by Marianne Plunkert
Overall rating: 4.5/5
Meal Description and Cooking Instructions
The eDiets luncheon entree on Day 6 was a buffalo- style chicken breast pita sandwich served with sweet potato “fries.” I provided a fruit (grapes) to complete the meal.
The meal was packaged in a 2-compartment plastic tray. Two wedges of whole-wheat pita bread, with a combined size equal to half a small pita, lay atop diced chicken bits in one of the two compartments, and the sweet potato fries were in the other compartment.
The cooking instructions indicated to microwave the meal on high for 45 to 50 seconds prior to assembling the sandwich. I elected to cook it for a full minute, which resulted in the perfect temperature, and spooned the chicken into the pita wedges before putting them on my plate.
Buffalo-Style Chicken Breast Pita and Sweet Potato Fries
My General Impressions
I enjoy buffalo-style chicken wings, so I was eager to try this meal. I only hoped this chicken was not spiced so heavily that you couldn’t taste the food itself, as I’ve sometimes experienced when ordering buffalo wings. Happily it was not.
The taste of the chicken bits was reminiscent of buffalo wings. It had all the flavor, but none of the grease of its popular cousin. What more can you ask for? And the chicken had just the right amount of “kick”—hot, but not overpoweringly so. Making a pita bread sandwich with it provided a different, but agreeable, aspect to my usual experience with buffalo-style spiced chicken.
The sweet potato fries, however, were misnamed. They didn’t come close to resembling any sweet potato fries I’ve been served. Texture-wise, the dish resembled an over-baked sweet potato cut into five wedges. I like baked sweet potatoes, so this wasn’t a problem for me, but readers should be aware that the name is misleading.
Nutritional Content
Unlike its full-flavored cousin, buffalo wings, this meal is incredibly low-fat. Only 30 of its 230 calories are from fat. This equates to a mere 13%. It’s fiber-rich, with dietary fiber weighing in at 9 grams. Total carbs are 29 grams, with 4 grams of sugar. And the meal contains a healthy 20 grams of protein.
It also contains a healthy dose of Vitamin C; more specifically, it contains 50% of the recommended daily intake of this vitamin. It also provides 10% of the daily iron requirement and 4% each of the Vitamin A and calcium requirements.
The entrée itself offers plenty of protein and vegetables, and the pita provides a serving of starch. The grapes I supplied equaled a serving of fruit. The only food group without a strong presence is dairy. Although milk is listed as one of the ingredients, I doubt there is a full serving of it.
Food Rating/Quality
If not for the sweet potato side, I would have given this meal a “5” out of 5. Everything tasted fresh and delicious, and the visual appeal was good. The chicken was wonderfully spiced to stimulate the taste buds and didn’t overwhelm them with barely-bearable heat.
As mentioned above, the sweet potato fries could hardly be called “fries.” And even if appropriately referred to as “baked,” the sweet potatoes were a bit over-baked and had a mushier texture than I prefer. Therefore, I am giving the meal only a 4.5 rating. This won’t keep me from ordering it again if given the chance, though.
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