Tag Archives: gluten-free microwavables

Blake’s Gluten-Free Chicken Pot Pie

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blakes-chicken-pot-pie-gluten-free-img_20160627_084529163_hdrI absolutely love these Blake’s Chicken Pot Pies. OMG so good. I have eaten them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (not in the same day, but I absolutely would…). You can tell that it is all natural and it really does taste homemade. What a nice departure from “churned out” tasteless and unsatisfying gluten-free microwave meals. Thank you, Blake’s.

The first thing you’re probably wondering about is the crust. Well, it’s delicious. Really. I’m sure the consistency would be better if this was baked (but in Phoenix during the summer, no way I’m turning on my oven. How about you try it baked and tell me how it is?) However, the crust is still good. The flavor is a little on the sweet side, but it’s not a gritty crust like a lot of places try to pass off on you. It’s more of a pastry crust. Even though there’s no bottom crust, it’s still just the right amount for this pie.

blakes-chicken-pot-pie-gluten-free-img_20160627_085528482The best part is the big chunks of tasty white meat chicken. In fact, it’s a generous amount of chicken considering the size of the pie. And this isn’t fatty nasty chicken. It’s breast meat – and really good breast meat at that. Add to it the skin-on red potatoes, carrots, and peas in a very smooth and delectable sauce and you have a winning combination.

Believe it or not, I purchased this at Walmart in the gluten-free or healthy eating freezer section (in WA State, and in Phoenix, so it should be available in a Walmart near you). I’ve also found it at Sprouts stores. Sometimes Sprouts will have them on sale for $2.50 each – if you see that sale, stock up!

If you are looking for something hot, hearty, and delicious, this fits the bill. You can read more about Blake’s here.

HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Blake’s Gluten-Free Shepherd’s Pie

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blakes-shepherds-pie-1Blake’s wins the gluten-free comfort food crown as far as I’m concerned. Their chicken pot pie (which I review later) is amazing, and their shepherd’s pie is hearty, delicious, and oh-so satisfying.

Each forkful is loaded with savory beef, sweet corn, and real potatoes. The flavors complement each other perfectly. If you’re a fan of shepherd’s pie, you’ve got to try this. You can tell they use simple, high-quality ingredients and that makes this dish all the more enjoyable. From their packaging: “Ingredients: potato, cooked ground beef (raised without antibiotics or animal by-products) organic corn, onion, beef stock, natural flavor, whole milk, butter, salt. No artificial ingredients.” What a pleasure. Continue reading →

Lean Cuisine Herb Roasted Chicken – GLUTEN FREE

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lean cuisine comfort herb roasted chicken gluten free

Click to enlarge

Well, this was surprising. After cooking this meal in Lean Cuisine’s “Comfort” food series for 6.5 minutes on high, I was expecting rubber. Not so.

The chicken was a large piece of white meat breast – and you could even tell by looking at it that’s what it was. The sauce on it was a light, yet savory, cream of mushroom style with real mushrooms in it. I’m not sure where they get “herb roasted.” Maybe it was, but I couldn’t taste them. The mushroom sauce complemented it nicely, so I didn’t miss the herb flavors. The red potatoes in fact had their skin on and were very tender. The broccoli was just a hair overdone (I like it really well cooked anyway, but if you like it crispy, forget about it), and those veggies were inundated with red peppers. Why???

The outside edges of the chicken were a little tough, but it was cooked in a microwave, so what do you expect? The consistency isn’t horrible by any means, but it certainly doesn’t have the pull-apart moistness of a fresh-roasted chicken. But what do you want for $1.88 on sale?

Here are your nutritional statistics:

ONLY 170 calories; 4g fat; 510mg sodium; 18g carbs; 16g protein.

Despite the fact that red peppers were fused via nuking to a couple of the potatoes, this one’s a winner in my book.

RECOMMENDED

Smart Ones Slow Roasted Turkey Breast

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smart ones slow roasted turkey breast IMG_20150326_192046537Let me start by saying this dish is NOT labeled gluten-free. If you check the ingredients, however, the only allergen listed is milk. It does contain modified food starch in the potatoes, but nowhere does it say wheat. They do go out of their way to list potato and corn as the type of maltodextrin, so it leads me to believe if it did contain wheat anywhere, they would say so.

If you miss turkey with gravy, I’m inclined to say you’ll like this a lot. Personally, I’m not big on gravy, so I can take that part of this or leave it. The turkey is decent white meat with a good texture. Microwaving it did not rubberize it. My beef with this dish is I have a sensitivity to paprika (I know, I know, what don’t I have a sensitivity to?) and that eventually overpowers my mouth and ruins the flavor (yes, even though it’s the very last ingredient!).

I’m not sure what to tell you about the potatoes. there are indeed chunks of real red potatoes, skin and all, in there. To me, though, they taste more like pepper than potatoes. So, not a big fan.

Here’s the rundown on the nutritional stats:

210 calories, 3.5g fat, 690mg sodium, 22g carbs, 22g protein.

So, if you’re not super sensitive to gluten and you miss your turkey in gravy, you may want to give this a shot. If not, then you’re welcome; this has been yet one more thing that I ate so you wouldn’t have to.

Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Gluten Free Beef Merlot

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gluten free healthy choiceWow. My notes on this one read like this: Skin-on red potatoes very tender. Veggies tasted very fresh and flavorful. Consistency was good. The sauce – not a big fan of wine in food but it was not overbearing and the taste was pleasant. Smaller pieces of meat were very tender.  Larger pieces were a little tough and did have some veins of fat. Good char-broiled flavor.  Thought the basket steaming gimmick may fall flat, but it seems to have worked. Not a fan of the extra container waste, but…

The crazy thing is the nutritional information.

180 calories, 4g fat, 600mg sodium, 20g carbs, 15g protein. That’s a winning combination right there.

The only drawback I see to this is I can imagine those of you who like a good wine sauce would want a big piece of crusty gluten-free bread to sop up the leftovers. That’d blow the Weight Watches PointsPlus Value of 4, I do believe. But I won’t tell if you don’t.

As I write this (April 2015), there are three Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers that are gluten-free. You can read more about them at http://www.healthychoice.com/products/cafe-steamers

RECOMMENDED.

Lean Cuisine Gluten Free Ranchero Braised Beef

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gluten free lean cuisine Ranchero Braised BeefWell, I was a little nervous about this one. I was so excited to see a gluten-free Lean Cuisine that I didn’t read the description very well. All I saw was braised beef served with a side of mashed sweet potatoes. I complete read over the spicy red chile sauce and the chipotle in the mashed taters. Oops.

When I opened it after cooking for 3 minutes in order to stir it (per the directions), it was hot as heck. The steam nearly burned my thumb. And, the fumes from the chiles in the meat’s sauce nearly burned my eyes. This wasn’t looking good.

The texture of the meat was actually pretty good. A little bit chewy, but mostly tender and moist. A couple of pieces did actually melt in my mouth. They do have it listed as prime rib in the ingredients, and I won’t argue that. The sauce, however, did set my mouth and lips ablaze. Please remember that I am freakishly sensitive to spicy food, so this probably won’t happen to you. The sweet potatoes were very light and fluffy. They did have a bit of a Southwest bite to them. I’m pretty sure it was the potatoes and not the meat because I took a big spoonful of Nutella in between to stop the burning. Yes, I’m a big sissy. Shut up.

For those of you who are normal and whose mouths won’t be set on fire by this, here are the nutritional details:

250 calories, 6g fat, 30mg cholesterol, 570mg sodium, 33g carbs, and 15g protein. Not bad.

So, there you have it.

I’m honestly torn on this one – for a microwave dinner, especially a gluten-free one – this is a winner. I just wish it didn’t start a frikkin fire in my mouth. Otherwise, you’d see me filling my freezer with them. This is definitely worth trying – especially for $2.00. That’s just insane. Hopefully Lean Cuisine will come out with some more gluten-free dinners.

RECOMMENDED

EATING RIGHT Gluten Free Mac & Cheese

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eating right gluten free mac and cheese IMG_20150312_193400931Okay, I’m not really sure how I feel about Eating Right’s Gluten Free Mac & Cheese. The consistency of the pasta is very good. The cheesy flavor is pretty good. It’s the consistency of that cheese sauce I’m just not sure about. It’s not really all that smooth. It’s sort of “particle-ish” in a sense that it’s not gritty, but you can feel the particles in your mouth. Maybe it’s my microwave, or maybe the ingredients separated somehow. I don’t know. But I’m not a big fan of it.

Maybe I got my hopes too high because I’ve had really good luck with the Eating Right Gluten Free series. But not this time. In any case, here are the nutritional statistics:

380 calories / 16g fat / 50mg cholesterol / 860mg sodium / 47g carbs / 12g protein

It costs $2.99 (regular price) at my local Safeway.

Considering the consistency issue and the heavy duty not-so-healthiness of it, I’ll pass on this next time. I only tried it so I could report back to you-all. Yeesh, I took one for the team. You’re welcome.

WeightWatchers Smart Ones – Chicken Mesquite

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GF Smart Ones Mesquite Chicken IMG_0385I did some research online and found a number of Smart Ones frozen meals to be gluten-free. Now, these meals are not labeled as such. But if you check the allergens listed at the end of the ingredients on the Chicken Mesquite, you will find it says Contains Milk, Soy. Not wheat.

This Chicken Mesquite is described as “white meat chicken smothered with a smoky mesquite-flavored sauce with ranch redskin smashed potatoes.”

Mind you, I have the absolute most sensitive palette of anyone I have ever met. The first few bites of the chicken were good – hot, tender, tasty. But then the back of my throat started to burn, and that spread to my tongue, the rest of my mouth, and my lips. FIRE! Again, I think the spicy chicken nuggets at Wendy’s should come with a fire extinguisher, so 99 percent of the population would NOT think these are even remotely spicy. But I did. And I’m writing about me. LOL

In any case, the potatoes were really, really awesome. I’m so glad I saved those for last. If you want a meal with a bite for around $2.00 on sale – Chicken Mesquite is for you.

G/F Mac & Cheese Steel Cage Match: Amy’s Brand

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GF amys mac and cheese IMG_2514Last time we talked about SamMills the Corn Master’s Gluten Free Macaroni & Cheese In a creamy Cheddar Cheese Sauce. This time, we’re going to talk about Amy’s Gluten Free Rice Mac & Cheese made with organic rice pasta.

Amy’s costs about 60 cents more, was higher in cholesterol, but lower in sodium. Amy’s is non GMO, too. The stats might make you cringe a little – but come on, it’s mac & cheese! 400 calories, 16g fat, 640mg sodium, 47g carbs, and 16g protein. For those of you concerned with these, it contains calcium – 30% and Iron – 10% of your recommended daily requirements.

You can cook Amy’s either in a conventional, toaster, or microwave oven. Nice. I cooked on high for 3.5 minutes, then stirred it and cooked it for 2.5 more. It did boil over a tiny bit, but oddly enough, there was no splatter.

And let me tell you – DELICIOUS. I was so surprised. And, to make things even more interesting, there was a moose in my backyard having dinner, so we ate together. Mine had gotten cold while I was take pictures and setting up the video camera, but it still tasted really good. The consistency is excellent. Hot and hearty. For more on all the stuff Amy’s makes, go to www.amys.com

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Amy’s Broccoli & Cheddar Bake

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amys broccoli cheddar bake IMG_9994Amy’s and I don’t have the best of relationships. I find some of their foods a little too “earthy” for my taste. But this gluten-free Broccoli & Cheddar Bake is a winner.

It bursts with robust cheddar flavor and is creamy and smooth. There is always a hint of the broccoli throughout, of course more so when you bite into a floret. And these are nice, bite-size florets – not the “leftover stems or stalks or whatever” pieces you often find in frozen meals.

This dish is certified organic, and has 430 calories, 20 grams of fat, 640mg sodium, 44g carbs, and 16g protein. It heats up in less than 5 minutes and is fantastic comfort food for those cold winter days. Only one thing could make this dish better: meat. (You didn’t realize I was a meatatarian? *sigh*) So I sliced up and heated a hot dog, and then mixed it with the dish. Awesome!

If you love cheese, this is the dish for you. You can always find more information at www.amys.com.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED