We recently tried another of the Banquet crock-pot classics meals with our new slow cooker. This time we tried the Hearty Beef and Vegetables recipe.
Once again, the directions were almost too easy, I put in less than five minutes of preparation time in the morning, and I came home to a house that smelled like a delicious beef stew later that night. This is a dangerous product, as it is making me increasingly lazy with each meal I prepare, but it is making me feel like I accomplished a great culinary feat at the same time; a formula that doesn’t often work out. If we don’t watch out, we may very well be dependent on Banquet crock-pot meals for dinner-time sustenance for all eternity. Luckily for us, banquet has at least two crock pot meals that I personally know are tasty, and I have a hunch that the rest of the “crock-pot classics” line will follow suit (look for more reviews in the future!).
This meal had almost the exact same preparation steps as the herb chicken and rice recipe; I put water and a sauce packet in the slow cooker, followed by the bag of vegetables and meat, and left it to cook on low for 8+ hours. Once I got home from work, I added the bag of red potatoes, turned the cooker to high, and waited 35 minutes for the potatoes to cook. The only problem encountered with this meal was that after 35 minutes of cooking on high, the potatoes were pretty far from being done, and they required more cook time to lose their crunchiness. If you end up getting this meal, I would suggest cooking the potatoes for at least 50 minutes just to make sure they are done (of course, I imagine things can vary from one cooker to another).
This meal was good, but not as unique as the first “classics” recipe we tried. I found it to taste like most other beef stew style recipes I have had in the past, but that is all I was expecting. The beef chunks seemed to be quality meat, and after being cooked all day they were very tender and juicy. The vegetables all turned out well after the potatoes had their extra time, and the sauce wasn’t half bad. One of the big pluses that we’ve found with both meals we’ve tried so far is, they turn out great as left-overs. Generally my girlfriend avoids left-overs due to the decreased quality of the food after sitting in the fridge for a while, but both of these meals has reheated as a quality and easy to prepare left-over meal.
Since all of the banquet crock-pot classics meals cost the same (about $5), provide the same amount of food, and appear to be delivering quality each time I try them, I don’t see any reason to not continue to buy them. Maybe someday when I find myself dedicating more time to my meals, I can graduate beyond the pre-packaged slow cooker recipe, but for now they are working great.
4/5Anyone else slowing becoming strung-out on hearty, warm, and delicious slow cooker meals? Want to start a support group? Have a slow cooker recipe that will make banquet pre-packaged meals taste like dirt? I would like to hear from you!
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