Online school has made it easy for students to swing through the Chick-Fil-A drive through or order McDonald’s for lunch instead of settling for whatever horrors their mom has waiting for them on the kitchen counter. But, this new flexibility has also taken a big toll on everyone’s wallet, so I forced myself to shut down Postmates and take a trip to Trader Joe’s — for some healthier and more economically friendly lunch choices. All you need to cook these frozen meals is a microwave or conventional oven –– and one growling stomach. They can be made easily and efficiently in between WebEx calls — even if your teacher waits to let you off right until the virtual bell.
The Mandarin Style Orange Chicken Bowl is made of tender-battered dark chicken, fried rice, vegetables and Mandarin-style orange ginger sauce. If you’re looking for a healthy touch, this bowl has carrots, peas and broccoli — enough veggies to fill your Vitamin A need for the day. It only takes four to five minutes to fully cook and leaves you full –– and away from digging for snacks –– far past seventh hour. I highly recommend you defrost this sweet and spicy meal when you are craving that Panda Express bowl, but save yourself the 15 bucks.
The Vegetable Pad Thai is made of tofu, rice noodles, tamarind sauce and cashews and takes only four minutes to cook. It wasn’t my favorite dish on the list due to its tangy flavor and the unappealing, slimy-looking noodles. My mom always says “your eyes eat first,” and boy did they spit the noodles right back out. I apologize if you like Pad Thai, but it’s a no thank you for me.
The Sriracha Shrimp Bowl consists of brown and red rice, accompanied by corn, broccoli and peas, all topped with a spicy sriracha sauce. The lack of flavor and mild-spiciness barely validated the name “Sriracha bowl.” It takes nine minutes of microwave time, which makes it more difficult to fix when rushing between classes, but it definitely makes enough to fill you up. If you like sriracha and shrimp, this bowl is something to try out.
These Chicken-and-Cheese Tamales were extremely appetizing wrapped in warm cornbread –– coming with two tamales, each only taking three minutes in the microwave. The grainy texture is a little funky, which leads to the one-point deduction. However, I still recommend trying these out, especially as a comfort food for days when school is making you want to just crawl under your blankets and stay there.
The Chicken Burrito Bowl contains seasoned chicken breast with brown rice, black beans, red quinoa, cheddar cheese and some corn smothered chipotle southwest sauce. The bowl took only four and a half minutes, which is a short amount of time for the amount of food. It wasn’t preferable to my usual PB&J, and the chicken bites were a little chewy for my personal taste. It bursts with flavor and spice, and I would definitely recommend trying this out. It was no Chipotle Burrito Bowl, but my credit card didn’t mind.
The mac-and-cheese gets a whopping 5/5 stars, making it one of the two absolute best meals. This mouth-watering lunch surprised my taste buds with four kinds of cheese: cheddar, swiss, gouda and havarti. This is definitely not a good choice if you’re lactose intolerant, but it might even be worth the post-lunch stomach ache. It’s a larger dish, so I couldn’t finish it on my own, but it only takes six minutes to make and who doesn’t love leftovers. I highly recommend this delicious dish of cheesiness.
The Chipotle Vegetable Quesadillas are made with black beans, sweet corn, onions and melted monterey jack and cheddar cheese––all wrapped in a flour tortilla. My expectations were high as a major quesadilla fan,, but I sadly wasn’t satisfied. The tortilla was pretty tough to bite into and chew, even once cooked all the way through after four minutes of cook time. I’m disappointed to say that I wouldn’t recommend these.