Review: Kroger Prepped and Paired meals: Vietnamese Chicken

I was shopping his past weekend, and saw that Kroger (where I basically live) has developed a line of take home, everything-is-in-the-box, cook-it-yourself-meals. Naturally, I was curious. I have seen these at a few more upscale grocery stores, but from Kroger? So I bought one just to see what was up with it. Are they good? Is the price good for what you get? How are the ingredients? There is no other way to find out than to buy it and try it!

This is what the package looks like. Googled the image because in my fervor to cook it, i ripped the box open and forgot to take a picture first. This particular meal was 18.99, although some of the meals that you can purchase are closer to the 14-15 dollar range. Not too bad if you are looking for something easy and don't feel like going out, but want an easy meal. Erik and I end up spending 30-40 bucks anytime we go out to eat together, so these are at least cheaper than that!

This is how the ingredients are packaged. My first gut reaction is mixed. It is awesome that all the ingredients are clearly labeled and sorted in a way that makes finding them easier. The ingredients are fresh and brightly colored. But I did feel a bit guilty because the amount of packaging seems a little excessive. There is a ton of plastic waste here, and I try to be as environmentally conscious as I can be. I would prefer if this had less waste, but I don't know how to marry that idea with having all the ingredients individually packaged. Maybe make the packaging biodegradable? At any rate, let's get to the meal preparation!

As you can see, the instructions are easy to read, well organized and include lots of pictures! The instructions aren't flimsy paper, so you can save these in case you wanted to purchase the ingredients in the future and make the dish again!

First step is to add the coconut milk to the rice, mix, microwave and set aside. The rice is precooked so you only need to microwave it for three minutes.

Next step is to combine the chili sauce, half jalapenos, half of the garlic, white wine vinegar and most of the green onions. Toss together and set aside.

Next step is to brown the pork and add the other half of the garlic and jalapenos, the lemongrass puree, hoisin sauce, and honey. Not much to it, just brown and add!

And here it is! Easy peasy. I think it took us about 20 minutes to make everything. I didn't take pictures of us eating because well, we destroyed it. It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, and pretty reasonably price if you want to try something new, but don't want to spend however much money it would cost you to buy ingredients or sauces you don't have. If you pick up this meal, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!