Frozen Friday: Banquet - Pepper Steak Meal

Banquet's new Pepper Steak Meal is a budget-minded frozen dinner option that features a seasoned patty in pepper sauce over rice.

An 8-ounce box should cost you a buck or less on sale.

It says on the box that the patty is made with chicken, pork, and beef which sounds a bit like a hot dog to me but I'd hazard it's the same meat patty as the ones used in Banquet's Salisbury Steak or Meatloaf. Same meat and texture, slightly different sauces. It's basically a ground hamburger steak.

I actually thought this was going to be a black pepper sauce but it's actually a bell pepper sauce with red and green bell peppers. There's not much bell pepper flavor. Mostly it's just salty with not much pepper flavor and a weird almost bitter aftertaste (I guess maybe that's the pepper flavor?).

I didn't like that the rice wasn't compartmentalized so that I could better control the amount of sauce I was eating rather than have it mix into my rice during cooking. The rice had bits of veggies mixed in but they don't add much if any flavor. The rice itself didn't turn out bad at all, with a moist even consistency that pleasantly surprised me.

Overall, I didn't care much for the sauce which is soy based and too salty for my liking. I liked the rest of the meal but just wish for a better sauce. Like say a black pepper sauce!

Nutritional Info - Banquet Pepper Steak Meal - 8 ounces (227g)
Calories - 260 (from Fat - 200)
Fat - 12g (Saturated Fat - 3g)
Sodium - 880mg
Carbs - 29g (Sugar - 2g)
Protein - 9g