Lean Cuisine Roasted Vegetable Pizza

This pizza is all right. Actually, it was better than I expected. Obviously it doesn't taste like a stereotypical pizza, more like a small healthy circle with a bit of low-fat cheese on top and some tomato pieces, but all together it's not bad. The crust is thick, soft, and almost buttery, and the flavor overall is pleasant. It's not very big, but it's filling enough to be a quick dinner (or lunch). It's easy to make and it's a good deal if it's on sale.



Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10

Guest Post: Biscoff Spread

This stuff is not a peanut butter substitute. Ok, yes, it's the same color and comes in a jar and you can eat it on bread with jelly, but Biscoff spread is now in my mind a completely different concept. I want everyone in the world to try Biscoff spread and then really evaluate if we ever need to eat peanut butter again as a society. Seriously. It's not the same. Don't go into it thinking that it'll smell or feel like peanut butter. It's not nearly as sticky as peanut butter or as thick. There's this picture on the top of the jar of a Biscoff cookie being crumbled up into the jar to form this spread, and that's as accurate of an understanding of the taste as I can give you using words. It's like cookies. You can just eat it by the spoonful. Or put it on toast or a cracker or scoop it up with a piece of chocolate and then just renounce peanut butter for the rest of your life. It's even a dollar cheaper than the I.M. Healthy SoyNut Butter (without a coupon)! I haven't tried cooking with it because I honestly don't want to waste a spoonful of it just in case it doesn't turn out well. It has an allergen warning for wheat and soy, so it's another great alternative to peanut butter if you want a jelly and something sandwich. Also, if you're a life-long peanut-allergy-haver, this would be the PB-alternative you should try first if you feel left out of the PB&J world.

Overall

Cost: 6/10

Taste: 10/10 (yes, it's that good!)

Maruchan Chicken Yakisoba Noodles

Since this is so cheap, I had to try it! This particular brand/flavor has NO PEAS! Which is great. It is a may contain for seafood, but not for nuts, so I considered it safe. I followed the directions precisely but it came out pretty watery. Luckily, that really doesn't affect the flavor at all when it comes to something like this. The noodles are pretty much standard chicken ramen noodles. The veggies are all right - pretty much what you'd expect, a few limp corn and cabbage pieces. The flavor is all right, and it is pretty filling, especially for the price. Ultimately I don't like the taste very much, but it's cool to have the option to buy something like this anyway!

Overall
Cost: 9/10
Taste: 6/10

Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia

Looks good, doesn't it?! This is one of the better ice cream flavors I've tried, but actually, it isn't quite as good as I remembered/hoped. I recall a Healthy Choice Cherry Chocolate Chunk ice cream (that they don't make any more, of course) which I liked way better. Anyway, enough memories!
This ice cream is good. It has a decent amount of semisweet chocolate bits, and large cherry halves. The chunks are great. The ice cream itself is vanilla, I think (perhaps cherry-vanilla, but in reality it tastes like vanilla) and it's pretty standard. So in sum, I like it, but I don't love it. It's a basic, solid flavor for me.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Pasta & Vegetables in Creamy Cheese Sauce

Pasta & Vegetables, yum. Birds eye makes a couple of these pasta/sauce/veggie box combos, and they're all pretty good. (Aside: my favorite, radiatore pasta, doesn't exist any more :()
This side dish IS a side dish, so it isn't super filling. But it's pretty healthy for what's basically glorified mac and cheese, and the veggies (corn, broccoli, carrot) all are very good and enhance the cheese sauce (which is very nondescript on its own) and the pasta well. I like this! It makes a great snack/mini-meal.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Guest Post: I.M. Healthy SoyNut Butter

Hello, Peanut Free Food Reviews! I'm the infamous Laura from "Laura says yum yum yum!" and other great hits! Now that we're no longer roommates, Katilina and I still want to share our food experiences, so she let me come guest-blog here for a while. So lately I've been picking up peanut-butter substitutes and things from companies that focus on allergen-free foods. I'll be starting off with the peanut-butter replacements, and the first is this one: original I.M. Healthy SoyNut Butter!

This is the first peanut butter substitute I ever tried! For me, this is the perfect peanut butter replacement if you're looking for something that tastes and feels like real peanut butter, but isn't. It's pretty expensive (at $6.29 a jar!) but if you give them feedback on their website, they'll send you coupons! A lot of coupons. They sent me ten coupons. This stuff is made of soy nuts, but you honestly can't tell the difference. It's just as sticky and works great on faux PB&J sandwiches. It also bakes well! I made three-ingredient peanut butter cookies with, of course, this soynut butter instead and they turned out great. Overall, I'd really recommend this for people who are related to people who have allergies and get the urge for peanut butter or who developed allergies later in life and have been missing peanut butter. Katilina says all peanut-butter replacement things would be way too real for her, and I think this one especially is just too peanut-buttery for those of you who are understandably peanut-phobic.

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 7/10

Pepperidge Farm Brussels Cookies

Pepperidge Farm always makes me a little anxious because their ingredient statements don't contain an allergen statement or any bolding or anything like that. However, after reading the ingredients carefully, I've never had a problem with any of their cookies or crackers (and I've had quiiite a few of them). These Brussels cookies are 2 crispy cookie pieces encasing a thin layer of chocolate. This sounds a lot like Milano, but it's different! First of all, they're circular! The cookie pieces are a totally different texture - thinner, crispier, and they have a hint of coconut. (warning: don't eat if you're allergic to coconut). I like these a lot.

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 9/10

Stewart's Root Beer

So, this is a great root beer! I'm not a huge soda pop fan, but I really like soda in a glass bottle and this is one of my favorite root beer varieties. It's got a good creamy flavor and a good spicy flavor and it doesn't have a bad aftertaste like some mainstream brands do. Plus, the bottle makes it so darn fun to drink!

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 9/10

Prego Garlic & Herb Sauce

OK, I don't really like this flavor either! Maybe I'll never find the perfect sauce. I mean, it's all right, it's just -- plain. Tastes like garlic and oregano, I guess. No chunks of anything. Doesn't really add anything to a pasta dish, it's just kind of there. So if you want to play it safe with some picky eaters, maybe this is the sauce for you!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Prego Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Sauce

Man, I'm really striking out this week! This sauce isn't my favorite. I like Prego Sauces overall, so I'm trying to find the most delicious one, but this isn't it. I don't know what I was expecting, but this tastes a lot like red pepper. I guess I would prefer more garlic flavor, or more tomato, or more chunks, or more SOMETHING else. But if you like red pepper, by all means, get this sauce! Personally, I like Mushroom and Garlic much better (so far).





Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10 (for me)

Kid Cuisine Flip n' Dip Pancakes

First, word to the allergy-wise: there's almond extract in this, but it's not listed on the allergen statement, so if you've got almond issues, be careful! Second, yes, I know this is for children, but it was on sale. No, really. Anyway, this consists of two pancakes with a strange mapley flavor that even syrup (not included) can't mask, one sausage link that was good despite being not at all warm when cooked as directed, some tasty tater tot circles, and some Very Sweet but OK "fruit compote". I probably will not get this again, even if it IS one dollar. The food amount is OK, especially for kids, and it's much healthier than I expected (things have certainly changed at Kid Cuisine over the last 10 years I guess) but it just doesn't taste very good.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 4/10

Stouffer's Steak & Swiss Stuffed Melt with Broccoli Cheddar Soup

This just wasn't very good. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't good. The soup tasted extremely processed, not at all like real cheese, and it only had a few big chunks of broccoli. The panini was fairly tasteless, slightly soggy, and contained only a few highly processed bits of 'steak' meat. The amount of food was good, although the panini was a little small for the soup size. The cooking was easy. I just wouldn't recommend this, because it really has no outstanding qualities.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Stouffer's Chicken Alfredo Flatbread Melt

So this tasted a lot better than the previous few meals I had eaten, and I realise now that it's probably because the fat content is 3 times higher. However, this flatbread melt WAS pretty good. It cooks like a pizza, and even once you fold it over, it basically tastes like a (frozen) white pizza with thick crust. Pretty good, though. The bread isn't too chewy and the inside (cheese, broccoli, chicken, black pepper) is very tasty. If you like "alfredo pizza" you'll probably like this.





Overall:
Cost 7/10
Taste 7/10

Healthy Choice Pineapple Chicken

This pineapple chicken, consisting of a few pieces of tempura-battered chicken, carrots, pineapple, red pepper, grainy rice, and mild sauce, is like a poor man's version of sweet and sour chicken. Everything is OK, I guess, but it kind of tastes like a Banquet frozen meal (i.e. bad quality stuff) even though it is of a higher caliber, supposedly. The rice is the exception; it's clearly a healthy, whole-grain type rice and it tastes fine, although it is a bit crunchy which is almost offputting after eating a bunch of typical soggy white rice in other frozen meals. The flavor is OK, not great, and the chicken is pretty good. I prefer the sweet and sour chicken, though, so I'll probably just get that next time. The sauces in the two are almost identical, after all.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 5/10

Lean Cuisine Chicken Marsala

There are worse things than lacklustre frozen meals, I know, but even so I was kind of disappointed with this. I like "regular" chicken marsala a lot, but this meal tastes nothing like that. The sauce is very different - not very mushroomy or marsala-y, instead it kind of just tastes like brown gravy. The copious noodles/random green beans are pretty flavorless, and the two chicken patties are OK but rather thin and highly processed. There are also some bread crumbs throughout the meal -- I'm not sure what that's about. I won't buy this one again!

Overall:
Cost 6/10
Taste 4/10

Yoplait Light Apple Turnover Yogurt

For some reason, this flavor doesn't come in a non-light version, so it's the only "light" yogurt I buy. I buy it because it's very good! It's my favorite yogurt, I think. It's a vanilla-y yogurt with a slight cinnamony-spiced-apple taste and occasional chunks of apple mixed in. I couldn't eat a bunch of these at once or anything, but when I'm in the mood for yogurt, this is great. It's not too "yogurty" tasting, and it's not too "sweet fruitlike goo" tasting, so I highly recommend it if you like apple.



Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 7/10

Stouffer's Meat & Sauce Lasagna (made with whole grain pasta)

When I think of frozen lasagna, this is what I think of! And it's...all right. I vastly prefer the veggie version, but this is OK too. My main issue with it is the "meat", which is a bit sausagey for my taste and kind of makes my mouth itch to boot. The sauce is good pasta sauce, there's a good amount of cheese (i.e. not too much) and the noodles aren't cold or burnt. It's well-made, I guess I just don't really like meat lasagna very much. Also it takes almost 10 minutes to cook! I'm hungry NOW! :P

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 5/10

Kroger Jelly Beans

I want to make note of these jelly beans because peanut-free standard jelly beans aren't easy to find. These are the big ones that you see around easter time, not the small, chewier, strongly flavored jelly belly type. (The only other 'regular' ones I've seen that are safe are from K-Mart, and those are good too!)
Anyway, this has a good color assortment - grape, licorice, coconut, lime, cherry, lemon, strawberry. I think. They're all pretty tasty and I can definitely eat a ton of these things at once. At 2 bags for 3 dollars, I'd probably buy these up fairly often if I lived near a Kroger(s). So check it out if you can! Yum.

Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 8/10

Lean Cuisine Chicken Enchilada Suiza

Overall, this is one of my favorite Lean Cuisines, although I have to admit it's mainly because of the sauce. The rice and enchilada themselves are both pretty good, but not great, and pretty dry. Luckily, there is a good amount of "sour cream sauce" which is nice and spicy/cheesy and makes everything taste great. I really like it. The chicken inside the enchilada isn't fresh, chunky chicken, it's quite smooshy and processed, but that's fairly typical for this kind of enchilada. Honestly it doesn't have much flavor on its own, and even the rice is fairly bland despite the corn and peppers in it. The sauce is really good though!
Oh, and allergy tip - there's a very similar Smart Ones frozen meal called chicken enchiladas suiza, and it has a nut allergy warning, so don't buy that one!!!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10