by Marianne Plunkert
Overall rating: 3.3 of 5.0
Meal Description and Cooking Instructions
The oatmeal with peach compote breakfast entrée was packaged in a 2-compartment plastic tray. One section held a mound of oatmeal topped by a slice of cooked peach, and the other held a chicken apple sausage link.
The dieter is directed to augment the meal with a dairy product. I chose plain, nonfat Greek yogurt as my contribution.
Oatmeal with Peach Compote and Chicken-Apple Sausage
The instructions indicated that the entrée should be microwaved on high for 30 to 40 seconds. I nuked mine for an extra 10 seconds, which seems to be the amount of additional time necessary to adjust for the lower wattage of my microwave oven.
My General Impressions
I wasn’t overly excited about this breakfast. I like oatmeal, but I had an eDiets oatmeal breakfast on my menu in Week 2 (Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal with Apple-Walnut Compote) and found it to have the consistency of glue. It hadn’t tasted much better, either.
I was encouraged when I spooned the hot oatmeal into my bowl. Unlike the oatmeal in Week 2, this was moist and had the consistency that I normally associate with this hearty cereal. I still wasn’t a fan of its taste, however. The couple of peaches didn’t add enough sweetness to compensate for the natural blandness of the oatmeal, and the cinnamon shaker had been given a couple of shakes too many, in my opinion.
Chicken-apple sausage links had accompanied another breakfast entrée on my meal plan this week—the homestyle pancakes. Like the sausage served with the pancakes, this sausage link had a good flavor. And it looked a bit more appetizing than the sausage that came with the pancakes. There seemed to have been an attempt made to brown it a little before packaging it up, so it didn’t look so anemic.
Nutritional Content
Twenty-five percent of this entrée’s total calories of 160 are from fat. The meal contains 9 grams of protein and 20 grams of carbohydrates, with 3 grams of fiber and 5 grams of sugar.
It’s fairly rich in Vitamin C, supplying 35% of the recommended daily average dose of that vitamin. It also supplies 2% of the recommended daily intakes of Vitamin A and calcium and 6% of the daily iron requirement.
My nonfat yogurt provided me with a serving of dairy. The peach compote constituted less than a full serving of fruit. The sausage didn’t equate to a full serving of protein, either, and there were no items from the vegetable food group included in this meal.
Food Rating/Quality
On a scale of 1 to 5, this meal rates only a 3.3 with me. That said, it ranks higher than Week 2’s Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal with Apple-Walnut Compote, which scored only a “2.5.” The consistency of this oatmeal was considerably better than that of the cinnamon apple oatmeal, but it had too much cinnamon and not enough sweetness to suit my taste buds.
The sausage link was very good, however. It was nicely seasoned and tasted moist and fresh. Although its appearance was a great improvement on the chicken- apple sausage that had accompanied the Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal, it still has a way to go. I recommend browning it a little bit more so that it is evenly browned all over.
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