I’m not big on fish. Of course, being from the South, this excludes fried catfish. But pretty much most other kinds of fish are only “meh” in my book. Granted, they can be spiced, glazed or rolled up in seaweed with potentially fantastic results, but the biggest complaint I hear about fish is that it sometimes will taste “fishy” (and I don’t mean fishy in the sense of “suspicious,” I mean fishy in the sense of “like fish”). Isn’t that like complaining that a steak tastes beefy? But nevertheless, I know what people mean when they say this, and to them I say “Eat something else.” That is, unless you’re taking in:
Healthy Choice “Complete Selections” Lemon Pepper Fish (lemon pepper fish with rice pilaf, broccoli and caramel apple crisp).
The Price: $2.50
The Prep: ~5 minutes microwaved (oven cooking optional)
The Dish: Mom taught me better than to begin with dessert, but in this case it’s appropriate as it was the best part of the meal and almost worth the price by itself. Crisp apples floating in a rich caramel sauce with little oats – it was delicious (You may also find this meal packaged with a cherry-apple dessert; I can’t say how good or bad that will be). Only problem was that in following the heating directions, it boiled over and would have made a huge mess if I hadn’t seen what was happening and put a plate under it.
As for the rest of the dish, the fish was thankfully not fishy. The lemon pepper was there to taste, but could have been just a pinch stronger. Also, the breading would have come out better in the oven. The rice was a little bland, and there was far too much of it in proportion to the fish. The broccoli… well, I don’t eat broccoli, so I’m not the best judge. If it was supposed to be crisp, it was a failure. If not, then maybe it was ok.
The Consequences: Based on what nutritional experts say, this was a good meal at 320 calories and only 6g of fat. It also has very little sodium for a frozen meal (460mg when more than 1000mg is common), a satisfying 14g of protein, and less than 15g of sugar (12, to be precise). The only real failing is that there are only 5g of fiber when a meal should have 8 to 10.
Rating: 4.5 TV Trays (out of 5). Since I admit my dislike of broccoli, I’ll toss that out of the equation, so my only qualm here is the rice, which was the weakest and most abundant part. The nutritional marks are great, the price is fantastic and best of all it was a satisfying meal! I have to admit, this generally isn’t my kinda dish, but I can easily say it was one of the best TV dinners I’ve ever had.
*Note: This entry has been edited to include a new picture since the old one got taken down. Apparently Healthy Choice is going through some rebranding and changed their box art and website images. My box did not look like the one above.
