Quick and Easy... but is it food?

Sometimes time is just short, dear readers. And it is in times like these, when we turn to… convenience meals. And what is more convenient than a packet of  Knorr Fresh Ideas that comes free with your latest fashion magazine? Well it was convenient enough for me, a very much an I-look-down-my-nose-at-convenience-food kind of person.

But like I said, sometimes time is short, and you / your family are hungry. So as I opened the packet and followed the instructions, I started to wonder what the dinner would taste like. Would it be good? I didn’t know. But what I did want to know was this: Was there a good prepared / convenience dinner out there?

So this column, I thought, could become a regular as I take on the task of testing and searching for good convenience dinners. I’ll take into account the time that it takes to make the meal, the clarity of the instructions and the ease with which they can be followed and the meal made. I’ll also put up the price and the number of calories that it consists of. And, naturally, assess how it tastes.


So the Knorr Fresh Ideas, Bacon Carbonara flavoured Pasta and Sauce is described as “Tagliatelle pasta in a creamy cheese and bacon flavour sauce”. The green packet gives the impression that it is really healthy, but the blurred pictures of tomatoes, parsley and garlic on the back of the foil cover is about as close to any real vegetables as you will get in the dish. That said, when the dish was done, a small fresh salad was a really good accompaniment.

I liked the way that there was a tab on the front of the packet that told you exactly what you needed: 125 ml cold milk;
             375 ml hot water
             30ml / 2 tbs margarine.

The tab at the back of the packet states that they have taken out the (does that mean all the?) artificial colourants. Well, maybe it doesn’t because no sooner had my eyes wondered to the ingredients’ section and I spotted an E-number. Plus, I had to wonder how the strong smell, reminiscent of bacon that wafted off the top of the powder that escaped, as I cut open the packet, could really be “natural”.     

Well as I pondered the issue of to what degree chemical composition was classified as “natural”, I threw the water and milk into a pot. I was about to throw in the second of the two tablespoons of marg, when I judged against it, my rational being that anything with such a strong smell in its raw state could not possibly need this for flavour. 

“Bring to the boil,” the instructions said.

So far so good. All I had to do was switch on the stove. But then, dear readers, I made the ultimate convenience food mistake. I walked away while I waited for the ingredients to come to the boil. Somewhere in my mind, as I turned on the TV, I had convinced myself that this convenience food thing was so easy that it could practically cook itself.

Not so, and the promised 10-12 minutes cooking time slowly increased as I found myself scrubbing boiled-over milk and marg. off the stovetop.

But there was still hope. I topped up the milk and water, perhaps rather recklessly, but with well-educated guesswork and brought, under my watchful eye, the liquids to the boil.

From there it’s a simple matter of tipping in the contents of the divided sachet, divided, the product says on the outside so that the closed package will last for longer. I thought, rather cynically, that this powdered concoction would outlast me if it were never opened, it was so deconstructed from any original organic form.

None the less, I stirred, not at regular intervals but constantly – I had learnt my lesson, and just as well because for the next four minutes the mixture thickened alarmingly quickly and would have burnt at the bottom of the pan if I had not. But that the dish cooked quicker than anticipated (by 2 minutes, excluding the post-bring-to-the-boil disaster) certainly impressed me. If, however, you cook convenience meals because you believe you can’t cook and follow instructions to a T, then you may have ended up with considerably mushy pasta!

Overall, the final dish looked a little on the pale side, but tried bravely to add some colour in the form of dehydrated chives. Here, I added a basil leaf for presentation purposes. This, unfortunately was the entire contents of the sachet which says it serves two. At 1890 kJ or 450 odd kcals, eating the whole dish one’s self is really not so indulgent. I did get full about three-quarters of the way through, though this was maybe because it had gotten cold and a little stiff… and monotonous.

The sauce was really nice and creamy and the bacon flavour, while not very natural, was tolerable, especially when accompanied by a side-salad. Also, I cut up a bit of spring onion and stirred it in and this also lent a bit of a fresh taste and crunchiness to the texture.

I probably wouldn’t make this again unless I was camping and I had to carry all the cooking utensils and ingredients myself. (I’m pretty convinced that it would taste just the same if you substituted the milk with extra water). 
It costs R15.95 at Pick and Pay