Steven Helmer Publications

  Everyone had Friday off from work and school, so we took a family trip down to Madison and on the way back, stopped by Costco. I saw Rana Southwest-Style Linguine near their meat section and thought it looked interesting enough to give it a try. Overall, I wasn't disappointed. Fortunately, my kids decided they wanted something else because there really wasn't enough in the packaging to make much more than a meal for two.  However, as far as convenience goes, it was one of the easier meals for two I've ever made. All I had to do was open the package, combine the ingredients in the container provided and cook in the microwave for eight minutes. I started this after my wife got out of the shower and it was done by the time she got dressed. I thought the linguine had a unique flavor. The andouille sausage gave it a bold taste without being too spicy and certain filled the kitchen with its aroma as I was cooking it. There was also plenty of chicken and vegetables to go with th...

My wife and I both had long days, and our oldest daughter had to work last night so I decided to keep things simple by just picking up some frozen dinners. I wound up choosing the Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Turkey Lasagna Bowl mostly because I'm supposed to be watching my salt intake, and it had the lowest amount of sodium of all the dinners I looked at. After having it, my opinion was mixed. I always have lowered expectations when it comes to frozen dinners and honestly wasn't really expecting all that much as a result. In that regard, I feel like this did end up what I had pretty much thought it would be. It was an OK dinner but didn't offer much in terms of pizazz.  One thing I did like about it was it was easy to make. Frozen dinners are supposed to be convenient and a surprisingly large number of them aren't. This one only needed to be popped in the microwave for a few minutes. There was no need to stir and heat it longer at a lower temperature or cook parts of ...