Recently, the good folks at Delmonte contacted the Grubgraders crew and asked us to try a new product they’re testing out in the Columbus, Ohio area and write a review of it. Product reviews are not our forte…we like to stick to the type of meals where the only work we have to do is driving to a restaurant. But, it is becoming increasingly hard to eat healthy while eating out, and even those of us at Grubgraders need to grab a bite at home every once in a while.
So we agreed to give it a shot. I’m no chef, although eight years of college did teach me to do some creative things with ramen noodles. Katina, on the other hand, is actually a pretty good cook when she gets the time to actually fire up the stove. We received a slick black box in the mail containing the ingredient packet as well as a spiffy black apron.
As you can see from the photo, we received the Southwest Beans and Corn variety to sample. The beans and corn were in a chipotle chile sauce. From the description on the package, this is the perfect flavor to send us. According to the directions, just add chicken, steak, or whatever meat you’re in to at the time and some rice or pasta of your choosing and viola — instant meal. This should be perfect…it has most of the major food groups in it, right (beans AND corn, meat, and rice/pasta). All that’s missing is the ice cream and you’d have a complete meal (just kidding).
Preparation was fairly simple and took about 20 minutes. Katina made ours with chicken and rice. Once she had the chicken nearly ready, she added the ingredient packet and came out with something that looked like this:
You’re not going to need to be a finalist on Master Chef to pull this dish off. This is a product that would be perfect for that someone who wants something with a little extra flavor but is intimidated trying to season dishes or create their own sauces. Once Katina had let the chicken and sauce simmer for the appropriate time, she whipped up a batch of white rice and poured the chicken concoction over the rice. The results can be seen below:
(As an aside, had this been a restaurant review, I would have given the service an “F” grade. Not once did Katina offer to get me a beverage or see if I needed anything else with my meal. That’s why I didn’t give her a tip).
What we liked: The product itself is very simple to use. And for those who are paying close attention to what they’re shoveling into their food holes, the Delmonte Chef’s Pantry Meal Toppers isn’t as much of a nutritional land mine as some similar products. The product had substantially less salt that we expected it to have.
What we didn’t like: Serving size might be misleading. In our opinion, sticking with the recommended serving size does not provide enough topping to really make a large improvement in the meal. In particular, we thought there was insufficient sauce to really add a lot of flavor to the chicken and rice. The topper had an okay taste, but you really have to heap it on to get some flavor, and that torpedoes any attempt to keep the dish nutritionally sound.
Without knowing how much the Delmonte Chef’s Pantry Meal Topper is going to cost the consumer, it’s a little difficult to give it our stamp of approval. We believe the product could certainly be useful to snazz up a dish that might otherwise be a little bland, but until we know the cost and what other varieties will be available, the jury is still out.
Don’t worry fans. Grubgraders haven’t turned in their frequent diner cards just yet. It’s been a bit of a challenge finding new restaurants to review that peak our interest, but we have found a few. It’s been a bit of a slow year, which means fewer reviews but less inches on my waist. But there is more to come.
grubgraders 