Review of Banquet Sloppy Joe Night Meal Starter

My wife was in the mood for a sloppy Joe dinner last night so, after dropping my youngest daughter off at her grandparents for a promised sleepover, we stopped at one of our local grocery stores for some hamburger and mix.

While there, I remembered the Banquet Sloppy Joe Meal Meal Starter we saw in the store's freezer section a few days earlier and, after a short discussion, we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, we both ended up agreeing this decision was a mistake.

When I purchase a new product such as this one, I'm always looking for one or more of three things, convenience, price and quality. As it turns out, this dinner product failed in all three of those categories.

First, as far as price goes, there wasn't anything special about this Banquet starter kit. While I wouldn't necessarily describe $4.45 as being particularly expensive, it also didn't offer much, if any savings. I could buy a can of brand-name mix and a pack of hamburger for right around the same price.

As I somewhat expected when we purchased this, there was also a drop off in taste. It is hard to describe it accurately, but there was definitely something a bit "off" about the overall flavor of this product and, as a result of that, my wife and I both found ourselves unimpressed with it. In fact, even though we both hate wasting food, we wound up throwing a good chunk of this product away rather than trying to save it, simply because we knew we would never eat the leftovers.

The thing that really surprised me about this product, however, was the lack of convenience. To be fair, I probably should have read the instructions before buying it because, if I had, I would have realized it required about 11 minutes in the microwave followed by about 5 minutes of sitting before it was ready to be served. That's about as long as it would take me to make the traditional sloppy Joe mix on the stove.

If you want sloppy Joes, don't have access to a stove and need to make them in the microwave, then this product might be an OK choice. However, after trying it last night, I just wasn't able to find anything about it that made it better than my more-traditional options and I was very disappointed as a result.

My Grade: D