Banquet Fried Rice with Chicken and Egg Roll Meal

By: Tanya Taylor, PhD | Feb 3, 2007

A frozen dinner that is a healthy option doesn't have to have to be Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice or Weight Watchers. Sometimes, a quick look at the nutrition panel of other brands will reveal a surprising find. Case in point: this Banquet Fried Rice with Chicken and Egg Roll Meal. After having seen the dietTrash that was the Banquet Corn Dog Meal, I didn't think that anything that there would be anything in the Banquet line that wouldn't be a heart attack waiting to happen - but I was wrong.

The good: Banquet Fried Rice with Chicken and Egg Roll Meal is cheap at only $1.00, tasty and only 200 calories. It was just what I expected it to be, fried rice with chopped up veggies - celery, carrots and broccoli - as well as lots of small pieces of chicken chunks. The egg roll, although not very big, was also enjoyable.

The bad:
1. The very VERY salty taste of everything. It's been 30 minutes and a few gulps of water and I still feel the salty taste in my mouth!

2. In my own defense, when I started writing this review, I was actually eating the meal and I hadn't looked at the ingredients list. Now that I have, I am thinking this may perhaps belong in the dietTrash category. The ingredients list reads like a food chemistry text book. I get the sense that this meal is very VERY processed. I was initially very happy to find a cheap, simple meal that could make a light lunch, but as I'm sitting here - feeling the salt make it's way to my tummy, I am now thinking that I don't want to eat a meal that is going to remind me of the chemicals in my food lab at work.

There is 750 mg of sodium in this meal which is 31% of the daily recommended amount - and they need to cut it down. There are only 200 calories from this meal, 7 grams of total fat and 1.5 grams of saturated fat, which are 11% and 8% of the recommended daily amount. There is no trans fat, 11 grams of protein and 47 grams of total carbohydrates, which includes 9 grams of sugars and 5 grams of dietary fiber.

The nutritional value is not too bad - except for the amount of sodium, but I am really turned off by the long, involved ingredients list. I am thinking that I might not by this meal again because it sounds like they processed the hell out of everything!

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