Banquet Turkey Meal

If there's one thing you learn from eating Banquet frozen meals, it's this:  Not all one-dollar meals are alike - you know you're not going to get an awesome gourmet meal, but at the same time you're rolling the dice to not feel cheated out of your buck.

Most of Banquet's "Mexican" meals, for example, are a stellar deal for a dollar.  The Boneless Rib meal is a decent lunch at a  laughably low price, too.

And then there's Banquet's turkey meal.  Congratulations, you just rolled snake eyes.

Here's the meal.  Two semi-circular slices of "meat" - one light and one dark - over a sparse sprinkling of bread cube "dressing" in a pool of turkey gravy, with sides of peas and instant mashed.  In keeping with Banquet tradition, the instant mashed potatoes are actually pretty good and the peas are just typical frozen peas.  No complaints with any of the veggie side of the tray.

And then, you go over to the meat portion and suddenly things take a turn for the worse.

The very idea that ConAgra would find it necessary to create separate "white meat" and "dark meat" turkey loaf seems so ridiculous given that there seems to be absolutely no difference between the two slices other than color.  Seriously.  The generic sort-of-turkey flavor along with the molar-resistant plastic-like texture is identical between them and reminds you with every bite that this is a factory-made industrial product. And really, Banquet, scattering a dozen little breadcubes in the bottom of the tray to get sodden with - and nearly indistiguishable from - the gravy? That's your idea of "dressing?" Your grandma must be so proud.

But for all my suspicions that I'm gettting suckered here, I can't deny that I only paid a dollar for this lunch.  I can't even get an egg-salad sandwich out of the automat at work for less than $2.75. I know that I'm just getting what I paid for.  But it sure seems like those dice were loaded.