Product Description

Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers provide a quick, fresh and Healthy meal solution. Each unit contains everything necessary to cook, strain, and mix a complete meal in 5 minutes or less.áá Fresh Mixers can be conveniently stored in your pantry or desk as no ref

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2751 in Grocery
• Brand: Healthy Choice
• Released on: 2008-08-14
• Number of items: 6
• Dimensions: .65 pounds

Features

• A complete meal solution
• Cook the ziti pasta in the steamer/strainer provided, and heat the meat marinara sauce then mix for a fresh, easy and fast bowl of pasta!
• Fresh Mixers Ziti and Meat Sauce will please those looking for a quick tasty pasta meal

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Actual product packaging and materials may contain more and different information than what is shown on our website. We recommend that you do not rely solely on the information presented and that you always read labels, warnings, and directions before using or consuming a product. Please see our full disclaimer below.

Customer Reviews

Yummy "Emergency" Food
Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers, Ziti & Meat Sauce is a very convenient food to keep on hand. It would be great to keep in your desk at work, dorm room, or take on a trip. The packaging is well designed and even has a lift tab to make it easier to get the sauce package out. The plastic pieces are Number 5, which is recyclable in my town. The instructions are easy to follow and simple. Put water in to the line with the noodles and cook in the microwave for 3.5 mins and drain noodle. Next heat the sauce for 30 seconds and pour over the noodles. Mix and eat. The taste is very fresh and certainly better than leftovers. There are 340 calories per single serving package. The ingredient list is not too long and almost entirely recognizable. The sauce is pleasantly spicy. I would not make this at home, but it is a great convenience food for places that lack refrigeration or cooking facilities.

Convenient, tangy and mildly spicy, but not too "green"
Some engineer somewhere had fun with this one!

Here's how you can be eating your meal inside 5 mins - at least how it worked for me:

1) Pull the plastic film off of the top of the container
2) Peel away the plastic wrapping that holds the strainer lid in place
3) Remove the inner plastic bowl that contains the meat sauce, and set the meat sauce aside for the moment
4) Add just enough water to the uncooked pasta so that the water level reaches the fill line (the fill line is a little tough to see at first)
5) Shake the pasta so that it's all submerged in the water
6) Replace the strainer top and then cook the pasta in a microwave on high for 3 mins 30 secs
7) While the pasta is cooking, open a corner of the meat sauce
8) When the pasta is done, remove it from the microwave and let it sit while you warm up the meat sauce for 30 secs on high.
9) While the meat sauce is warming up, drain any remaining water from the pasta and remove the strainer lid.
10) As soon as the sauce is done open the meat sauce covering the rest of the way, pour it over the pasta, stir, and eat!

Wow! That was pretty convenient, and it actually worked as advertised! It wasn't even too hot to carry!

OK, what about the food?

To start with I'm just a regular guy who usually makes my lunches of the previous night's family dinner left-overs...i.e., not a gourmet, but not taste-dead either...

I was pleased to find that the pasta cooked well, but be advised that if you don't shake the pasta down before you cook it you might find a piece here and there that still has hard spots in it. There was plenty of sauce...no skimping on sauce volume, and the portion size was great for lunchtime. I wasn't stuffed when I was done, but I wasn't still hungry either.

The meat sauce was tangy and mildly spicy. The meat sauce contained small chunks of beef (i.e., looked like hamburger), and you could tell what it was if you looked closely. The pasta and sauce consistency was good, and I enjoyed the entire meal. Be advised that the sauce contains onion and garlic. If you know you have an important meeting or date later on, you will probably want to pack some mints. Say, that would be a great addition...an after-meal mint included with each meal that you can use to fight post-meal garlic breath.

If you like the combination of convenience and pasta, this may well an excellent choice for you.

If you are also environmentally conscious, though, you should probably think twice about this unit. Once you are done with your meal there's really not much you can do with the packaging...just recycle it. If, however, the packaging included a solid lid rather than just the strainer lid, the main container could be washed and then reused as a food storage container...alas, that is not the case.

Anyway, I thought the food was flavorful, the portion was adequate, and the convenience excellent. Environmental challenges drop the rating by a star though.

Lastly, you'll have to determine whether the per unit cost makes this a good deal for you.

4 stars

Convenient and tasty
I was not expecting much from this, a disposable package of self-boiling pasta with a bag of meat sauce. There should be no way it can work. But it does! You fill cover the slightly oily pasta with water, leave on the drainer top, microwave it for 3 minutes, drain it, heat the sauce, and mix it all up. And amazingly, it tasted good! Normally I can't stand this zero-effort lazy style of cooking microwaved meals, but this was actually really tasty. I would not make this a part of my regular routine because of the price, but I can imagine people who would.

I have to take issue with the packaging, though. I am giving this four stars because each serving is individually packaged, and none of it is recycleable. The bulk of what you are buying is packaging, and it all gets thrown away.

Disclaimer: While we work to ensure that product information is correct, on occasion manufacturers may alter their ingredient lists. Actual product packaging and materials may contain more and/or different information than that shown on our Web site. We recommend that you do not solely rely on the information presented and that you always read labels, warnings, and directions before using or consuming a product. For additional information about a product, please contact the manufacturer. Content on this site is for reference purposes and is not intended to substitute for advice given by a physician, pharmacist, or other licensed health-care professional. You should not use this information as self-diagnosis or for treating a health problem or disease. Contact your health-care provider immediately if you suspect that you have a medical problem. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition. Amazon.com assumes no liability for inaccuracies or misstatements about products.