McCain Healthy Choice

Taste

I don’t know what drove me to buy this stuff from McCains, maybe it’s the amount of time since I last had a ready-made meal from a cardboard box, because I’d forgotten how terrible they taste.Tender Beef in Seeded Light Mustard was pretty terrible. The potatoes were floury and the carrots and peas were tasteless and soggy. The beef didn’t taste like beef at all. The only thing going for it was the excellent mustard sauce, it had real bite, and you could use it to disguise the taste of the best of the vegetables I suppose?

The Honey Mustard Chicken was better, but not by much. The chicken was soggy, the rice was gross, at least the mustard sauce was passable…

Rating - 3

Look

The vegetables certainly looked very colourful and inviting, the beef was covered by a mess of sauce so you can’t really see anything. The chicken got pretty much the same treatment too.

Rating - 0.5

C-factor

310g beef for $6.19. It's not worth the convenience, buy some ingredients and cook!

Rating - 0

Swiss Points - 3.5

Ingredients

Tender Beef in Seeded Light Mustard

potato, carrot, mustard sauce (20%) [water, mushroom, mustard, flavour, thickeners], beef (15%) [beef, water, potato starch, soy protein, dried glucose syrup, acidity regulators, salt, hydrolysed vegetable protein, sugar, yeast extracts, soy sauce powder, vegetable fat, maize starch, beef fat, flavours, colour, flavour enhancer, onion powder, spices, herb], peas, corn vegetable sauce [water, milk solids, whey powder, thickener, flavour, herbs, spice, acidity regulator]

honey mustard chicken

sauce (water, cream (milk solids, gelatine, thickener), onion, white wine (milk solids, egg) mustard (1.7%) (mustard seed, acidity regulator), thickener, parmesan cheese (milk solids, emulsifier, acidity regulator, flavour (milk solids)), flavour (salt ,sugar, maltodextrin, hydrolysed vegetable protein, herb & spices), vegetable oil honey (0.4%), garlic, emulsifier, cooked rice (water, rice) chicken (15%) (chicken salt, acidity regulator, gelling agent, potato starch, soy protein, sugar, hydrolysed vegetable protein, dried glucose syrup, whey powder, wheat flour, flavours, water, dextrose, vegetable powder, yeast extract, vegetable oil) carrot beans

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere

naked naturals fresh risotto

Taste

After recently trying their dips, I was looking forward to trying their risotto range. We picked the Field Mushroom with parsley, parmesan and arborio rice. I command this for having a great mushroom flavour and some juicy mushrooms, although I found it a bit too salty. As far as risotto go though, you just can’t beat the fresh-made stuff. This, when made to instructions, was a little too runny for my liking.

Rating - 6

Look

It was extremely easy to prepare. Pop open the pouch, put in a microwaveable container, add 100ml of water, and heat for about 2-3 minutes, stirring in between.

The results actually looked appealing too, with bits of mushrooms and flakes of parsley.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

500g for $2 on special. It’s certainly cheaper than takeaway and I believe better for you too.

Rating - 1

Swiss Points - 9.5

Ingredients

water, arborio rice (14%), (button mushrooms, field mushrooms, mushroom powder (9%)), onion, parmesan (milk, cultures, rennet, salt) (4%), garlic, butter, olive oil, parsley, yeast extract, black pepper, pure sea salt

Available At

Organic Shops

McCain Ratatouille Vegetable Mix

Taste

This frozen meal from McCain tastes overwhelmingly of tomatoes. It's obviously been sweetened quite a bit. The tomato base actually masks the tastes of the other vegetables. And frozen vegetable never taste good.

Rating - 4

Look

Overwhelmingly red! Besides that, like squish vegetables you can't distinguish. Well, they win on the convenience front. You pop it out of the fridge, out of the box and straight into the oven. And viola, it's ready to eat.

Rating - 1.5

C-factor

350g for $2 on special. I think I'll buy some real vegetables instead, even if I do have to wash and cut them.

Rating - 0.5

Swiss Points - 6

Ingredients

tomato sauce (58%)(tomatoes ( tomato, tomato puree, acidity regulator, firming agent, water, tomato paste, onion, white wine, sugar, vegetable oil, thickener, salt, garlic, spice, herbs, vegetable (42%) (potato (potato, vegetable oil), capsicum, zucchini (zucchini, vegetable oil) eggplant

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere