Wal-Mart sold me one of these for $1.24 or somewhere close to that. The memory of the aged eaters is not infallible.
My new, awesome, 1,250-watt Panasonic microwave easily gulped the 10-ounce plastic tray for the 3-minutes of heating on the high level then removed and stir the vittles then place back for, in my case, 2-1/2-minutes. When done I shoved the electronic thermometer designed for food use into the turkey and the recommended 165-degrees was exceeded. The gravy was also okay and the spuds giggled as the probe entered their essence and the temp was okay so rip the plastic cover off and head for my dining/computer table strategically placed where the TV is in front of me around 20-feet away.
Time to eat. First thing detected is the smell. Nose interprets the meal as edible. Far better than a permeating stench that creates nausea and a dash to outside where the mess can be tossed far away.
A spoonful of the thin, sliced turkey that appears to be the type of meat that has been ground up and reassembled in a log-type mass with binders added to keep it glued together that a slicing machine assaults to create the three thin slices of dead bird lounging in the plastic tray heads for my mouth, enters, spoon withdrawn and I gnash away to learn the stuff is salty. Too salty. Not inedible amounts of salt but if I owned Banquet I would call the factory and order them to dial the salt amount down a bit.
If I ever eat this meal again I would consider using the sliced turkey, bread crumbs (dressing) and the tasty-enough gravy it resides within as the contents of a sandwich made of sliced bread. Eat the taters and peas as a side dish.
On the carton” “Turkey with Gravy and Dressing, Creamy Mashed Potatoes and Sweet Peas”
Labeling the added bread crumbs or croutons, whatever the square chunks of bread sitting in the very shallow pool of gravy as “Dressing” is a blatant exaggeration. Whatever marketing or advertising executive choosing that term is a confused or addled lad or merely following the orders of his/her/its/none of these/alien/etc. corporate master and is forced to comply so as to keep their position in the firm.
The dressing pellets are edible but not really noticed due to the lack of impact upon me as I masticate the mess in my mouth. Have you ever had a sneeze you could not repress while chewing on a mouthful of food? It can be really messy if your chewing has gone on long enough to liquefy the glop and the sneeze hits and you turn your head and cover your mouth with your hands or a napkin or the table cloth of the people’s house you are eating at or whatever. Messy. A strong sneeze can have food globules ricocheting off your hands onto everything surrounding you. I do not get invited back to folk’s homes often.
The peas were peas. They had a “snap” to them as if their outer shell had a bit of resistance to my teeth as they clamp down upon the little green fellows. That may have been a touch of butter in the tiny bit of liquid they sat upon. Modern chemistry allows the assemblers of food items to offer artificial flavors of such quality they taste akin to the real thing. “PEAS: Peas, Water, Sugar, Salt.” Nothing there suggesting butter. Maybe the buttery taste came from the “Rehydrated Potato Flakes and Granules” in the little tray adjacent to the peas.
If you are a mashed potato lover who desires vast quantities of the spuds to be sated non-sated you will be with the tiny amount of taters in the meal. Reading the ingredients on the carton side an immense amount of materiel was needed to plop the potatoes in its tiny cubicle within the tray. “Margarine” is mentioned so that is the likely source of the buttery (margariney???) taste of the peas. The taters are edible but are gone so quickly that even if they are soul-satisfying that level of achievement remains aloof as the few nibbles has the entire amount of spuds speeding down your esophagus and slithering into your stomach.
Calorie count is 270. If you are on a diet and all you had for a meal was this offering I would consider it suitable for a diet. Just don’t have 9 meals per day; limit it to three. Okay?
29-grams of carbohydrates. A little high for me but in my youth when hard physical labor burned off the bad stuff quickly I would eat this item with no though. Now, for me and my reduced activity level, this would be a sometimes meal.
Scary: Sodium 1,340mg . . . 58% of them recommended daily maximum for salt. Is the high amount of salt acting as a preservative for the food? Does the salty taste hide tastes that Banquet wants to hide from us? Maybe clinical studies determine that We, the People want our TV-dinner-style meals to be salty. Maybe something else. It is very easy to add your own salt. Maybe it is time for all food creators to stop all salt use and leave it to the eater to add salt as they desire.
SUMMATION
Yes. I would eat this meal again unless something similar in price and convenience came along that tasted better. There are some imperfections with this meal but nothing that can not be ignored. The calorie count is right and everything was edible and the peas were good peas. Peas on Earth!!!
Dig in, Dudes and Dudettes. Semi-cheap and easy to prepare. A conventional oven takes 28 to 32 minutes to heat the thing so the microwave method is quick. Is there a possibility that oven-baked tastes better than nuked?
Now it is entertainment time. A pox upon corporate radio. BAH!!!!! BOO!!!!
Broadcast radio has played the Eagle’s “Hotel California” relentlessly to the point that my brain may explode if i hear that song for the 459,089,332.006th time. HISS!!!!!!!!
I last heard this Eagles tune on the radio around three decades ago. Shunned since by corporate radio in all the many areas I have lived.You may or may not be aware of this song. It is not the typical Eagles fare but it rocks and rocks well. Outlaw Man has a regular rotation via my music collection for home and car.
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I Adore Food 