This week I tried some thing that I never thought I would… Microwaved gluten-free meals! I was roaming the grocery store and saw that there were quite a few gluten-free microwaved meal options. I started to get a little overwhelmed, so I just chose a brand that had three different meals. This brand is called Realgood entrée meals. They had three different meals that consisted of lemon chicken bowl, chicken lasagna bowl, and creamy mashed cauliflower with braised beef.
I was nervous to try these because I know from experience that the box picture never looks like the actual meal. The pictures looked fantastic and delicious, but I knew better. I also was nervous because combining I microwaved meal and gluten-free didn’t sound like a good idea. Here are my thoughts on each meal and the brand overall.
Lemon Chicken Bowl: The flavoring of this meal was actually pretty good. It had a strong lemon, buttery garlic taste to it. The noodles had a tiny bit of crunch, so I'm not sure if they are made from vegetable or just didn't cook well. The chicken on the other hand was definitely the downfall of the dish. It was very dry and sort of fell apart. Overall I would give it a 7/10 because it really wasn't bad for being a microwaved meal.
Chicken Lasagna Bowl: This was surprised me because it did not look very appetizing, but it had a great taste. The "lasagna" was actually slices of provolone cheese. The sauce wasn't anything spectacular, but there was a lot of ricotta cheese in between the layers which saved this dish. This was definitely my favorite out of the three options, and I would give it a rating of 7.5/10. You might be wondering why it didn't get a higher scoring, but in my opinion, microwaved meals will probably never get a higher rating than 8!
Creamy Mashed Cauliflower with Braised Beef: This one wasn't as bad as I was expecting either, but definitely didn't blow me away. The mashed cauliflower did not have any flavor really, but the consistency/ texture was good. The beef was very dry, but the entire dish was saved by the cheese sauce that came on top. The cheese sauce added the much needed flavor this dish was dying for. It would rate it probably the same as the lemon pasta, so a 7/10.
Moral of the story is I definitely would not eat any of these microwaved meals every day, but if I am feeling lazy, I would probably pick up the lasagna. If you are a person who is more about the flavoring of a dish, then I would also grab the lemon chicken bowl. But if you are more of a texture person, then grab the mashed cauliflower and braised beef.
Honestly though, for being gluten free AND a microwaved meal, all of these dishes were not as bad as I was expecting. Those could be two dangerous combinations, but Realgood does a good job at making them the best they can be.
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