The Product Diaries

Cuisine Grilled Chicken & Penne Pasta in Garlic Herb Sauce

2008-10-02T17:29:00.004-04:00

chicken tenderloins, penne pasta and vegetables in a garlic herb sauce with a caramel apple dessert.

The Lean Cuisine Grilled Chicken & Penne Pasta in Garlic Herb Sauce, was an impulse buy during a 4 for 9 sale. I thought maybe I'll get hungry enough to try something different.

The sliced the chicken in this meal was tender and juicy with a great flavor. The sauce tasted like watered down Italian dressing but there were chunks of garlic that but added a little to the flavor.I wasn't able to detect the herbs in the description I mean I could see them but I couldn't taste them.The vegetables were plentiful the best part was the broccoli but all the vegetables were crisp and went well pasta. This meal also comes with desert in a little side compartment . The caramel sauce covered the apple chunks and overpowered them. The sauce was very sweet with only a hint of caramel. I’m sure it would have tasted great in between two pieces of crust, but it is Lean Cuisine. I should also add that it took me so long to eat the meal the apples were cold and the sauce congealed; if I were to eat this meal again I would eat the apples with the meal instead desert.

Score: 11/15
Price : 2.50
Calories : 330

~"Why did the chicken cross the road ?"

Coffee-mate Italian sweet creme

2008-09-30T16:18:00.003-04:00

Your coffee will never be the same again. One taste of the rich, indulgent creaminess of this unique flavor will have you swooning with amore.

As part of the new World Café line Coffee-mate has introduced Italian inspired creamers to satisfy the Italophile in all of us. I'm a sucker for package art so I decided to embark on an Italian enhanced journey by trying Coffee-mate's Italian Sweet Crème.

I do not have a coffee maker, so I purchased a tall House Coffee from Starbucks to test the creamer with. In the bottle the creamer is pure white, and smelled like coconut and marshmallow. I'd never used coffee-mate creamer before so I was surprised by the rich texture as I measured it out. After adding a tablespoon I sipped my coffee and it didn't have any exceptional Italian flavor so I added a bit more, because it's fun to pour it into the cup like they do on the commercial. I still, however, did not taste anything but milk and coffee. I ended up adding about a ¼ cup of creamer before I decided that I wasn't going to get much flavor from the creamer. The flavor was not unique like the bottle said. It was bland and compared to the pretty package art very disappointing. In the end It tasted like coffee and milk with sugar, which is the definition of sweet cream (not crème). I was very disappointed with this creamer but Coffee-mate has found a great way to market sugar and milk.

Score : 7/15

Price : $ 2.99

Calories : 150 calories per tablespoon (but you'll need more than a tablespoon)

~The secret of getting things done is to act!
-Dante Alighieri (He's italian !)

Promotion

2008-09-15T20:56:00.003-04:00

This is not a review but a chance for you to take a look at one of my cafepress shops.

Yoplait Light - Banana Cream Pie & Apple Turnover

2008-09-15T19:59:00.006-04:00

Last night I made a point of making my dinner healthy that is as healthy a college student can get. I had a Lean Cuisine and some Crystal Light and what better for dessert than Yoplait's nonfat dessert flaovred yogurt. For reviewing purposes I tested two ; Banana Cream Pie and Apple Turnover.

The Apple Turnover tasted identical to the pie filling you get out of a can. There were tiny bits of fruit and what I think may have been crust in it also. Over all it does taste like an apple turnover but it was weird having the creamy texture with the turnover flavor.

Next was the Banana Cream Pie. The yogurt tasted like a tame version of banana pudding. It was sweet and refreshing and this yogurt could be easily mistaken for plain banana. Perhaps "cream pie" is just one of those fancy verbs they put on the package ?

Over all I preferred the Banana Cream to the Apple Turnover because of the crust "bits" and it was a little to sweet for me. If you are a fan of textured yogurts I would suggest the Apple Turnover.

Both of these yogurts are non-fat so you can easily try one or eat both and not feel guilty. I guess a college students really can eat healthy. . .for now.

~"Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why"

-Bernard M. Baruch

Score : 10/15

Price : .60 cents

Calories : Banana Cream Pie,110 Apple Turnover 100

Starburst GummiBurst

2008-09-11T14:27:00.006-04:00

We all love the square-shaped fruit candy known as Starburst. They are easy to carry around or share with friends and the name is fun to say. Apart from it's multiple spinoff flavors such as Tropical and Baja Fruit and those silly commercials (Berries and Cream anyone?) Starburst has found a new way to keep the juices flowing, literally. The new Starburst Gummibursts not just Gummies but, Gummibursts. The Gummiburst comes in all the original flavors that you know and love (cherry, lemon, strawberry, orange) but they have a special surprise. These nickel sized Gummibursts have a gushing liquid center. The center is more gooey than liquid and adds a bit of extra sweetness to the candy. The "juice" as Starbust likes to call it isn't actually visible until you bite into the soft gummie candy. Although I can't say it's real fruit juice, it's flavor is identical to any Starburst chew candies. What I like best about the Gummibursts is that they are not individual wrapped, so you don't have to break a nail trying to open them.

Overall Score : 10/15
Price : 1.99
Calorie Count : 140 calories in a 1.5 Oz. bag(The magic calorie number)

"Berries and cream, Berries and cream, I'm a little lad who loves Berries and cream."

- Starburst TV ad.

Yoplait Light White Chocolate Strawberry

2008-08-23T13:14:00.006-04:00

I love this new “diet” fad that seems to be infecting our grocer’s aisle, I mean what is better than finding out that a large corporation has made eating you favorite idulgent desert healthy ?As you can imagine this is where Yoplait’s Light Yogurt comes into play. Not only is it light (translation : 70 calories less than original fruit flavors) it comes in psuedo-dessert flavors including White Chocolate Strawberry.

I prepared myself for a rich thick strawberry yogurt-like-dessert swirled with creamy white chocolate, but when I peeled back the lid it looked like regular strawberry yogurt. The first bite tasted like strawberry yogurt but sweeter, a few more bites later and I could detect a hint of extra sweetness that is usually reserve for diet sodas, but nothing that tasted like white chocolate. A few spoonfuls later and I was convinced the chocolate was gone, clearly disappointed I did not finish the entire container.

According to Alton Brown white chocolate can only be called white chocolate if it contains 20% coca butter, Unfortunaly the package was long gone before I could check. This snack/desert hybrid does however contain Vitamin D in every cup and Yoplait is always out for a good cause, but perhaps they should leave dessert to Betty Crocker.

Overall Score : 8/15
Price : 54 Cents (5.40/10)
Calorie Count : 100 (The magic calorie number)

( I couldn’t find a yogurt quote so here is one from The Non Fat Yogurt episode of Seinfeld)

"You know what I would do if I was running for mayor? One of my campaign themes would be that everybody should wear nametags all the time to make the city friendlier."
~ Elaine, The Non Fat Yougurt (Seinfeld)

Wendy's Garden Sensations Salad - Chicken BLT

2008-07-23T20:14:00.011-04:00

Lately I've been trying to eat waaay better and what better way to do that than to eat Wendy's new Garden Sensation salads which have been dubbed waaay better. Unlike their side salads these salads can be eaten as whole meal, they're much larger and filled with sweet and savory extras. I decided to try the Chicken BLT Salad with a homestyle chicken fillet, of course you have your choice of a grilled, spicy or homestlye fillet in your salad.

The warm chicken rests in slices at the top of the salad, it taste similar to s Wendy's chicken nugget. Underneath the fillet is a sprinkling of cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, cucumbers and three cherry tomatoes. The greens weren't exactly fresh and tasted like they could have come from a bagged mix. The salad also comes with a package of honey Dijon dressing and croutons on the side.

I wasn't impressed with the way the cheese melted causing the chicken and bacon to stick together. It made the whole salad slightly . . . nauseating after a while.

If you're looking for a lunch time salad I defiantly suggest this salad. The salads are also available in Mandarin, Ceaser and Southwest Taco but, perhaps I'd ask them to hold the cheese.

Overall Score : 11/15
Price : 3.99
Calorie Count : 780 (!) w/ croutons and dressing, 240 without the croutons and dressing

"Welcome to the Church of the Holy Cabbage. Lettuce pray."

~ Author Unknown

Wendy's Milkshakes

2008-06-07T16:35:00.020-04:00

Recently Wendy's has created new additions for their standard Frosty including candy mix-ins, cookie dough mix-ins, root beer floats, and of course their newest creation Frosty milkshakes. Today was the perfect day for the ice cold treat because the weather outside was 96 degrees and being inside a car was only making it worse.

The milkshakes come in the classic three flavors chocolate,vanilla and strawberry. I have always had a thing for strawberry so that is the one I will be reviewing. From a visual standpoint the milkshakes look as they are advertised; a clear cup, whipped cream and a maraschino cherry on top. However what really matters is taste and at the first sip the milkshake tasted similar to a McDonald's milkshake except with a thinner texture. The milkshake was smooth and full of strawberry flavor but I wouldn't necessarily call it fresh.

The whipped cream was nothing special but,I didn't have much of the whipped cream because it melted so quickly in the car. However it did make the milkshakes looks very fancy.

Overall the milkshake was pretty good . I drank the 12 oz in about 5 minutes. It's not fresh strawberry or anything and doesn't have the chunks of strawberries that you may find at McDonalds or Chick-Fil-A but it's still a nice treat for a blazing summer day and I'm sure it would go great with a double cheeseburger

P.S As you can see their is a vanilla one next to mine that one belonged to my sister and the only thing I got from her about it is "You can tell the vanilla is artificial"

Overall Score : 11/15
Price: 2.39 for the 12 oz
Calories: 390

~ "Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love."

- Wally Lamb, Author

Hello World

2008-06-05T18:37:00.004-04:00

Hello and thank you for stopping by The Product Diairies. This is basically a review blog where we will review just about anything. If you have an idea for something you'd like to see reviewed feel free to send me an e-mail. This blog is not associates with any company so you can always expect completely honest opinions.