Steven Helmer Publications

  One of our local grocery stores has had Chef Boyardee skillet meals in their freezer section for several weeks and while I've been tempted to buy them on more than one occasion, I usually passed because of the $11.79 price (I can buy the ingredients and make them from scratch cheaper). However, I wasn't really in the mood to do a whole lot of cooking last night, so I finally decided to give the Chicken Alfredo dinner a try. Overall, I have to say this exceeded my expectations. I think my youngest daughter described this best when she said it wasn't as good as homemade or from a restaurant but was considerably better than a normal frozen dinner version. While I personally would have liked to see this have a little more to it, such as maybe some broccoli to go with the pasta and chicken, it had a decent flavor all four of us enjoyed. Preparing the meal was easy as well. You just empty the contents (including four sauce packets) into a pan, add some water and cook until it i...

  Creativity isn't always my strong suit when I cook since I tend to stick with meals I've made before. However, I was at the grocery store yesterday evening and had originally intended to buy a frozen skillet dinner (since my wife/daughter had martial arts classes until 8) and, after seeing the price of those, decided to make one from scratch. Cost-wise, there wasn't much difference in price. I would have needed to buy two pre-made skillet dinners since one just isn't enough for everyone and that would have cost me $15. The ingredients were around $16 (and I could have probably come in at less money had I gone with a different brand of shrimp). The ingredients: Frozen shrimp - no tail Elbow pasta 1 jar of Alfredo Sauce 1-pound bag of frozen broccoli. I fried the broccoli and shrimp together until the latter was fully cooked. I then boiled the elbow pasta separately and added about half the 1-pound box to the pan (saving the rest for another time) and mixed them with th...

  My wife and I decided to have tacos for Cinco de Mayo and, since we needed ingredients, I stopped by the grocery store on the way home. Since everything else was more expensive than planned, I looked for any savings I could get and wound up picking out this brand of seasoning because it was 50 cents per pack instead of 75 cents. Overall, it ended up being a good choice. One of my biggest concerns about this brand was taste. I've purchased other discount seasonings before, and they were either very salty or flavorless. That was not the case with this brand. Instead, it had a fairly decent kick to it - a hint of spiciness without being too spicy. Even my kids, who aren't normally into spicy foods, loved it and both came back for seconds (I think my oldest might have even made a third trip). Final Opinion: This was a lower-cost item that turned out to have just as much flavor as the more expensive brands. I'd recommend looking for this one the next time you make tacos. I, fo...