MICROWAVE DELECTABLES  with geezy

This week I'll be reviewing the Beef Portobello microwave meal from Eating Right. The packaging, including the green & white logo, gives a contemporary feel to an old classic. I was excited about eating "tender beef", roasted potatoes, and a yummy sauce for lunch. Just look at the box - just imagine what it would be like to have that waiting for you in the middle of the day. 

Positivity

• To be honest, there's not a lot to recommend in this lunch. The potatoes were not as soft as I thought they would be. The high salt content will activate certain taste centers in the brain, possibly triggering feelings of satisfaction, but I demand more of my $2.47 microwave lunches. 

Liabilities

• Broccoli. Putting aside my general aversion to naked broccoli, this dish illustrates the problem microwave lunches have reproducing edible broccoli. It turns out always turns out mushy, and you need way more sauce than Eating Right provides to be able to choke it down.
• Surprisingly, the sauce was also a liability. If brown was a flavor, it would have been a winner, but alas, I was not down with this brizzzown.  "Thick" and "salty' are the best, and only, two attributes of this hot brown mess. 
• My biggest disappointment with the lunch was the beef itself. After the sale price, 85% of my decision to purchase this Beef Portobello lunch was the presence of "tender beef", as promoted on the box. I was surprised that even though the beef was drenched in a thick, salty, brown sauce, it was dry and stringy. And that's fucked up. 

The Verdict

I cannot in good faith recommend this meal. The deficiencies I've described above are self-evident. your favorite grocery store offers a dizzying array of microwavable meals, and there will always be one on sale that is more satisfying than Eating Right's Beef Portobello. Eating Right's meals can often be found on sale for around $2.50, and is among the pricier microwave meals that I purchase. To give you an example of what $2.50 per meal means, I can buy 5 Boneless Pork meals (my previous reviewed meal) for the price of 2 Beef Portobello meals. There's no contest. I give the Eating Right Beef Portobello meal 1/2 chocolate sprinkle donuts.