cocktail no matter what. So this one is a great option for me. It's got a great lime flavor, quite strong but not overpowering the cranberry. It tastes like a flavorful limeade! I will definitely buy this again if I can find it.



Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Ben and Jerry's ice cream is one of my more trusted ice cream brands, as far as allergies go. They have good labelling, and I've never had any issues with the hundreds of ice creams from them I've probably eaten! Other ice cream brands (Dreyers/Edys, Breyers, Klondike) don't fare nearly as well in that area.
So anyway, this is a classic flavor! It's vanilla ice cream with gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough mixed in, as well as some semisweet chocolate chunks thrown in for variety. The cookie parts are the real treat for me (and for most humans, I'd assume), but the vanilla ice cream is quite good as well. And it's certified fair trade, if you care about that. This flavor is also available as a frozen yogurt version, which is much healthier and still quite good! When I want to buy a flavor I've already tried, it's either this or cherry garcia. My top two!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 8/10

Laura says: "I like it! 8/10"

Hungry Man Popcorn Chicken and Honey Rum BBQ Sauce

First thought: Wow, these Hungry Man dinners sure are bigger than lean cuisines! At roughly the same price when not on sale, it makes me feel like I'm wasting serious money on buying lean cuisines and the like. But for some reason, I keep doing it, possibly because Hungry-Mans (Hungry-Men?) don't leave me feeling too great afterwards. Anyway, on to the review.
The popcorn chicken here is fairly tasty and fairly large. They're basically 6 round chicken nuggets with a bit flakier of a coating than normal. Fun fact: after eating most chicken nuggets, I have an slight allergic reaction and get all itchy - I have no idea what it is, but kid's cuisine, banquet, swanson - all their chicken is right out. These chicken didn't cause any reaction, though, which I thought was cool. Maybe they don't use as many preservatives or something. (As you can see, my specific allergies are a mystery even to me.) But so the chicken is pretty good! It doesn't even require sauce, which is good, because the "spiced rum bbq sauce" isn't my favorite. It's got a strong flavor, and it's kind of sweet and - spiced, I guess? So a little goes a long way, and I didn't really use it much. The green beans have tiny onions mixed in, and they're just average. Not too crispy, but not inedible or anything. Same for the mashed potatoes - they're OK, I ate them all, but they could have used a bit more flavor.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 5/10

Laura says "Chicken nuggets and potatoes, yum yum! I like the sauce but not the beans. 7/10"

Lean Cuisine Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

This is a classic lean cuisine! It's pretty good - it doesn't taste like a "healthy meal" or anything, and it's pretty filling. The downsides: the noodles are kind of limp and soggy sometimes, or, alternately, crispy. They also clump together! But the flavor is pretty dead-on and there's a good sauce distribution. I like the inclusion of mushrooms very much, and there isn't much else in there - noodles, sauce, mushrooms, and a few tiny meat clumps. When I don't know what to buy, I usually end up grabbing one of these!



Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Laura says "I love it, the sauce! Yum yum. 8/10"

Celeste Pizza for One, Deluxe

Well, this definitely isn't healthy, but it is tasty! Although I think the recipe has changed a little bit for the worse over the last year, it's still good. This pizza is fairly small compared to the typical frozen pizzas, but it is "for one", after all. It has a much different taste than other frozen pizzas - less crust, different sauce and seasonings, a bit more soggy. The sausages are good, as is the cheese. It's super easy to cook and it's usually only a dollar! I will probably will buy this again when I need a pick-me-up.



Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 8/10

Laura says "Yum, pizza! 7/10"

Lean Cuisine Garlic Chicken

This Lean Cuisine is one of my favorites - in fact, it's one of my favorite frozen meals! That it's healthy is a bonus. It steams in a bag in the microwave and then you just pour it into a bowl, and it's always cooked just right. The meal consists of bow-tie pasta, chicken, broccoli, asparagus, carrots, and maybe some other veggies that don't stand out all in a tasty cheesy-garlic sauce. The veggies are good quality and the pasta is too. I will admit that the chicken isn't the best quality chicken - it's a little "processed"/cardboardy, but the sauce usually masks this deficiency. The portion size is decent, especially for a lean cuisine, and I'm usually satisfied afterwards. I will definitely buy this one again!




Overall
Cost: 5/10 (But if it's on sale, 7/10)
Taste: 8/10

Special K Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

I like granola bars, especially these special K brand ones, and I like raspberry cheesecake, so I thought these would be great! Unfortunately they didn't really live up to my expectations. Of course, they're only 90 calories each, so maybe I should be impressed! Basically they taste very fake and cloying, especially the "cheesecake" coating on the bottom. They aren't terrible, but I prefer the non-dessert flavors to these.




Overall
Cost 6/10
Taste 4/10