Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Hearty White Bread

Hm. Has Pepfarm always made bread? I trust them with allergens, so it seemed like a good bet to get this fancy looking bread. The slices are very large -- too big for my normie toaster, even! They worked well for a classy grilled cheese, but as I moved into Regular Sandwich and Normal Toast territory, I felt like this bread tasted weird. And it does taste different than normal white bread, for sure -- maybe more sour, like barley or sourdough? It's not sweet, even though there is sugar in the ingredients (and boo to that). I think if you're mentally prepared for the flavor and not expecting potato bread or wheat bread, it does the job well. I might try a different type next though!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Tabatchnik New York Style Chicken Broth with Noodles & Vegetables

This tasted almost identical to their other chicken soup with dumplings, just with more noodles in it (and no dumplings). Same difficult greasy frozen pack to open, but otherwise the cooking was unproblematic (I did have to add an extra minute of cook time though). Really, there's sort of a weird taste to this -- corn starch? Chicken fat? And there's very little seasoning or salt flavor, which is quite different from a canned soup. Nevertheless, it's allergy-friendly, and therefore good to have around for sick days (as I experienced today!).

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Checkers aka Rally's Famous Seasoned Fries

Despite my blog's contents, I'm really not a fan of french fries, especially frozen ones. But as far as frozen fries go, I liked these a lot. They're a little thinner than the typical frozen fry, and they have a copious amount of black pepper (and other mysterious seasonings and MSG) on 'em. They cook up nicely and, as with all fries, go great with Arby's sauce. I only got these as they were on clearance, but now I'm kind of sad I won't see them in my store in the future!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Arby's Sauce

Yes! Yes! I'm what you might call an Arby's Superfan. They're like, the Dunkin of beef. And my favorite Arby's sauce is, uhhh, Arby's sauce. It's a nice ketchup-bbq hybrid. Goes with sandwiches and also sides. A beautiful thing, and not cream based so it doesn't even make you feel physically ill. Therefore, this condiment bottle is great for me, and certainly more convenient than hording a bunch of little packets. It tastes just like the real thing, but I can store it in my fridge without looking like a pervert! God bless, Arby's.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [4$]
Taste: 8/10

Eggo Grab & Go Liège-Style Waffles - Buttery Maple

Cute! It's a shame you only get 4 waffles per box, because these are pretty good. So far I've tried them both "thawed" and "toasted" and toasted is much much better. Thawed is a bit like an uncooked waffle, if you could believe it. But toasted they're a nice, warm-ish, sweet treat. I do really like the pearls of sugar on there. I don't LOVE maple flavor but it's not too overpowering on these, and the other flavor (strawberry?) might be more my speed. Good stuff though.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Birds Eye Quick Roasters Halved Brussels Sprouts

I wish I remembered how much I paid for this, but I can promise you, it was too much. The reason it's only 130 calories and a flat AF bag is that there's approximately 6 brussels sprouts in here. Very small amount of food. Cooks up fine, although the end result is more "smooshy" than "crispy roasted", but the flavor is good and I like being able to buy brussels sprouts I don't have to prepare myself. However, not like this. I need a family pack or a mix with other veg to fill it out, or something. Also my breath is truly rank afterward, buyer beware (good for single old ladies like me though, woe)!

Overall
Cost: 3/10?
Taste: 7/10

Progresso French Onion Soup

Oh no. To be fair, the only French Onion soup I've had 'til now has been on cruises, as far as I remember. But it's delicious there, like hot oniony cheese and broth. This was very far from that, even though I melted provolone cheese on top and made toast. It actually made me feel pretty nauseous and I couldn't finish it (although I did eat most of the cheese). The flavor was just weird -- too sweet? Too fake? I'm not sure, and nothing in the ingredients stood out, but it was just unpleasant. Soy free though! :p

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 3/10

blueberry pomegranate bubly

This tastes like blueberry and nothing. It tastes a little bit more like nothing than the other bubly flavors, I think. The light blueberry vibe is OK, not amazing but not upsetting and not really medicinal either. I don't hate it. Classic bubly!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Gönc Winery "Canvas" Pet-Nat Pinot Blanc, NV

Now this is a beautiful bottle. Looks like a fancy huge beer, which is right up my ethos alley. Really nice stuff, right down to the beer-bottle-cap. It is a fizzy drink, so although the top didn't shoot off, it bubbled like a prototypical champagne. Good vibes but so wasteful, thought I. The smell was really beer-y and appealing. The taste was nice too, sweet and not too tart or acidic, but not simple either. Really, it was almost beer like in taste, too. Had that little sourness to it. It definitely got more acidic on Day 2, but Day 1 was pretty great. Would definitely get again -- too made they made a limited number of these!

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [24$]
Taste: 7/10

Applegate Naturals Prosciutto

All I know about prosciutto is that it's raw pig but you don't have to cook it. Sounds sketchy, right!? But it's also a fancy Italian meat, and although I'm allergic to nuts, I too love a good meat'n'cheese platter. So I'm a fan of the genre even though it's a bit weird to think on (maybe due to my Jewish & vegan adjacency). Anyway, this is solid -- very salty, as is, I think, normal, but nice fresh thin slices here, 6 in total, nicely separated and good to store for 7 days. Worked well with cheese, bread, egg, and solo; cooked and raw. The texture is real chewy, but the taste is solid. That's just a general prosciutto review though basically -- as iterations go, this is a good one.

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 6/10

Primo Taglio Manchego Cheese

Store brand manchego cheese, but imported from Spain? I guess so! This cheese did its job at Melting to make Good Grilled Cheesers, and it was a great texture and pretty unremarkable taste. I also tried it cold, and it had a stronger flavor there, but not a delicious flavor to me -- kinda "funky" rather than "creamy" (and I prefer the creamy or spicy cheeses). So, this did what it intended but I don't think it's worth 10 bucks in the future! 

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 6/10

Menestrello Prosecco Brut DOC

Bubbly! Much better than Bubly. But is the fizz worth the pop? It's hard to say. This was a real banger of a corksplosion! Point away from your face, kiddos (me). Anyway, this was a lot drier than I expected. Very tart/acidic -- yes, fizzy, which is big fun, but not sweet at all, which is not the champ vibe I'm used to. Maybe Prosecco isn't as good of a gay drink as the internet led me to believe. It basically tasted like a pinot grigio. Woe, alas. 

I did pair this with the recommended Spanish Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Manchego and Jamón Serrano, which was better than I'd expected -- like a tasty grilled cheese with a little sweetness and some classy Euro meats. Who doesn't love a classy Euro meat? So overall it was still a win for me.

 

Overall
Cost: 6/10 [14$]
Taste: 6/10

Popcorners - Cinnamon Crunch

I thought this was a solid, sweet flavor of pop-corners! They weren't too corny, which is key. The cinnamon sugar tastes good and is a nice, crunchy, light, sweet snack. It's a little boring, like Taco Bell's cinnamon twists, but it's still pleasant. The bag is pretty, too. Way better than the "sea salt" flavor!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

abe's Blueberry muffins

Alas! So most importantly, these muffins are free from my allergens (nuts, sesame, pea, legume) very explicitly. And they have wheat in them, so they're not top-8 free, and therefore I hoped they might taste.... normal. But they're vegan, and they taste it. Thus the "alas". They also taste very lemony, which I wasn't expecting. It's not bad, it just isn't the prototypical bakery muffin of my dreams. I think they're a little too dry, spongy, and dense all at once. The flavor is OK though. They also don't have wrappers, which I actually like. More bang for your buck!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

White Peach Ginger Bubly

Woah, bubly's getting a little too fancy for me. I like peach and I like ginger, so this is a good bubly. It mostly tastes like soft peach. Light peach. Tender peach. I don't get a ton of ginger or other spices, but that's OK. I can imagine someone is baking a peach pie 5000 miles away, and that's all I need to get by.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

2016 Jovino Pinot Gris

Lately I've really been on a red wine kick if I drink wine at all, so it was kind of fun to go back to a classic white! This is from Oregon, so it's nice and local, too. The tasting notes felt pretty accurate. It is indeed bright and tropical fruit-y, but also QUITE acidic! A long aftertaste, tingly, papaya/pineapple vibe. Not a chuggable wine by any means, but not too dense either. Probably would pair with Mexican food if I had any laying around.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Progresso Cheese Tortellini Soup

This is the rare canned soup with no peas, beans, lentils, or soy protein. Unfortunately, it's a tomato soup base, and I never liked those! Smells like sketti'os. Easy to heat, and the taste is OK if you like tomato soup. Good chunks of carrot and zucc in there. The noodles are few and floppy, and they REALLY add to the sketti'o vibe. I don't hate it, though, just because it's so rare to find a safe soup and I love the food category of "soup". Decently filling/healthy, but again, very tomatoey.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Goldfish - Dunkin' Pumpkin Spice Grahams

As you probably know, I'm a sucker for Dunkin' branded products. And Goldfish are a nice safe food franchise. So, I can't resist a Dunkin/Goldfish collab. Ultimately, these are solid but not earth-shattering, which is about right. They are a sweet graham cracker, a bit like a teddy graham but a softer texture. The taste does evoke the pumpkin donut on the packaging! There's a smudge of real pumpkin, as well as the usual pumpkin spice spices. It goes with graham pretty well, and isn't too overwhelmingly sweet (like a Vanilla Cream goldfish would be I bet), so I would get these again. Also they're cute lil fishes.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Blackberry bubly

This bubly tastes (or maybe smells?) very similar to this pink liquid medicine I had a lot as a kid. I guess it was bubblegum flavored. Anyway, it was good for medicine, but not amazing for a drink. I don't get a strong "blackberry" flavor from this, anyway. But it's OK, just not amazing.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Michael Angelo's Eggplant Parmigiana

This was not too shabby, friends! The price is still cheesing me off, but otherwise, this tasted nice and was a good texture and quantity, too. I like eggplant and having 3 whole fried pieces of it, with cheese! in sauce! seems almost decadent. I guess living alone + pandemic diet is still weighing on my psyche. In any case, it was tasty. No complains other than the price.

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 7/10

Pineapple Bubly

Fun new (to me) bubly! I like the pretty yellow can, and the flavor is a solid one too. Definitely pineappley, no weird notes or vibes, a little coconut reminiscent but I think that's just as they're often paired. I'd bubble with this li again.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Nature's Turn Peach Crisps

Just what the market needs...more dried fruit crisps! Ha! These are cutely packaged, at least. And as dried fruit goes, peach is one of the most flavorful, so it has that going for it. There was also a fairly decent portion in here compared to some other brands. Texture still deeply boring, though.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Michael Angelo's Lasagna With Meat Sauce

I ate this extremely resentfully, because it was labelled as 3$ at my store and that's the only reason I bought it, but it rang up as 7$ and even though I said "this should be three dollars" they said "nope, too bad". Darn you, local Acme with only self-checkout that I am too honest to ever rip off and it only ever rips me off. But if I ignore my rage, this is a solid lasagna (for 3$, not for 7$). It's decently filling, there's a lot of tomato sauce, but it's good sauce, spicy and not too watery. Just a little meat and just a little cheese on top, and a decent amount of watery ricott and noodle. It doesn't look like the picture, but it tastes like a quality frozen lasagna. Maybe a bit better than Stauffer's.

Overall
Cost: 3/10
Taste: 7/10

School Safe Brownie Bars

Heck yeah, school-safe. Gotta love these Canadian heroes. I didn't freeze these yet, so that might change things, but fresh they're pretty solid treats. Sweet but not too painfully so, a nice "chew" to the bite, and a strong choco flavor. Yum-o.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

White Castle Classic Cheese Sliders

Hmm. These are weird because I've been to White Castle before (exactly once) and tried a bunch of sliders there and overall thought they were pretty gross and bad. Certainly worse than Main Street Sliders or Deer Park or any resto slider (or Arbys!). However, it's rare to get burgers in my life, and these are totally free of pea and soy protein, which is impossible to find nowadays (which is ridic, but I digress!!!). So they were really expensive and not that good really, but safe and at home and Meat so that was nice. Even the lil onions didn't bug me too much. I will say I made these from frozen, so the buns were a bit chewy, but overall it wasn't terrible. Reminded me of a Kid's Cuisine cheeseburger! They didn't necessarily fulfill a craving, but they were fun and decent. 

Overall
Cost: 4/10 {about 9$)
Taste: 7/10

Tabatchnick Chicken Broth with Noodles & Dumplings

I never expected to venture into the frozen soup space, but this is a rare chicken noodle soup that has zero soy protein in it. Amazing. A true blessing. It's weird to make because it's a frozen block of soup that sort of overhangs any normal human sized bowl, so you have to have a plate underneath and an active stirring mindset, but overall the cooking was still fairly simple. The result is much less saltier/flavorful than I expected, given the salt content, but that's OK - I don't mind a bland, hot chicken water. The noodles are good, firm, eggy, and plentiful, and the little carrot squares are also good. The dumplings (n=2) are weird balls of cornmeal, not noodle/flour, but they're filling I guess. Overall, this is OK if you need a chicken soup. I don't yearn for it but I was happy to have it yesterday when I came home with a budding illness! And I'll definitely try out their other pea-free options.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10