Tesco have introduced some new light choices meals, so I thought I would give them a try, as they were only £1. The first one I tried was Light Choices Minced Beef and Potatoes. This is described as Potatoes with a minced beef and onion sauce served with peas.

The pack is a regular microwave meal type pack, with a cardboard sleeve over a microwaveable dish which has a film cover. The cover tells you it is Tesco Light choices, minced beef and potatoes, and then clarifies, that it is potatoes with a minced beef and onion sauce served with peas. There is a picture of a heaped plateful of potatoes with minced beef and peas.

The rear of the packet:
There is a lot of information on the back of the packet, in very small print. It says that it is Tesco Light Choices, and has a tag line which says 'Big on taste, light on calories sugar or fat.' It also says 'In our light choices range we don't use any hydrogenated fat, artificial colours and flavours. All products meet strict criteria for sugar, saturates, salt and Calories, and are either less than 3% fat or have half the fat of a comparable product.

It then tells you it is potatoes with a beef sauce and peas and then gives the cooking instructions. (Three and half minutes on full power in an 850 watt oven, or 20-25 minutes in an oven at gas mark5)

It can be frozen and the pack also gives guidelines for cooking from frozen.

Ther is a list of ingredients which I won't bore you with here, but just to tell you it has 32% potato, 11% peas and 10% beef and there is also carrot and onion.

It gives a promise that if you're not satisfied they will refund or replace it, and gives the additional information that it is produced using beef operating to Tesco's livestock standards. Sounds very reassuring doesn't it? It doesn't tell you what those standards are, and if they are the same or better than freedom foods standards. Tesco's livestock standards could be abysmal, we don't know! Anyway...

My thoughts.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this, it was tasty, and although there wasn't a great amount it was filling, and made a reasonable meal to eat at work on the late shift. There were reasonable chunks of potato, and the 'sauce' was meaty, with a nice thick rich gravy, plenty of tasty onion, and lovely peas, not over cooked.

I really enjoyed this meal, it smelt appetising as it was cooking in the microwave, and although I probably could have eaten more, it was filling enough to last me for my shift at work. It certainly wouldn't have been enough for my husband for a meal, but for me it was fine. I would recommend this as a tasty filling hot meal when you haven't got the opportunity to cook your own, and at the special price of £1 I would buy it again. If they raise the price a lot, I would think twice, and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with a really hearty appetite

Nutritional infomation per packet:
Energy 200 kcals
Protein 15.8g
Carbohydrate 27.0g
Fat 3.2g
Salt equivalent 1.1g