Open Nature Chicken Pesto

Ordinarily, I am not one for products with the term "Natural" or "Organic" prominently displayed on them. You know what else is "natural" and "organic"? Smallpox, that's what. Ah, if only my stand were so principled. In reality, the *true* reason is that I am a cheapskate. That extra $2-$3 per (frozen) meal is better spent on future medical treatment for the various maladies that will undoubtedly attend my unnatural and synthetic diet. That said, occasionally a "natural" or "organic" product will creep down into my price range. Such was the case with this instant meal.



(Apologies for prominently writing my name on the carton; that was a necessity due to its temporary storage at work. It's not that I don't trust my coworkers, it's just that if one of them violates my trust I want to be able to rummage through their trash and wave the offending item in their face. You know, claim the moral high ground.)

WITHOUT RED PEPPER

To be honest, the dish was underwhelming. Short on flavor. Also, "natural chicken" does not necessarily equal "tender chicken" or even "all-that-good" chicken. I'm no culinary expert, but I think the missing ingredient is cowbell. Or something.

WITH RED PEPPER

Look, the bar was set pretty low here. So when I say it was "Better With Red Pepper!," please understand that it would likely have been "Better With Salt!" Or any other spice, really. But I don't feel like starting additional blogs to fully explore the issue. By all means, feel free to do so yourself!

THE VERDICT

Better With Red Pepper! So far, frozen meals are 2-0 in terms of being better with red pepper. Undefeated! Can they continue to hold this rather dubious honor? Stay tuned!

AQ - "Asked Questions"

ASKED QUESTIONS¹

How do you select the foods you review on here?

As this is a scientific endeavor, I employ a very careful, three step process in this determination. (1) Am I eating food? (2) Do I have red pepper handy? (3) Exercising whimsy, arbitrariness, and caprice, do I feel like making a blog post of my snack/meal? Application of this three step process is much easier than it sounds.

Why don't you do something besides pouring red pepper flakes on the food (e.g., bake it in, grind it up)?

Laziness.

Isn't the occasional us of the royal "we" a bit, uh, ridiculous?

Yes. But isn't the whole existence of this blog a bit, uh, ridiculous?

¹ These questions have not been asked frequently. Or even occasionally. Some may never have been asked at all, apart from where I've typed them in this post.