[info]
When? - 13th of April, 2013
Where? - The comfort of my own couch.
Price? - $10-ish. A delivery of ten dinners comes to around $100
Website? - http://www.liteneasy.com.au/
Reviewers – Lee[/info]
Something a bit different this week! Our usual parma night is Thursday night, and as ANZAC day fell on the same day I was far too busy imbibing pints to break for a parma, plus getting up at 4am to make the dawn service meant I was in bed by about 7pm. So here is a review I’ve had in the bank for a couple of weeks! Hope you all had a great ANZAC day and to the people who took a sickie today to get a four day weekend, I hate you a little bit.
We shall return to normality next week, until then … Enjoy!
If you haven’t noticed lately, healthy-food-delivery-company Lite N’ Easy have been on a marketing blitz lately, You can’t turn on the TV without hearing about Brisbane Mum Natasha talking about how she has lost 15 kilos in fourteen weeks on the Lite N’ Easy diet.
Wouldn’t you know it, the marketing worked - I signed up a few weeks ago.
Going through the menu for the first delivery I noticed the Chicken Parma. Surely it’s going to be awful. Surely. But curiosity got the best of me and I placed the order. The following week I received my eski of frozen meals and the parma went into the freezer, A couple of days later it was time - I peeled back the lid the recommended 3 centimetres and chucked it in the microwave for 8 minutes.
Now the last (and only) microwaved parma we tried was the McCain’s version, which you can read about here. The difference being when we tried that one, it was Australia Day … For the Lite N’ Easy version I was stone cold sober - So I didn’t think my taste buds would be as forgiving.
The 8 minutes was up, I retrieved the cardboard box, held my breath, and peeled back the lid.
Hmm.
Doesn’t quite look like the photo from the Lite N’ Easy Website. A lot less ‘chips’ for one thing.
But I tucked in. Not really being able to see where the parma ended and the salad/potatoes started, I resolved to eat the sides first, leaving the parma till last. But I’ll get to the sides later. First - The parma…
It was a little small, but for a portion controlled ‘diet’ meal that is to be expected I suppose. I cut into the chicken expecting a thin, grey, soggy excuse for a schnitzel, but you know what? I was actually pleasantly surprised
It was white meat! and thick! we have had thinner parmas at some pubs. The crumbs were as soggy as you would expect for a parma that had spent 8 minutes in the microwave, but they weren’t too thick. The toppings lacked a lot of flavour, the cheese was barely there however they made the very odd (and unadvertised) choice of putting a layer of béchamel sauce (white sauce) under the slice of ham. It kind of tasted like they had tried to build a lasagne on top of the parma, making a parma/lasagne hybrid. Parmagne™.
There was a slice of ham, but it was napkin thin and carried no flavour, the majority of the flavour in the dish came from the duo of sauces on top.
The chips (aka the two chunks of potato) and the salad (cubed carrot, beans, corn and some cauliflower) were pretty much what you’d expect. Steamed veggies, sure they were okay, but nothing beats some proper pub chips - but to be fair that would completely negate the ‘healthy’ aspect of the dish. Why does everything Lite N’ Easy produce have to be microwaved? Surely they could produce some fantastic and healthy oven-only dishes that didn’t mean everything you ate had the arse steamed out of it.
In the end I wasn’t nearly as offended as I expected to be. The chicken breast, although small, was actually real chicken breast and I would be happy to get it again.
Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t even compare to a good parma from the pub, however it’s much better than it’s McCain counterpart and it’s good to know that if you’re trying to eat healthy and shed some poundage, there is a passible substitute for a chicken parma out there.
Parma - 5.75
Chips - 1.30
Salad - 3.00
Value - 6.50
Total - 4.46
The search continues…