So sometimes you are reminded that your fridge is empty and as an adult, you need to go grocery shopping. Sometimes I think that I can live off of cereal and milk, but then I remember, I have to work, and sugar can only get you so far in the day when you have to read legal contracts all day long. So real food is something I want to be better at, I was doing really well eating real food on my cleanse, but then I went back to real life, and real life without a cleanse to fill in the gaps meant that I was eating on the go while working 100 plus hours a week. I try to stay away from processed fast food, and I want to consume less gluten and meat, but its just so easy to make a tortilla wrap and run. Or both H and I love burritos, so there are always burrito ingredients in the house, and its our default food.
So anyways, while on a run to the store to buy some paper towels and tissues and laundry detergent, which was all I was supposed to buy at the store, I ended up walking by the food section of Target and found a new product called Lunchables Uploaded Heat and Eat Snack pack. The calorie and sugar count was small, and most of the ingredients I could pronounce, but the sodium was a little much for 4oz of food. So I bought it anyways, because it was $2 for two packs with the sale and coupons, but usual price is $2.99, which is steep for for 4oz of mini nachos.
Don’t go shopping hungry is the lesson of this blog, and I should know that now that I am closer to 30 then 20, but sometimes you have to go shopping hungry. Resisting the food section would have been the smarter of the choices honestly. Anyways, I checked out with my nacho box set and went home and it’s been living in my fridge for 3 days. Today though, I decided that I wanted to eat the Spinach in my fridge that was taunting me, so I grabbed the spinach and noticed I had no dressing and no meat (again, still haven’t gone grocery shopping), so I was digging around for some food, when I saw the Uploaded Lunchables. I thought, maybe a taco salad might be better than eating spinach raw. So opened the lunchables kit. I was shocked to see how little food is actually in that box! Also the fact that they all come in little pouches flashed me back to the primary school days. Assembling the kit was kind of gross honestly, it was just squeezing brains into a pouch and then popping it into the microwave.
Once warmed up and mixed together, it wasn’t so bad. It looked like nachos after you have added all the extra stuff, mixed them all up and walked 400 yard back to your seat in the stands of the stadium. You know that look! I couldn’t resist the curiosity to try it. So I stuck my spork in there and I took a bite. It was still cold. So back in the microwave it went for another 30 seconds. If you’re going to assemble this out of the fridge, then I highly recommend a full minute in the microwave. I also don’t recommend cooking it in the probably toxic plastic pouch. The pouch didn’t produce a lot food, and so I made the choice to microwave the other pouch up too.
So I thought maybe I would try the combo on a tortilla and then roll it up with spinach, but it didn’t work well, and so I tossed the tortilla and went with just a salad. Of course because I am not a fan of eating without a little spice, I had to kick up my mix a bit and did a half an avocado and some salsa on top. It made for the perfect salad. No extra dressing. It was a heavy salad though because it was close to 600 calories if not more from the extra avocado and salsa. Either way, it was not bad.
Dressed up, the salad was decent, but I think its because I made it delicious with the extra ingredients. I was able to consume my greens, and I guess that is what is the most important part. However, I did need to drink about 50oz of water with that meal to balance out the amount of salt. So it probably wasn’t the best meal of all time. It made due for what it was. A quick and simple meal of slightly processed proportions.
I will probably never buy this product again. It was worth it to try for $2, but it just is not something we would eat on our normally whole food diet. We aren’t 100% whole food eaters, but we try our best to eat things that are still in their natural from the ground state. I do have some questions for Lunchables though! Who is this product geared towards? It comes with a spork, which usually is a reminder of childhood. Why you need prongs for tortilla chips the size of nickles and ground beef, I do not know, but it was included. It’s considered to be a snack, but should snacks really be 240 calories? Also, if this is a grab and go snack, why does it need to be microwaved? Kids don’t have microwaves at school or at the park or where ever they are usually eating snacks. If your child is at home, then they probably can have an apple instead. Adults, at least mature adults don’t eat this kind of stuff on a normal basis do they?
I guess my biggest question though is, who is your target market, and who buys this on a normal basis? Does anyone actually buy lunchables for their child to eat every day? Should the world be concerned about this?
I had my fun trying out this new snack food option that I then turned into a full meal. It was good being consumed, but it didn’t feel good later that evening when I felt like a slug. In conclusion, I say that everyone should try new things, but not when you’re hungry and rummaging through the junk section of Target, and probably not if the food comes in a series of squeeze packets and it’s biggest appeal is 15 seconds of cooking in a microwave. Real food should take a little bit longer, and really, it took me closer to a minute to get the food hot enough to actually be consumable.
The Jayne Project 