Prego Parmesan Basil

Occurs to me that there are a lot of sweet things I don't like for being sweet. Maybe I'm internally inconsistent. No, no, couldn't be. Anyway, this is one such. It's also not on the Prego website (aka Campbell's website), so it's probably discontinued, nearly expired, and bad. Furthermore, what IS on the Prego website is a bunch of "protein" pasta sauces loaded with pea protein, which will kill me. This isn't one of those sauces, but the risk of cross-contam or mislabeling is enough to make me hate and fear this, sugar aside. While I'm piling on, it also says "contains 40% daily serving of vegetables", which is so absurd because that can only refer to tomatoes, and as any linguist will tell you, a tomato is not a vegetable. Let's try to ignore all those things for now.

The taste is a little bitter. Like the vomit-flavor of a Hershey bar, so say the haters. I do note the parmesan, but not really the basil. Even among Pregos, it's not a favorite. Plus it's probably heartburn city. Will I finish the jar? Probably. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [2.50]
Taste: 5/10 

Swanson Chicken Stock

I didn't realise Campbell's owned Swanson, but it makes sense -- they are big broth players. So, I needed stock for a gazpacho recipe, and although there were many choices, this one actually had the clearest ingredients -- it's just "stock" (assuming chicken + water?) and veg that aren't beans and peas. So, I got this one, and I consumed the consequent soup with no issues. I can't actually speak to the taste because I didn't try it on its own, but I guess it's pretty mild and wet. I can't complain, and it didn't kill me, so I'd definitely get this again. Word to the wise -- it says use within 14 days of opening!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Campbell’s Skillet Sauces - Chicken Marsala

Was this good? Definitely not. Was this better than I'd feared it would be? Yes. It smelled like marsala (wine+mushroom), which is nice, but it didn't taste like mushroom or garlic at all, and it had too much tomato in it (in my opinion, any is too much). No soy protein though! And easy to use. But I would not get this again, it was very "generic wet". 

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

Campbell's Chunky Classic Chicken Noodle

This is in a very handy microwave container, and only takes 1 minute to heat up and only has 190 calories! I also thought it tasted pretty decent, there were a lot of noodles and chicken chunks and the carrots were nice, and of course the broth was comforting on my vaguely sore throat. So I was eating this and thinking "ah, I should get more of these". A good endorsement, right? But then, when I finished, I felt that itchy-lip allergy feeling, a tightness in my throat, and general weirdness. I think beyond it just being anxiety, I'm actually mildly allergic to this. I don't know why, or what it is - I always guess it's the soy protein, but I don't have trouble with other soy-containing foods nearly as much, so it's a bit of mystery. That said, I learned not to get this again, even though it seems otherwise good. So if you have allergies like me, be cautious - otherwise, go for it!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste with fear: 4/10

Campbell's Chicken with Rice

This is great to have on hand when you're sick and every food hurts you. However, I had one on hand and ate it when not sick, because I was very hungry and lazy. It was not very good in that circumstance. The rice is a little buttery, which is nice, but of course it's mostly (bland) broth and tiny tiny pieces of soft carrot/chicken/celery. Just really tasteless and not much content. Which is, again, good if you're sick, but really disappointing if you actually have an appetite and taste buds. So future-me will now know better and will save this for sick-futurer-me.




Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 5/10

Campbell's Kickin' Buffalo Style Chicken Soup

It had been a while since I had canned non-chicken-noodle soup, so I thought I was due to give it a try. I regret this! Soup is gross. I wasn't even allergic to it (no peas, not that much soy I guess) but it was just really bad. It even looks gross! Don't buy this, you guys!!

Overall
Taste: 4/10
Cost: 5/10 [3.00]