Photo of the day - December 4, 2009

Snowy leafy bush, originally uploaded by Cody La Bière.

I hate snow

Review: Swanson's "New" Hungry Man Sports Grill Buffalo style chicken strips

So it appears that Swanson has changed some of their TV dinners. I'm not a fan what-so-ever of TV dinners because they're fatty, greasy, and just not healthy. But when you have a very busy schedule, sometimes a TV dinner is the quickest thing you can eat, sadly.

Swanson's changed their Hungry Man Sports Grill with Buffalo "style" chicken strips. Well, lets just say you get much less food and pay just as much (if not more) as before. Previously, the TV dinner would include about 6 strips of Buffalo Chicken strips, a portion of corn, crinkle cut fries and a Duncan Hines chocolate brownie. The Buffalo Strips were SPICY.

So, what do you get in the new Hungry Man Sports Grill? Now, you get 4 breaded chicken strips, Potato wedges covered in cheese sauce and a Buffalo sauce to dip your strips or your cheesy wedges into.

So what did I think of it? First off the strips.. compared to the old style Buffalo Strips they had before, I LOVE the new chicken strips much more than the old ones... BUT.. the portion size appears (or just seems like it) much smaller, plus instead of getting an insane amount of chicken strips, you get only 4. I didn't like the old Buffalo "style" strips, so when I finished the strips I was happy, but now.. I'm still grumbling after eating. As for the sauce that's included to dip the strips.. I didn't dare try it, it looked like a mixture of acid and ketchup (and bubbling). So I stayed away from that. As for the cheesy wedges. I LOVE the wedges, but the only problem: I hate the cheese sauce. The cheese sauce ruins the wedges for me. It would have been nicer if instead of having wedges covered in this cheesy goop, there was a compartment for the cheese sauce, like the Buffalo sauce. So whenever I do have a TV dinner with the cheese fries now, I thaw out the cheese and the wedges so I can remove most of the cheese off it. The wedges on their own are pretty good.. for a TV dinner. Compared to fries.. it's much better, plus it has a pseudo-homemade taste to it (compared to crinkle cut fries).

Edit: I did eventually try the sauce on it. My review stands - the sauce should be in its own spot. Now the most recent version of this TV dinner no longer contains the buffalo sauce, and as a replacement - different (crispier) chicken fingers with corn, mashed potato and brownie. I prefer this more. As for the sauce, I don't like the goopy sauce. It makes the chicken fingers in the Beer Battered version of this product quite mucky.

What sucks is that they got rid of the corn and the brownie. I don't care for corn so I usually threw that out before cooking anyways, but the brownie.. the brownie always guaranteed that the meal would fill me up. If they call it a Hungry Man (well a Hungry Man Sports Grill), they should have LOTS of food to fill up a hungry man, instead of a tiny portion.

So all in all, it has its ups and downs. The strips are delicious compared to the old style Buffalo strips, but the portion has shrunk a great deal, the wedges are GREAT but the sauce has got to go (or have its own compartment for those who don't want cheesy goop), and they need to bring back ATLEAST an after-meal snack with a brownie or SOMETHING! I regularly see this on sale at Wal-Marts and Real Canadian Superstores here in Canada for $5 (Sometimes $3 if on sale). Five bucks is just too much for that amount of food, it would be better to just make everything by hand instead.. even if time is limited.

Photo of the day - December 3, 2009

It's a Moody Manitoba Morning.. and I don't like it that way, originally uploaded by Cody La Bière.

It's officially winter here in Brandon, Manitoba. Bah humbug.

Albums I want.. or NEED!!!

We Are Wolves - Québec, Québec, originally uploaded by Cody La Bière.

Well Christmas time is upon us, and here in Manitoba we got our first "permanent" snowfall of the year today on December 1st, no sight of above 0C weather in site.

So I started doing something, and I'm starting to wonder what albums I need, cuz as much as I love listening to Burton Cummings' "Above the Ground" album, I need to diversify with newer albums.

So I've compiled a list of albums I want.. scratch that, NEED!

1. We Are Wolves - Invisible Violence. Last Christmas I bought he previous We Are Wolves album and it was one of the best purchases I've done music wise, a mixture of rock, techno and multilingualism. What's not to love? I was never sold on this band until I saw them LIVE... man... man..... man!!!! Wow..
2. Les Trois Accords - Dans Mon Corps. Les Trois Accords keep trying to discover new styles of music every so often, going from crazy rock that you can sing to while plastered out of your mind, to Prairie style country music. This is a very upbeat dancy sort of album, from what I've heard.
3. Dan Mangan - Nice Nice Very Nice. Okay, time for an English album. Mangan's a great musician. I saw him perform live here in Brandon and was wowed but he didn't have any more CDs to sell when I wanted a CD. Robots need love too!
4. Jean Leloup - Mille Excuses Milady. This is a musician I've loved for quite a long time now, but I have yet to buy ANY of his CDs, so it's time I bought a CD of his, well he's a freaking legend in la belle province!
5. Damien Robitaille - Homme autonome. Robitaille is my absolute favourite hors Québec musician. His songs are upbeat, just plain.. very catchy! His newest album Homme autonome is NO exception it seems (from what I've heard, again!)
6. Navet Confit - LP3/Papier vampire. I guess as you can tell, most of my list is consisting of Francophone musicians, I guess that's what interests me right now. Confit is another great musician. 
7. John K Samson - City Route 85. Well this is moreso an EP than an actual album, but nothing wrong with Monsieur Samson! I'll get it one day.
8. Dumas - Traces. Great musician, bout time he came out with a new album!

Wow that's all I can think of, do you have any other suggestions? I'm very open to anything non-francophone also, I really didn't expect most of my list to end up being French-based. I'm always up for new Canadian music!

Photo of the day - December 1, 2009

Lookout Charlie, there's a new bartender in town!, originally uploaded by Cody La Bière.

Nuff Said!