Product Review - Del Monte Harvest Selections Beef & Vegetable Stew

Del Monte's Harvest Selections are a Heat and Eat Meal found in your Grocery section with the canned meals like Chef Boyardee, Dinty Moore Beef Stews, or Hormel Compleats. The packaging boasts of the meal fulfilling two of our daily vegetable servings. At a visual glance you would think this heat and eat meal was a larger capacity than the competitors (Hormel Compleats or Dinty Moore Beef Stew) but the service size is exactly the same. The package is simply larger than the competitor's. The packaging is very colorful and easily identifiable as being a Del Monte products.

Del Monte Harvest Selections Beef & Vegetable Stew Cooking Time: 90 seconds in the microwave with no other option for cooking provided.

Nutrition Facts for Harvest Selections Beef & Vegetable Stew:

Serving Size: 283 grams
Calories: 250
Calories from fat: 70

Total Fat: 9 Grams (12% RDA)
Cholesterol: 27 grams (9% RDA)
Sodium: 890 mg (36% RDA)
Total Carbohydrate 27 Grams (9% RDA)
Sugar 4 grams
Proteins 18 grams

This meal provides 60% of the recommended daily allowance for Vitamin A.

Quantity: This meal provides a 10 ounce bowl of beef and vegetables. It is comparable in volume with other heat and eat meals and other frozen meals. It is sufficient for a lunch time meal for an adult but might possibly be supplemented with a fruit item. For the growing teen in my family, it serves as a snack or is accompanied with a sandwich if used as a lunch item.

Quality: The flavors in this meal are good. The vegetable mixture includes carrots, potatoes, corn, peas and bell peppers. These vegetables are mixed with beef and a gravy like broth to form the Harvest Selection Beef Stew. As with most packaged meals the vegetables are more plentiful than the beef but this Beef Stew has a good quantity of meat included. The meal has a good flavor and and over all taste and texture are pleasing.

Cost: The Del Monte Harvest Selection Beef & Vegetable Stew costs just under $2 at Walmart and ranges from $2 to $2.50 at other grocers.

Drawbacks: This meal represents 36% of a daily recommended allowance for sodium content. If you are on a low sodium diet, this is probably not a good choice for you.

Overall this meal was one that both my teen and I liked so it is an item we will purchase again.