Atkins Crustless Chicken Pot Pie – Low-Carb Comfort Food Done Right

Chicken Pot Pie is a favorite of my family.  When I go low-carb, I can still get it for my kids, but up until now that’s been a no-no for me.  With the new line of frozen dinners from Atkins that are low-carb, the one I looked forward to the most after I first saw it was the Crustless Chicken Pot Pie.

Premium white meat chicken breast, broccoli & cauliflower florets, spinach and julienne carrots in a sherry & herb cream sauce.

Preparation is easy.  I slit the film then popped it in the microwave for 3 minutes on HIGH.  It then got stirred and went back in the microwave for an additional 2 minutes on HIGH.  After that, it sat for a minute before being taken out.  It looked nothing like the cover of the box when it did.

The idea seems to be this is like the filling of a chicken pot pie without the crust.  Honestly, it does pretty good.  I wasn’t crazy about the little bits of chicken.  These were small pieces that didn’t seem to have much substance to them.  The chicken pot pies I get have chunks of chicken and vegetables in them, so there it sort of missed the mark.  However, the chicken was quite tender and good.  After being stirred, the broccoli pretty much fell apart.  The broccoli and the sauce dominated the flavor of the dish.  I liked the sauce and the flavor, so overall my experience with this was a positive one.

Nutritionally, this fares pretty well.  There’s 330 calories in the entire 9-ounce bowl.  Of that, 200 calories are from fat.  That works out to 22g of fat or 34% of the recommended daily value.  Of that, 10g are saturated fat or 50% of the recommended daily value.  There’s also 880mg of sodium which represents 37% of the recommended daily value.  If you’re following a low-carb diet, there’s just 5g of net carbs in the dinner.

I’ll definitely get Atkins Crustless Chicken Pot Pie again.  It had a good taste, although I didn’t think it was terribly similar to the filling I have in chicken pot pie.  The chicken chunks could be a little bigger, but other than that I was pretty happy with it.

Atkins Meatloaf with Portobello Mushroom Gravy – Truly Awful

A couple of years ago I lost more than 50 pounds following “The Atkins Diet”.  Since then I watched my weight pretty good, but with sickness and other difficulties this winter, it crept up on me pretty good.  The whole 50 pounds is not back – nothing anywhere close – but it was enough that I knew I had to do something before I was right back where I started from.

I was excited that this time Atkins came out with a few more products to make following the low carbohydrate eating plan easier.  Especially helpful to someone who works third-shift when there are no places open to grab a quick salad or the like are the new line of frozen dinners.  I’ve been trying them one by one and while some of them have been terrific, there is at least one that totally fails.  That would be this one.

The packaging for Atkins Meatloaf with Portobello Mushroom Gravy promises “custom premium meatloaf topped with Portobello mushroom gravy and a side of cauliflower florets, fire roasted zucchini and green beans”.  Sounds good, doesn’t it?  The picture on the box shows what looks like a typical slab of frozen meatloaf in a nice bit of gravy, topped with mushrooms and a good side of vegetables.  As usual, it’s photographed on a small plate to present that there’s more food there than what’s actually in the frozen dinner.  Still, I did find the substance of the meal to be filling.  There was plenty of food here for me.

This presentation on the box is deceptive for another reason as well.  When the frozen dinner comes out of the microwave, it’s not quite as neat and pretty as it appears here.  The directions state to microwave on HIGH for 4 minutes, then remove the film, stir the vegetables, rotate the meatloaf, and spoon the gravy back on top.  After that, heat for an additional 2 minutes.  Let stand in the microwave for 1 minute.  What came out was vegetables that were mixed with the gravy.  Although that didn’t really bother me, it didn’t look as good as the box.  The meatloaf looked like a slab cut off of a brick.  It really wasn’t the least bit appetizing and looked more like the food I get in the cheapest of the cheap frozen dinners.

The taste really wasn’t much better when it came to the meatloaf.  The first time I tried it, I just grabbed a fork to break it apart.  Every meatloaf I’ve ever had I could break apart with a fork.  Not this one.  I had to go get a knife and cut it apart.  It was tougher than nearly anything else I’d tasted in a frozen dinner, and that’s saying something.  I actually went back and bought this a second time, thinking maybe the first time was a fluke.  I mean, they wouldn’t market something this bad, right?  My experience with the meatloaf was exactly the same.  I needed a knife to slice through it and it was tougher than many steaks I’ve had.  The taste wasn’t good either.

The gravy was good, so I couldn’t complain about that.  It helped to choke down the meatloaf since I had no way to get anything else to eat that night.  The vegetables were good too, although they were coated in gravy and soft, nothing like the pretty picture on the box.  I’m not usually a cauliflower eater but when I swirled them in the gravy I managed to eat them just fine.

Nutritionally, keep in mind this is designed for people who are counting carbohydrates.  There’s 320 calories in the entire frozen dinner, which isn’t too bad.  Of that, 180 are from fat.  That works out to 20g of fat or 31% of the recommended daily value.  Of that, 7g are saturated fat which represents 35% of the recommended daily value.  There’s 640mg of sodium in the dinner, or 27% of the recommended daily value – really not too bad for a frozen dinner.  For carb counters, this has 7g of net carbs and is good for all phases of the Atkins diet.

Still, I wouldn’t recommend Atkins Meatloaf with Portobello Mushroom Gravy to anyone.  I gave it a second shot and the result was the same.  A tough slab of horrible looking meat with a decent selection of vegetables in gravy which made it edible.  If I’d had another option the second time, I don’t think I would have finished it.

Atkins Beef Merlot - It's Nice to Have Frozen Dinners that are Friendly to Low Carbohydrate Dieters

The only diet I’ve ever been able to follow that gives me decent results has been the Atkins Low Carbohydrate diet.  I’ve found that I can generally eat enough food that I feel full and still see good enough results on the program that I am encouraged to follow through with the diet.  Two years ago, I lost about 50 pounds.  This year, with a few stresses, I put some weight back on so I am back to low carbohydrates for a while.

The good news is that the Atkins brand is expanding a bit.  I always used their bars and shakes to give into that sweet tooth craving.  In addition, now there is a line of frozen meals that really help.  They can be a bit hard to find at the moment.  The most reliable source seems to be the local WalMart SuperCenter.  Since I don’t have one near me, I grab a bunch of the frozen dinners whenever I am near one.

The Atkins Beef Merlot was one of the first I tried.  It looked interesting from the box with nice chunks of beef and broccoli florets in what looked like a brown gravy.  The box touts this as: Tender beef and broccoli florets in a delicate Merlot wine sauce.  Preparation is simple.  It goes into the microwave for four minutes with the film covering the tray.  At that time, the film is peeled back & the food is stirred, then the film is replaced and it’s heated for another two minutes.

That’s what the box looks like.  The sad reality (at least as far as appearance goes) is this:

I’ve written before that the photography on these boxes is deceptive.  They use a small plate to give the illusion of there being more food in the meal.  This weighs in at 9 ozs., so it’s a typical portion size for a frozen entrée.  I’d just like to know, though, where are those nice chunks of beef? There were about 3-4 pieces that were a substantial size, and the rest pretty much fell apart upon stirring.  The broccoli fared even worse.  A few of the florets stayed together, but overall it became broccoli bits in the middle of gravy and pieces of beef.

The taste, thank God, is much better than the appearance.  I really liked how this tasted.  I was not optimistic the first time I had it and saw what it looked like.  The gravy is very good and although that dominates the overall taste of the food, it’s a good taste.  The beef and broccoli were tender.  The few big chunks of beef weren’t chewy and had good flavor to them.  Most of the broccoli had fallen apart, but the few bigger florets were also tender without being mushy.  It wasn’t entirely pleasant, though, that it felt like I was better off using a spoon to scrape most of the food from the tray since it had fallen apart.  There were only a few big chunks that I could actually sink a fork into.

Nutritionally, this is about what you would expect from a frozen dinner that’s focused on low carbohydrates.  There’s 310 calories in the dinner, 190 of which are from fat.  That works out to 21g of fat or 32% of the USDA recommended daily value.  Of that, there’s 4g of saturated fat which is 20% of the USDA recommended daily value.  Where this is a bit troubling is the same place most of these frozen dinners lose out which is salt or sodium.  There’s a whopping 920mg of sodium in the dinner which is 38% of the USDA recommended daily value.  Carbohydrate wise, there’s 9g of carbs in this less the fiber carbs of 3g leaving you with a net carbs of 6g.  It’s good for all phases of the Atkins diet plan.

I really like the flavor of the Atkins Beef Merlot so while there are some problems with the appearance and substance, and the sodium levels are a bit troubling especially to someone who already has high blood pressure, I would buy it again.  I just wouldn’t use it for my meals on a regular basis but a few times a week when I am at work and want something nice that’s easy to prepare, this definitely hits the mark.