Anyhow, work are encouraging us to try the new products that have just come in on our Fuller Longer and Count on Us ranges, so I decided to do "7 Days of M&S Healthy Dinners". I bought four Fuller Longer meals (currently on 2 for £6) and three Count on Us (currently on 3 for 2).
Now I am going to be straight from the off: this is highly unlikely to make me any healthier or anything like that.
For one thing, I'm only planning on eating healthy dinners, not breakfasts and lunches. I am also not changing my exercise regime. These reviews are purely for the purpose of testing the TASTE, which is, I think, a very important part of the appeal of a healthy meal. Let's be honest, if it tastes like cardboard soaked in petrol you won't want to eat it!
Also, did you know: M&S's Fuller Longer range now holds a 40% share of the healthy meals market, ousting Weight Watchers as the number one healthy meal brand?
Just thought I'd throw that little factoid out there... ;-)
And thus, I begin with Day One.
Count on Us: Beef and Pork Ragu Cheesy Pasta Bake (£2.79)
First Impressions
The main reason I picked this item is because it's not chicken. Most ready meals I like are chicken based, as you will see as the week goes on, and I knew that I had to break out of that habit if I was really going to do this properly. However, I am not a big fan of fish; I only really eat salmon and prawns (not fish, I know, but close enough), so I chose this to be one of my non-chicken meals.
I like the packaging for Count on Us; for the most part it's simple yet stylish with no fiddly boxes taking up air space (yes, Steak Yorkshires, I'm looking at you!). The dish looked cute and colourful, as ready meals go, and the whole appearance was overall very appealing. However, when I picked this up out of my fridge earlier, I found myself wondering if perhaps it might be a little on the small side for me to have it alone.
I astound people with how much I am capable of eating (a whole Tuscan Sausage Pasta with Focaccia Crostini to myself? No problem!), and this to me did not seem enough. Having not thought of this prior to all the shops closing, I didn't have anything to have as a healthy accompaniment, so I made myself some home-made garlic toast to go with it.
The plastic film was annoying. It would start to come off easily enough, but for some reason it tended to split up in small pieces. I don't know if this was just me being a bit of a dipstick, but it was quite frustrating. The cooking instructions were simple enough: 160C Fan oven for 20 minutes. I even managed to get the garlic toast in at exactly the same time because the temperature was so low!
For anyone that's interested, garlic toast: 1/2 a teaspoon garlic puree, 2 teaspoons of butter/margarine/spread and a pinch of garlic granules, mixed together in a small bowl and spread over one side of a slice of bread; then oven baked. I usually do it at 180 for 5-10 mins depending on how crunchy I want the toast to be but apparently 160 for 20 mins is fine!
Taste Test
Because I wanted it to look pretty in the pictures I was taking, I decanted mine onto a plate. A small plate, I would like to add. I was right with my first idea that there may not be enough there for me, so it was a good thing I'd made my side of toast. But anyway...
Pasta is a very bland food by nature, so it's really up to the sauce and suchlike to give the pasta it flavour. The sauce was as basic as you can possibly get, tomato with a hint of basil, and that is always a safe way to go as it's very difficult to get a tomato sauce wrong. The beef and pork within the sauce was minced, and I felt that perhaps there wasn't really enough meat in the dish, as it was very difficult to taste any of it over the flavour of the sauce. Delicate, is probably the best way to describe the flavour; it's there, but it doesn't work hard on your taste-buds Having said that, there was nothing wrong with the taste itself, I just think that perhaps I am more of a carnivore than I would care to imagine!
The topping was lovely; all crunchy and with plenty of finely grated cheese, two of my favourite things when it comes to pasta toppings! The cheese was a mild flavoured one, which I'll admit isn't my usual taste (I'm all Mature+) but given the theme of the rest of the meal, it seems an appropriate choice, as a more mature cheese may have overpowered the subtle flavours of the sauce and meat. The addition of herbs to the crumb was a nice touch, as it gave it a little kick without resorting to an overpowering spice (spice for the sake of flavour is fine, spice for the sake of spice is wrong). The inclusion of spinach in the recipe was good too, as I definitely don't eat enough greens normally, and there wasn't so much that it overpowered the rest of the food; just complimented.
Overall, this is definitely too small to have alone, though I'm not sure what I would have alongside it other than garlic bread or something like that. Maybe I just need a smaller stomach?!
Overall Rating
4.5 Stars
A little too small for me as a stand-alone meal, but tasty none-the-less. Looks good, easy to cook and good for you!
