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 

Ben's Original Ready Rice - Lemon & Herb

After a long week of misery, I turned to this 90 second microwavable rice. Truly, you can't beat it for convenience. The taste was fully "fine". Lemony, which is not necessarily what I want in a rice, but it was unobjectionable. Same Ben's texture. Didn't kill me. Was filling, which is good because it was all I could work up the energy to make/eat for the day. Thanks, rice! But I probably won't buy this again -- the 'Spanish rice' flavor is still the mark to beat. 

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10 

Ben's Original Whole Grain Brown Rice

What a relief to be home safe in the land of My Own Rice. Brown rice is not quite as delicious as white rice, at least when you add the usual egg/garlic/veg/chicken to it, but it does seem more filling. I guess there's marginally more protein/iron/calos in it, but I'm not a rice scientist. I guess it's the same situation as the wheat~white pasta distinction, huh? A slight sweetness in the whole grain. Anyway, rice is great. Cheap, quick, easy, filling, no weird allergens, I guess there's toxic metals but like, whatever. 

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10 

Ben's Original Ready Rice - Tikka Masala

These are really convenient for travel, since you just heat and eat. They're also convenient for building empathy for old people who struggle with change, since I keep calling this by its old name and then stuttering in embarrassment. Anyway, as a flavor it's whatever. The smell was very strong; I thought turmeric but I read it as "sweet" like those vadham teas. Even though I know it's not sweet. I guess clove-y. Cloves are often paired with ham, which is a sweet meat. Ergo. Anyway, the rice is nice delicate basmati, and the flavor is not particularly strong, but it's not my favorite rice flavor profile -- I prefer the Spanish rice much more, or even plain. I am a sensitive soul though, especially lately. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Ben's Original Ready Rice Chili Garlic

Yoooo. I like the Spanish rice flavor a lot, and the plain and I think chicken are OK, but this one is not my fav. It's the same easy prep, but the flavor is a little chemically, as another reviewer noted. Even though I don't think there are chemicals/artificial flavors in here?? But it tastes like cleaning fluid or a mechanic's drain tray. A little. I think it might be the chili, or maybe the garlic. There's a spice to it, but also a bad flavor to it. Don't get this. OK, thanks.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 4/10

Lundberg Family Farms - Rice Pilaf

I always think I'm in for a Knorr-like experience with other rice and noodle packs, and I am always in for a shock instead. I followed the directions here, and yet this turned out so very firm and (even though it is gluten free) glutenous. Felt like I was eating some novel nordic grains or something instead of white rice. I guess the lesson is to add more water and cook it much longer than 20 min (and on the lowest possible heat). Other than the crunch, I guess the taste was fine. Very mild, herby side-dish-esque product. Not in my food repertoire, yet very unintense.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Uncle Ben's Ready Rice - Original

One real downside of the sickness quarantine at my boyf's house is that his food situation is not at all what my food situation is. For one thing, he didn't have Normal Ass Uncle Ben's Rice. But when he went to the grocery store he got this nice original rice packet, which is way better than nothing, Plus it takes only 90 seconds to cook and no stovetop. The taste is decent and the texture is a little bit dry, but not bad. The weirdness is that it comes from a plastic packet, so it smells a little "off" and seems unhealthy in a way. But the pluses: convenience, portion control, it is available in the quarantine. I'll eat it again I'm sure.

As for me: still alive, and rejected from urgent care! Hope to catch you tomorrow, alive and well. xoxo

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (everything's expensive these days)
Taste: 6/10

Seeds of Change Quinoa & Brown Rice

I got this as a random free sample, which was very cool. It was also so so quick and easy to cook, you just microwave it for 90 seconds like those Uncle Ben's rice packets. It smells good; nice and garlicy. Plus it's filling and a good source of protein. I thought the taste was fine, it wasn't very strong but just a nice light rice&garlic flavor. The texture is pretty chewy/crunchy because of the quinoa, so that takes a little getting used to if you eat a lot of non-crunchy rice dishes like I do. But ultimately I thought it was a good snack or meal base.




Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Knorr Rice Sides - Cheddar Broccoli

These Knorr rices just contain too many calories for one sitting (8-900!!) yet I always eat them all at once. It's one of many reasons I prefer the noodle packs. No self-control required with those! Anyway, this was good. Obviously not as tasty as the Cheddar Broccoli NOODLES, but it had a similar cheese/broccoli flavor, just ported to rice. It was quite filling (as you'd expect) and gave me a wee bit of heartburn, but if you have, like, a family, this is probably a good pick!




Overall
Cost: 8/10 [1$]
Taste: 6/10

Knorr Fiesta Sides - Taco Rice

Well, I must have liked this because I ate it all. It was moist and a wee bit spicy/hot. Apparently, there's cheese in the ingredients, so that probably explains why I liked it. I'm a sucker for cheesy carbs. I ate this unaccompanied, no veg mix-ins or anything. Yom.

Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 6/10

Knorr Garlic Parmesan Rice

This wasn't my favorite. I thought it was too creamy for rice, like a risotto, which I don't like. I guess I also don't like parmesan/asiago cheese, or at least not when mixed with rice. It was still edible, but made me wish I had another flavor instead. It does make a ton of food, more than the noodle packs, which is good if you have, like, a family, but actually bad for me because I ate it all and then I felt bloated. We learned a lot today.

Overall
Cost: 8/10 [1$]
Taste: 5/10

Knorr Chicken Broccoli Rice

This has the look of a classic Knorr rice side! I guess I haven't reviewed it before because I don't go for the rice nearly as often as the pasta. That said, it tastes basically just how you'd expect. Not bad, not very exciting, but a dependable filler. It's pretty salty, both in flavor and actual salt content. It also cooks really quickly!

Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 6/10

Knorr Selects - Spinach & Artichoke Rice

Ooh, Knorr "selects". These are new and this was on sale, so I was excited to try it. I figured it'd be fancier than just your standard Knorr rice packets, which are already quite good. Unfortunately this bad boy was worse than the unfancy ones. It was like bad orzo instead of rice, with a way too strong bad cheese flavor (possibly asiago?) which was not a flavor I enjoyed. It also didn't really cook down well; there was a bit of a crunch remaining. It didn't taste to me like a spinach/artichoke dip at all. I added veg to this to try to mute the flavor, but then it became like eating a chunky nothing-paste. A chore almost. There were little tiny bits of spinach in the rice, and those did add some small moments of joy. I recommend you get a regular rice pack instead of this! Although I will probably still try out the other new fancy ones sometime. . . obvi.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [On sale for 2$]
Taste: 5/10

Uncle Ben's Ready Rice - Jambalaya

This was spicy! Or more than the other Uncle Ben's rices I've tried so far, anyway, which to be sure is a low bar. It also made my face tingly, but I didn't die so I don't think it was an allergy thing, just a random food/spicy/??? thing. I thought this was a pretty decent rice packet, especially for just 400 calories, 90 seconds, and 1 dollar (yay, sale!). I didn't even add any veg or meat or anything to this, just ate it straight, and it was filling enough even then.





Overall
Cost: 8/10 [1$]
Taste: 6/10

Knorr Chicken Rice

This was filling and fine, but fairly boring as a rice side. I expected a little more from this. It didn't have a strong chicken (or anything else) flavor at all. It did have longer vermicelli pieces, which added a little touch of fun to the experience. I added brocco to this and it was an acceptable, if boring, dinner. At least this only requires water and butter (no milk) so it's convenient to make.






Overall
Cost: 7/10 [1$]
Taste: 6/10

Knorr Yellow Rice

I'm usually a huge proponent of all Knorr packets, but this one was just OK for me. In fact, though I recently had the Uncle Ben's chicken rice which I thought was sooo boring, I think this is even less desirable! The texture of it is good, it's nice and wet, which I like, but the taste is kind of funky. I'm not sure what exactly I find odd - maybe it's turmeric, or some sort of pepper, but I don't love it. This was certainly edible, and I did in fact ed it all up, but it's probably my least favorite Knorr rice pack yet! Woe! (I did like that the label was randomly Spanish/English bilingual though.)



Overall
Cost: 7/10 [1$]
Taste: 5/10

Uncle Ben's Ready Rice - Roasted Chicken

This was OK. It wasn't as good as the Spanish rice flavor, which was a letdown, but it was perfectly serviceable. The real perk to these is the convenience factor - 90 seconds with no added ingredients or prep is a miracle, especially for how decent the texture of the rice is. The flavor was just really bland for me, though, which I guess I should have predicted just based on the picture/ingredients. I was also a little bit sick while eating, so that might have impacted my tastebuds. I added frozen brocco to this, and it was a filling meal.




Overall
Cost: 5/10 [2.22$, which is OK but 2x a Knorr packet]
Taste: 6/10

Uncle Ben's Original Long Grain Rice

This is my go-to rice; I always make sure to have a massive bag of it in the cabinet. It is the only plain rice I've bought that doesn't have a weird or distracting taste, that doesn't clump, and that is effortless to cook. Yay rice! On its own it's still just rice, but as a side to any Asian-y meal or as a base for fried rice it's so solid. Plus, it makes like....dozens of servings, each extremely filling, for like 10 dollars. And all you need is water and a clean pot. Rice is good.

Overall
Cost: 9/10
Taste; 8/10

Knorr Spanish Rice

My boyf gave me this rice because I was really hungry! Lucky me, because Knorr rice sides are the Knorr pasta sides of rice (well, duh). Not as good, but definitely filling (I ate it all, ha ha) and easy to cook. Just 10 minutes, a little water and oil, and you have a huge bowl of not too watery tomatoey rice, with a little bit of peppers but not much. A lot of the rice is that really long grained rice (vermicelli?) which made it look almost like spaghetti from a can, but it was not as gross as all that. Pretty standard, mostly filling, but satisfying enough.



Overall
Cost: 7/10 (Probably around 1-2$)
Taste: 6/10

O Organics White Rice Bowl

Rice in a bowl, how convenient! This is basically like those Uncle Ben's pre-cooked rice packets, except cheaper and worse. Even so,  obviously this is a dumb choice economically, considering the price of uncooked rice, but I needed rice quickly and was at the store. This is also a perfect 1 person serving, about .75 cups I would guess. It was only 1-2 bucks and cooked in 90 seconds, so you really can't beat the convenience.

The taste was unfortunately that of minute rice, a weird flavor I can't explain but that I do not enjoy. Texture was a little firm, but with a good amount of moisture and overall decent as a side. I don't regret getting it, in other words, although I hope to plan ahead and make actual rice in the future.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 5/10