HEB Weeknight Winners

My family, like so many San Antonio families, regularly shops at HEB. I’ve recently noticed that HEB has stepped up its game with its “Fully Cooked” line of products. From burgers to Chinese food (and lots in between), buying “Fully Cooked” should mean you can have a satisfying dinner on the table for your family in no time, which is great for busy families like mine who make it a priority to sit down together for supper. But with all the choices, it can be tough to decide what to purchase–what will be a weeknight winner for your family? Do you want to risk buying and preparing a meal where a “Fully Cooked” item is the main event, only to find your family disappointed and opening up the peanut butter jar? About once a month, my family is going to try something from HEB’s “Fully Cooked” line of products and let you know what we think!

Chinese Fake Out

This week, we had “Chinese Night” on a busy Monday night. Eleanor, our older daughter, takes diving lessons every Monday and Wednesday night, and she doesn’t get home until a little after 7. If I don’t already have something brewing in the slow cooker, I usually start cooking dinner right when I get home from work, around 5:30.  I try to have dinner ready for our family right when she and my husband, Ryan, get home, which is close to 7:30.

In the Grocery Cart:

heb1

HEB Fully Cooked Sesame Chicken, $3.98 with a $1-off in-store coupon.

HEB Fried Rice, $1.48.

HEB Steamable Edamame Fried Rice, $1.64.

HEB Fully Cooked Pork Egg Rolls, $2.48 for 4.

Putting it Together

I got home from work at 5:30pm and immediately had to go run a few errands with our youngest daughter, Sadie. We got home right around 7:00pm, and I took all of the bags out of the freezer. I read the instructions, preheated both ovens, and planned out my timing. Once my oven was preheated, I put the chicken on a foil-lined pan and set my timer for 18 minutes. Next up, the egg rolls. I opened the package only to discover (insert scary/suspenseful music here)–ONLY TWO EGG ROLLS IN THE PACKAGE! I couldn’t believe it. How could HEB do this to me? I envisioned a lifetime supply of HEB egg rolls in my future because of this horrible blunder–HEB was going to have to make up for this.

Oh the horror! Only 2 egg rolls--there were supposed to be 4!
Oh the horror! Only 2 egg rolls–there were supposed to be 4!

I took a deep breath and put the two lonely egg rolls on a foil-lined cookie sheet in the oven with 15 minutes remaining on my timer.

Next up: the rice sides. One went in the microwave after the other in their “steam in the bag” packaging. While the rice was cooking, I flipped the egg rolls, per the package directions.

When my timer went off, everything was done. Right on cue (close to 7:30pm), Ryan and Eleanor came into the kitchen, home from Eleanor’s diving lesson. I took the twin egg rolls out of the oven, and Eleanor says, “Oh, sorry that I ate two of the egg rolls for my afternoon snack.” I said, “WHAT?!?” Eleanor looked at me sheepishly. “Um…I microwaved a couple of those egg rolls and ate them after school today…?” MYSTERY SOLVED.

After warming up the sesame sauce for the chicken, I tossed half of the cooked chicken pieces in the sauce, leaving half of the chicken plain and dry, the way my kids usually like it. I put the remaining sesame sauce and the hot & sour sauce that came with the egg rolls in two bowls for dipping, and we all sat down at the table.

Sadie's plate: plain chicken, rice two ways, and half of an egg roll.
Sadie’s plate: plain chicken, rice two ways, and half of an egg roll.

Do we have a Weeknight Winner?

Ryan says:

“Yeah–it was good.”

Ryan thought this dinner was tasty and easy (yeah, really easy for him–I cooked it all). He was pleasantly surprised that nothing tasted too salty. He thought the chicken was good quality, but that the sesame sauce could have used more sesame flavor.

Kelly says:

Like the chicken package cleverly says, this was “all of the flavor but none of the wok!”

Okay, maybe not all of the flavor, because I agreed with Ryan that the sesame sauce was missing something. It lacked a depth of flavor, but the chicken was tasty and remained crispy even when coated in the sauce. Next time I might add a little Sriracha sauce to it, just to spice it up a bit. I especially liked the edamame fried rice, which tasted like sushi. The edamame were firm, not mushy, and had a good pop to them, and I liked the hijiki seaweed flakes. Ryan and I were also pleasantly surprised by the hot & sour sauce that came with the egg rolls–it had a nice burn to it. Next time I’ll serve this meal with broccoli or snow peas–I felt like we were missing something green, even though there were some veggies in the rice.

Eleanor (age 9) says:

“This is a do-over.”

Eleanor found this meal to be “unique; something different and new.” She said she liked all of the different textures and flavors. As you can probably guess, the egg rolls stole the show for her. Since she had microwaved two for her after school snack, I asked her how the microwaved version compared to the oven baked version. She liked the baked version better, because it was crispier on the outside. Ryan and I thought the egg rolls were okay, but we would have preferred them deep-fried!

Sadie (age 7) says:

“I agree with Eleanor. This was definitely a do-over.”

Sadie tried everything on her plate with more than a little encouragement, and she pretty much left everything on her plate except for the chicken. She loved the chicken and said it was juicy, had good flavor, and she liked that it was crunchy on the outside. She didn’t like the sesame sauce, and she said the hot & sour sauce was “too spicy,” but I watched her dip pieces of her chicken into it repeatedly and eat with gusto. She liked the plain fried rice better than the edamame rice, which she found to be “fishy.” Eleanor ended up eating Sadie’s egg roll half, and Sadie scored a few pieces of Eleanor’s chicken. Ryan and I split up her rice.

Time & Money

Time from packages to table: about 40 minutes.

Clean up time: negligible. The foil and packaging went into the trash/recycling. All I had to wash were the plates, silverware, glasses, and a few serving dishes.

Cost per person (family of 4): About $2.40 (before tax)!

If we had bought a similar dinner from our usual Chinese take-out place, Pei Wei (2 rice dishes, sesame chicken, and egg rolls), we would have spent almost $7.60 per person, before tax, gratuity and gas.

I paid for all of these HEB groceries with my hard-earned money. The opinions in this post are my own (and my family’s).

This was a weeknight winner for our family. Stay tuned for more! What about you? Do you have any supermarket “heat and eat” simple suppers that are winners with your family?

 

Kelly
Kelly lives in Terrell Hills and is a full-time working mom of 4 in a never-a-dull-moment blended family. Her twin stepsons, Eric & Grant, are high school juniors. Her daughters, Eleanor and Sadie, are in junior high and elementary school. She and her husband, Ryan, are both attorneys. When she is not working and "air-traffic controlling" her busy brood, she and her family enjoy exploring San Antonio and the surrounding area.

1 COMMENT

  1. I loved Kelly’s review…and it is very tempting to check out some of the cooked foods she described…I wonder why Sadie thought the Endame rice smelled fishy…I am with Eleanor, I am going to try the egg rolls…
    It was fun reading her blog…

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