Birds Eye Mexican Street style Corn - Sauced

Another new frozen veg-type product! Granted, I haven't been to Mexico in a while, but I didn't expect this corn to be so Wet. There's a lot of sauce, and let's just say, it's not cotija. But I will admit that compared to yesterday's dill pickle potato, this corn is more successful in implementing its advertised flavor profile. It comes with stove and microwave cooking options, but since the front says "steams in bag" I went for the EZ microwave choice, and maybe that's why it's so soupy. Anyway, there are two types of corn in the ingredos: corn and fire-roasted corn (lol). It's true, about 1/8 of the kernels are browned, although you can't tell to taste it. There's also a good red pepper distribution; it's not too overwhelming but you definitely taste them. The sauce though. I dunno. It's not quite there. It's a parmesan/lime kinda deal, but (like the potatoes!!) I'm getting mainly a vinegar flavor, plus some wet microwave parm cheese sauce vibe. In the end you're getting a lot of corn, which I do like, and it is vaguely cheesy and vaguely limey, so the flavor profile is at least in the right ballpark. If they reduced the sauce by 50% and roasted the peppers and more of the corn, then maybe we'd be in re-buy territory. The reviews for this are very high, but I think there's some artificial inflation due to sampling programs (and I'm outta that game so -- this is THE HONEST TRUTH ABOUT YOUR FROZEN CORN!)

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [3$]
Taste: 6/10 

Birds Eye Meal Starters - Broccoli Alfredo

This was the only veg in sight at my parents' house, which is funny 'cause it's the kind of crap I would buy (source: this blog). Imagine, if you will, Hamburger helper, but frozen, smaller, and more expensive. Also more likely to give your girl a major tummyache (it lived up to this). Of course the 'meal starter' became the meal finisher because there was no chicken added, but I did throw in a few fresh camparis in the cooking phase, and it was pretty good. The leftovers didn't even cause me agony (yes I ate the leftovers because it was still the only veg in sight)! This didn't make it south of Rt 30 yet, but I would consider buying another 'Meal Starter' in future if the price is right.

Overall
Cost: ?/10
Taste: 6/10 

Birds Eye Steamfresh Seasoned Chicken Flavored Rice

Birds Eye ain't what it used to be... but neither am I! This has only milk as an allergen (although some random reviewer online who is allergic to "only cranberries and oysters" had a reaction, for whatever that's worth, lol), and as I'm always in search of new veg landscapes, I had to check it out. It is easy to cook, I'll give 'em that, although it smells a lot like canned chicken soup (no doubt due to the combo of chicken fat, corn protein, carrot, and onion). No soy though!! They promised!! The onions are really to its detriment, at least on first nibble/smell. The rice and seasoning and carrot/brocco is fine, but the onion flavor is overpowering. However, maybe it's the MSG talking, but this was pretty tasty. I wished there was more. I'm a fool... a fool for seasoned chicken flavored rice.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10 

Birds Eye Steamfresh Super Sweet Corn

I've eaten 5 distinct foodstuffs recently (=in my sick sick 48 hour day), and all of them were corn in some form. (Cereal, muffin, chip, popped, this). I don't even like corn in non-corn form!! Things are dire. Globally, personally, and cornlally. Is there a corn vitamin? I doubt it. My hindbrain yearns for ... salt? Who knows.

Anyway. I had some great store brand frozen corn last year before my fridge died, but this time I thought I'd try the Birds Eye for allergy phobia reasons. Well, it wasn't as good. Super sweet? Ha! Hardly! And so on. My reaction to this, even in delicious nacho, was "this is fine. nothing special. I like corn and this is corn, but it's small". That's right. It's small corn. Not plump. Just regular. I'll eat it but I'll return to the risk of Store Brand Corn next time. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Birds Eye Steamfresh Rainbow Cauliflower

This is cute and fun, and it was on sale which is the most cute and fun. Basically, it tastes like cauliflower, although the purple ones will turn your food purple, which is neat but also a bit gross looking. I thought the green ones might taste like brocco, but no, they're all just cauliflowers. The orange one is the prettiest. Thus ends my opinions on this product.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Birds Eye Voila! Lasagna With Meat Sauce Oven Bake Meal

The reviews of these are extremely bad, so I was kind of scared to try this. But, soy-free meat and it was on sale! There's very little cheese in this, but it makes 3 400-calorie servings, so it's a good amount of food. In fact, so much that it barely fit in my 8x11 pan (and they said to use 8x8!!). Takes over an hour to cook, though. The taste was not very good, in fact. There's just too many little sausage orbs and white onion cubes, and the sausages have a bit of a floral taste. No soy, but the vibes are very off nevertheless. Kind of like a McDonalds hamburger or a goulash. The sauce is not very present, and the noodles are wet and floppy. There's no cheese to speak of, nor red pepper. It's filling enough but it is definitely not my ideal lasagna (take out the sausage/onion and it'd be a million times better though). 

Update: the second serving of this was so hard to get through, even with cheese added and sausage picked around. I actually threw out the third serving. Really unpleasant vibe!

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (on sale for ~5$)
Taste: 4/10

Birds Eye Oven Roasters - Brussels Sprouts & Carrots

The big downside to the Oven Roasters line is that I gotta use the oven. And right now, my oven is very into "setting off the smoke alarm", if you know what I mean. So, that was a stressful 30 minutes. But other than that, and the fact that this is ten servings and I am one girl (although I ate 5 now, 5 later), I enjoyed it. The brussels are mostly salt-pepper-cooked and the carrots weren't as carroty or as sweet as I feared, they stayed fairly savory. Filling and I guess there's fiber in it at least!

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (although I bought 'em on super sale 9/10!)
Taste: 7/10

Birds Eye Oven Roasters - Zesty Ranch Broccoli

I didn't realise I was on such a Birds Eye kick, but apparently, I was (am?). This was not bad; not particularly ranchy, which is positive. Mostly it was a savory seasoning blend on my brocco. Filling-ish.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Birds Eye Cauliflower Tots

Honestly, my first reaction to these is that they taste like egg rolls! The texture is a bit like cooked diced cabbage and carrot, and the taste is vaguely oniony/savory/veg-esque. I thought they were pretty appealing, although they started to get gross after too many of them. I'm not sure what dipping sauce would be good, either -- Duck sauce??

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Birds Eye Steamfresh Broccoli & Cauliflower

This is probably better quality than my store brand "winter blend", but I think it also contains less veg. These stalks are really lush full pieces, which is good except you get like 10 total. Fine though, and the possibility of steaming is good even though I rarely take advantage.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Birds Eye Skillets - Balsamic Brussels Sprouts

This fell soundly into the realm of "fine". I wasn't expecting this to be a stove-top cooker (I know, I know, it's called Skillets....) so that was mildly annoying compared to the usual microwave, but it tasted maybe better? Maybe? I don't love vinegar in general, but the flavor here wasn't particularly intense, it mostly tasted of damp veg. Decent though.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Birds Eye Oven Roasters - Parmesan Peppercorn Cauliflower

OK, so even though this is called 'oven roasters' I was fully planning to microwave this, and I was shocked!! that it's only for ovens. Like they're fries or something! Anyway, the cooking was easy enough, and these tasted fine. Not really crispy, kinda still wet, but definitely cooked. They have a mostly pepper flavor, with some salt/garlic/parm vibes as well. Not bad, but not anything I'll seek out, either. Only 250 cals and decently filling, at least.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Birds Eye Shredded Veggies - Brussels Sprouts

These were 2+ months expired, but hey, they're frozen, right? I guess that's why there were on sale. Anyway, these are more plentiful in number than the previous frozen brussels review, so it was a more filling snack. You get a full bowl here, of decent sized pieces -- they weren't really what I'd call shredded, more like cut into pieces. They did have a light oil/salt/cheese seasoning, but for the most part they were mushy and more salty than anything. Decent taste and easy to make, so I'd get them again if they were cheap. Otherwise, I'll stick to the brocco-in-noodles that I'm used to.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

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

Birds Eye Steamfresh Broccoli Florets

Floret is a weird word, right? It's like, brocco is the only time you use it. But I digress. I got these at Walgreens since I'm avoiding the grocery, and these are the only brocco at Walgreens. They are more pricey than storebrand, but they taste pretty good, and are definitely easy to cook. The downside of the steam-in-bag is that you're likely to eat the whole bag at once at that point. But they are very tender, and mix with risotto! I was pretty happy with both the taste (no plastic/freezerburn) and the texture (soft, with a small crunch).

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Bird's Eye Three Cheese Chicken

This is so inferior to a noodle packet with veg, yet it's 4 times the price! What a racket. But somehow I still bought it, because like a dum-dum I thought it'd be a good idea to change things up.

The noodles in here are the radiatore noodles Bird's Eye used to make in a great box meal! I like the noodle shape. The veg (broc, corn, carrot) are also well done, no gross frozen veg flavor. The sauce is OK, but honestly a cheese sauce could be so much better (see: noodle packets). The worst part is definitely the chicken, it's super gross and chewy and soy-filled and I hate it. If you eat around the chicken, this is a fine meal, but not near filling or special enough to be worth the price.

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [5.60 on sale!]
Taste: 5/10

Bird's Eye Voila! Selects Beef Lo Mein

It looks like family size in the bag, but we made this a lunch-for-one, even though it makes a very heaping bowlfull. Just pop this in a pan and wait 10 minutes for...some mediocre "lo mein". I was worried it would be oversauced, but actually there isn't much sauce once it's done. Which is better than too much sauce, but it still wasn't great. There isn't a lot of flavor, just some mild soy/sesame/saltiness on what are more like linguine than lo-mein noodles. The veg are basically a non-entity, with just some carrots, onions, and maybe 1 bok choy bit. I wish there were no onions (what lo mein has onions?!) but the carrots are fine. The beef is tender, but very "frozen meal beef" flavored. It's decent and not too many calories, and I think it's better than microwave chow mein type meals due to the lower sauce ratio -- but definitely not great, and not very Chinese-y.



Overall
Cost: 5/10 (About 5$ at Giant)
Taste: 6/10

Bird's Eye Superfood Blends - Quinoa & Spinach

Sometimes you just need to eat some veg and you want something convenient. So, this caught my eye. I like spinach and quinoa, and it also has brown rice (good) and cranberries (weird but good) and red peppers (not my top veg, but fine). No allergens, so I went for it, especially since it's only 300 cals and fairly healthy and easy to cook. Overall it was a little bland for me, maybe too vinegary but also too plain or red peppery? I ended up liking the cranberries just because I like cranberries, but the rest was kind of an indistinct tasteless much. Which is OK, but not really enjoyable. I'm trying to think how I could improve it -- maybe some garlic and onion powder? Maybe crushed red pepper? I don't know, but it needs a little something. Edible though.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Birds Eye Steamfresh Rotini & Vegetables

This gave me a crazy stomachache after eating, so it lost a few points for that. Anyway, this is a very easy to cook (just plop the bag in the microwave) side dish, with decent nutrition facts, but the taste is nothing special and the noodles are weirdly soft. The veg are fine and the sauce is a little too buttery maybe? They used to make a box version of this which I liked much better. Still, if you're hungry in a pinch, this is alright, although probably not my first choice. It's decent for 2 bucks though, for sure (minus the random stomachache).




Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 6/10

Bird's Eye Vegetables & Shells in Garlic Butter Sauce

This is the classic Bird's Eye side that I think of when I think of Bird's Eye. It's been around for forever and it tastes pretty much the same. However, it used to include a few croutons, which I really loved. So now I always stir in a few croutons before I heat it up. (I highly recommend this!) Anyway, this is a great little side dish. The sauce is garlicy and plentiful, but not too excessive. The noodles are just kind of there, but the corn and green beans and broccoli all taste great, especially in the sauce. However, despite including some good veggies, this is a pretty unhealthy side dish in terms of fat/calories. So don't be tricked if you're trying to eat super-healthy!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 8/10