Sometimes, we go back and re-review something we’ve tried before if it gets a new recipe or even a fresh package design. It appears that the Lean Cuisine Santa Fe-Style Rice & Beans in a Sour Cream & Mild Chile Sauce got both, so it feels like a good time to write a second review.
We should also point out that when we wrote our previous review, Freezer Meal Frenzy was still pretty young and we didn’t review it as thoroughly as we should have. Ah, to be young again!
So let’s dive into this frozen meal and see how much it’s changed!
Now, we actually don’t remember this taking six and a half minutes to heat up in the microwave. It’s been about three and a half years since we reviewed this the first time, so it’s possible we just forgot about this. Either way, that seems like a pretty lengthy cook time for a dish that’s really not that big.
Once we took this out of the microwave, we were also surprised by how much sauce there is here. In comparing this with our old photographs, though, this actually doesn’t seem like it changed. It’s just that it’s really hard to remember something that we haven’t eaten it in so long. Keep in mind that we’ve reviewed more than 1,600 frozen food items at this point. We’re not going to remember every single one.
And really, this meal isn’t all that memorable. It contains a halfway decent Spanish rice with a few black beans and a creamy sauce. The sauce is probably the best part of the dish, as it’s sweet with a little bit of spice to it, but it’s not going to blow anyone away. We actually think it would have been so much better on a corn tortilla — it doesn’t seem like it’s living up to its full potential in this simple rice-and-bean dish.
This meal contains 300 calories and 580 mg of sodium. Both those numbers are higher than the previous version of this dish, yet they’re still below average. Even with the bulkier calorie count, this is very much a diet-friendly meal.
We didn’t like the Lean Cuisine Santa Fe Rice & Beans the last time we tried it, but this time it seems kind of alright. While it does seem like Lean Cuisine tweaked the recipe a bit to make a higher-calorie and better-tasting meal, it’s still not enough to make this stand out. Three and a half years from now, we’re quite certain we’ll have forgotten this dish completely once again.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen meal, check out our package scans below.
