Recently, I received a coupon from the wonderful Birds Eye company to obtain one of their Voila Skillet Entrees for free if I would then review the product. Having enjoyed the “Birds Eye Chefs Favorite Creamed Spinach” so much, I was tickled to have the opportunity to review this also. I chose the Garlic Shrimp flavor because I love shrimp. I really really love shrimp and I don’t get it often because I’m not Donald Trump π and I don’t live near the ocean and it’s hard to farm shrimp in my bathtub. The soap tends to bother them plus they constantly try to take my rubber ducky.
With as much as I loved the creamed spinach, I had high hopes for the Voila Garlic Shrimp. I hate to admit it, but I was rather disappointed. It wasn’t horrible, not at all, but it wasn’t really that good either. The vegetables in it were great, as I would expect from the Birds Eye company. The broccoli was crispy with a fresh from the ground flavor (minus the dirt π ). The corn and the carrots were also good and anyone who knows my blog knows I don’t even like carrots so that is saying something. The problem was with the shrimp, the pasta and the sauce. The package said to cook this for 12 minutes in my microwave. After 8 minutes, I checked it and it was obviously done. So I pulled it out and poured some on the plates. It SMELLED great. Nice garlicky smell and it looked appealing though the shrimp was rather sparse and what was there were tiny.
I gave it a few bites and again, I hate to say it, but I was disappointed. The shrimp, even cooked for less time than they said, were tough and rubbery without a whole lot of flavor. I think that if they had cooked for the whole 12 minutes, they would have been inedible. The sauce, while it smelled great, was fairly bland and I ended up adding salt to it and I’m not a big salt person. The pasta was also rather rubbery, kind of like what it would be like if you made a noodle dish one night and then reheated it in the microwave for lunch the next day. My son, the 14 year old who will eat anything, said “I didn’t even know it had garlic in it until you told me”.
Bottom line- it was ok. I will give it another chance or two with some other flavors because they DO have some really awesome sounding flavors; Chicken Teriyaki, Chicken Alfredo, Beef Lo Mein, Cheesy ranch Chicken… this one just wasn’t that appealing or flavorful.
I’m looking forward to trying some of those because I know Birds Eye is a good brand and I’m willing to go for the idea that maybe it was just this particular flavor. After I do, I’ll let you know how they were. I still have high hopes. π
In the meantime, I am going to give out three coupons for “Buy one Voila entree, get one free” apiece to the first 20 readers who make a comment telling me which flavor of the Voila Entree they would like to try. You can find all the different ones here-
http://www.birdseyefoods.com/prod_voila.html
I ask one favor though. If you are one of the Food Buzz Bloggers who also received these coupons, please let me know that in your comment because we all got a lot of them and I can’t see that you’d need more lol :-P. I’d like to share them with other bloggers and readers who didn’t receive any.
*Note-As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a coupon for a free 23 ounce bag of any flavorΓΒ Birds Eye Voila Entree. The opinions in here are my own.
Haha I just ate the Birds Eyes risotto tonight! Wow I didnt know that they are coming out with so many new things!
They really are coming out with a lot aren’t they? I hadn’t thought about it until you said that.
It’s apparently really hard to do shrimp and pasta that taste good out of the microwave, but there’s no excuse for bland sauce.
I guess so. Just sad it wasn’t as good as I was hoping. π
I’m sorry that you didn’t care for the shrimp…I suspect the Beef Lo Mein or Chicken Ranch would be better…those would be my choices.
Yeah, I’m gonna try a few others using the coupons π
LOL, what a fun post Birds eye indeed. Thanks for the share!
Well that is a shame you had such a disappointment. Better luck next time i suppose is the most appropriate thing I can say π
As for a flavor my pick would be Chicken & Vegetables in a Pot Pie Gravy and Crust Crumbles
Yep. I’m sure the next one will be good. If you’d like some coupons Rachel, just email me at the blog email addy- fromcupcakestocaviar@gmail.com and I’ll get some out to you π
That sucks! Hope some of the other flavors work out better!
Great honest review here. Love that you did that. I giggled over the Donald comment. No need to send me coupons, don’t think they carry this here locally. Just wanted to stop in and say I admire your integrity for keeping it real.
Thanks Kim. There was the nervous part of me thinking I would get in some sort of trouble if I didn’t leave a glowing review but I just couldn’t lie; that’s not my style.
Erin; me too. I’m sure they will. As someone else said, I think getting shrimp to work in the microwave is difficult though that doesn’t excuse the not so good sauce.
I’m trying the Chicken Alfredo tonight, and I have high hopes. We shall see.
Sorry it didn’t turn out :(… Go for the chicken alfredo….that has to be good!
That was most likely going to be my next try Kate π
Sandra, can’t wait to hear how that one is!
Thanks so much for the honest review. My husband often buys those Viola dinners because they are so easy and quick but often adds extra shrimp or chicken to them.
My husbnd and I were surprised by how much we enjoyed this! I received this as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program and do NOT need another coupon:-)
I appreciate the honest review, and would likely stick to classic simple flavors like the 3 Cheese Chicken or Cheesy Ranch Chicken.
I probably will too from now on Cynthia
Your first paragraph had me cracking up! That’s ashame the pasta & sauce were disappointing, I’m always a little hesitant to buy frozen pasta meals. Something is always a little off. The cheesy ranch chicken sounds pretty good, would be hard to mess up a dish that includes ranch and cheese. π
Glad you liked the writing Lacy :-P. And I’m sure some of the other flavors will be great π
I find frozen meals with shrimp always seem a bit off to me.
This was my first try to have a frozen meal with shrimp, Emily… sigh. π
The chicken teriyaki sounds like it could be good!
You should steer clear of this brand all together. I recently gave them yet ANOTHER try, and I purchased the Alfredo Chicken bag.
Suffice to say that there was hardly any pasta, peas, carrots, or chicken. I took a picture of the meal in the skillet after cooking which was predominantly green. Then I separated the broccoli from the rest of the dish and it dominated over 70% of the skillet. There was only 4-5 bites of pasta, chicken, peas, and carrots COLLECTIVELY out of the entire contents.
I actually muttered “it should be called broccoli alfredo” out loud while I was stirring the contents.
If you look at the picture on the bag you can only make out 3 pieces of broccoli. I’m seriously considering filing a lawsuit, that’s how pissed is was after I bought this product.