Crayons and Beef Squeezins

-WEIGHT WATCHERS SMART ONES PICANTE CHICKEN & PASTA-

The bolded, numbered words correspond to the number comments below...

Ingredients: Cooked Enriched Macaroni Product (Water, Enriched Semolina [Semolina, Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid]-1), Cooked White Meat Chicken (White Meat Chicken, Water, Tapioca Starch, Sugar, Salt, Sodium Phosphate, Glazed with Water, Caramel Coloring, Modified Potato Starch), Diced Tomatoes (Tomatoes, Tomato Juice, Salt, Calcium Chloride, Citric Acid), Yellow Bell Peppers, Sauteed Onions (Onions, Soybean Oil), Water, Black Beans, Contains 2% or Less of: Jalepenos (Jalepeno Peppers, Salt, Citric Acid), Sauteed Garlic (Garlic, Soybean Oil), Canola Oil, Ancho Chili Base (Chili Peppers, Dried Onions and Garlic, Yeast Extract, Salt, Spice, Beef Extract-2, Citric Acid), Modified Cornstarch, Cilantro Flavor, Red Pepper, Sour Cream Flavor (Maltodextrin [Corn], Nonfat Dry Milk, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Sugar, Lactose, Whey [Milk], Corn Syrup Solids, Sodium Caseinate [Milk], Flavoring, Mono- and Diglycerides, Sodium Citrate, Salt, Dipotassium Phosphate, Modified Cornstarch, Carrageenan-3), Salt, Spices, Corn Oil, Chicken Base (Chicken, Salt, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Chicken Fat, Corn Maltodextrin, Sugar, Chicken Broth, Onion Powder, Tumeric, Spice Extractives), Xanthan Gum, Stabilizer (Maltodextrin [Corn], Monoglyceride, Soy Lecithin, Xanthan Gum-4, Guar Gum-4, Methycellulose Gum-4, Citric Acid), Lime Flavor, Chicken Flavor (Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Salt, Maltodextrin [Corn], Gum Arabic, Chicken Fat, Torula Yeast, Natural Flavor, Tumeric), Chili Type-5 Flavor (Maltodextrin [Corn], Sesame Oil, Flavor, Peanut Oil, Smoke Flavor (BHT-6, BHA-6, Propyl Gallate, Citric Acid), Annotto (Color-7).

Mmmm. Yummy. A few thoughts:

1. I love how the ingredients have SUB-ingredients. That's a 'two-fer', right? Like BOGO sales, maybe? I don't know.

2. I feel sorry for the cow that had to be juiced - not milked, JUICED - to get me my beef extract.

3. Ok, really? Sour cream doesn't have that much flavor to begin with. Are all of these ingredients and sub-ingredients really neccessary? I bet if they squeezed hard enough, they could go ahead and squeeze some extra sour cream out of that cow in #2.

4. If I wanted chewing gum with my lunch, I'd get some Watermelon Double Bubble out of the candy jar.

5. Wait, so it's not REAL chili flavor?

6. Why are they being ambiguous? What are these secret BHT and BHA ingredients and what animal needs to be squeezed so we can get them?

7. First of all, what color is Annotto? Even in the Crayola Jumbo Box (you know, with the built in sharpener in the back??? Man, I used to love that thing...) there wasn't a color called 'Annotto'. Second of all, thank you, but my food is already colorful enough. If I wanted to taste the rainbown, again, I would visit the candy jar.

Now don't get me wrong, that lunch was quite tasty. But as I was standing at the microwave waiting for my flash-frozen Annotto colored meal to be zap-cooked in less than 5 minutes, I started reading the ingredients on the box. Taking notice of this has made me want to eat a lot more naturally.

Less beef squeezins, more organic veggies that are colors I am familiar with.