A couple of months back I did a Microwavable Swedish Meatballs Taste Test . This was a lot of fun for me. I was walking through a grocery store and saw there was another Swedish Meatball option:

Hormel Swedish Meatballs.

I felt like I had to try it. To see if it would effect my test. This is what it looks like after it has been nuked:

Well… if you were wondering if this beats any of them it does not. The taste is not horrible. I imagine if its the apocalypse and the world has ended. I would be stoked to get this. It is shelf stable. You could get it for a camping trip? Maybe? The noodles were not really firm. The meatballs were palatable.

I don’t think this beats any of the Swedish Meatballs I have already tried. Rating would be this would be the best if there was no power, and world chaos had broken out. Then just eat it cold and be happy you have food.

Popeye’s Chicken review. Here are my previous reviews of Bojangles, KFC, and Church’s.

I got there about noon, which is prime lunchtime. I waited behind a person who had a giant order. They were fast and polite and got things done in an organized way. I did wait in line long enough that I got tempted, and I added a strawberry cheesecake to my order. I got sucked in by temptation.

I was able to use a paper coupon at Popeye’s. I got five pieces of chicken: three spicy/two original, taters and gravy, fries, and two biscuits. I also ordered the strawberry cheesecake. My total of $14.36 was a good deal. I did not get a drink because it was not included with the coupon, and I have drinks at home.

Joejoe: The chicken was good. I think the original had more flavor than the spicy—both pieces are crispy with a good taste. The original has an excellent cajun aftertaste.

Shellie: Comparable to the others, Popeye’s was on the better side. Like Bojangles, I didn’t feel “gross” after I ate it. I don’t feel like it had excessive grease. I ate a chicken breast, which tasted better than Bojangles’ chicken breasts.

Joejoe: The biscuit was the best. None of the others compare on flavor. An excellent buttery taste and good texture. It is smaller than some biscuits but not enough to complain about.

Shellie: Biscuit: of all the places we tried, this was the best of the biscuits. It tasted fresh and had a good aftertaste. It had a good texture like it wasn’t frozen and nuked.

Joejoe: The fries were a perfect flavor. They were not crispy, which does lose some points for me. I would still say I enjoyed them. They have an excellent cajun aftertaste, making you feel like it’s real food.

Shellie: Fries: Ok. I wouldn’t bother. The seasoning was good, though.

Joejoe: The mac and cheese was like homemade mac and cheese. It had cheese on top and cheese throughout the whole thing. Not oily, just really good flavor. The noodles were a good texture.

Shellie: Best Mac and Cheese. This was the only Mac and Cheese I liked. It had a variation of texture, making it seem like it was home-cooked, and to top it off, it had fresh cheddar cheese on top!

Joejoe: The mashed taters and gravy were excellent. They tasted like real taters and gravy. The sauce was right. They had an excellent cajun taste.

Shellie: It had chunks of real potatoes, making me think it wasn’t instant! Good flavor. It almost tasted like ranch seasoning, but not fake-tasting.

Joejoe: Final wrap-up: I am surprised Popeye’s wins. The chicken was good, and they had the best biscuits, taters, and mac and cheese. The fries were also good. KFC had the best fries, but I would need a blind taste test for chicken. I don’t think KFC would win. KFC also had the worst biscuits. I am disappointed that Bojangles didn’t score higher. It looks like the next time I am going for chicken, it will be Popeye’s.

Shellie: Popeye’s is the only chicken place worth going back to.

Church’s Chicken: A Once in a Lifetime Experience. Hopefully, it stays that way. Here are my previous reviews of Bojangles and KFC.

I have never been to Church’s before. I have driven by this place many times and never stopped there.

The Church’s ordering experience was a mess. The manager had just left to get ice, as they did not have ice for the soda machine. I attempted to use a coupon, but they were not sure what to do with it. I tried to place an order of only white meat. However, Shellie got a dark meat piece. I am not sure if this is correct, but I was told the spicy was only dark meat. We didn’t get spicy for this reason.

My order was a three-piece. It came with mashed taters and gravy, a biscuit, and a drink. I ordered a side of mac and cheese and fries. The total cost was $16.16.

Nothing seemed great coming out of the box. The soda was warm and flat. They had not filled the soda machine yet.

Shellie rode with me to pick this up:
The pickup experience was an EXPERIENCE. A staff member had to run out to buy ice. The person taking our order was new. It was chaotic. The diet coke was flat and had no ice as they hadn’t refilled the ice machine yet. I don’t know why it was so flat. 

Joejoe: The chicken was pretty good. Nothing special as a flavor profile. Lots of breading, basic food.

Shellie: The chicken was delicious. Unfortunately, we paid for a white meat combo, but I somehow ended up eating a dark meat thigh that I thought at first was a breast. It was greasy, but the skin went very well with the chicken, and it tasted good. I liked it better than the other chicken places, but I think I tend to like dark meat better, so I couldn’t easily compare.

Joejoe: The biscuit had a very sweet coating which tested good. Once you get past the sweet, it was not a good biscuit. If I had eaten it fast, it would have been good. However, I ate it slowly. It started good but then seemed kind of mealy like cornbread.

Shellie: The biscuit was sweet and very good. I wanted to gobble it up. It tasted like a dessert.

Joejoe: The fries were delicious. They had a seasoning that I can’t describe—really good fries.

Shellie: The fries were crinkle-cut, but they were crunchy, fried, and greasy. Yum. not healthy, but yummy.

Joejoe: Mac and cheese. Meh. Not good, not bad, just boring. The cheese was ok. I would surprisingly say these were better than Bojangles mac and cheese.

Shellie: The mac and cheese was similar to other places – not unique. But I haven’t like any of them very much.

Joejoe: Taters and gravy were good. Maybe because they gave more gravy, it had a richer, meatier flavor. I think they may have given the most gravy so far. It’s all about the gravy.

Shellie: The mashed potatoes were ok. They were better than other places, but it was undeniable by the flavor that they were instant.

JoeJoe: I will likely never go back to Church’s chicken. It is not just about the food. It was not a good experience. It was also the most expensive so far. None of the employees knew what they were doing in the store.

Shellie: Overall, I probably wouldn’t go back to Church’s chicken. But I enjoyed trying it.

Joejoe: I enjoyed trying it. I feel sicker than the other two. I can’t say I ate good food. The one thing it had going was that the biscuit was better the KFC’s biscuit.

This is Kentucky fried chicken (KFC) review. Here is my previous review of Bojangles.

I had not been to KFC, I think, in more than 20 years. I don’t have a good reason why except I just remember not liking it.

I tried to use a coupon, but the coupon was for dark meat only. I ordered a three-piece combo: 2 pieces of original and one piece of extra crispy. It came with a drink and a side of taters and gravy. I then order a small side of fries and mac and cheese. Total spent: $15.56

The KFC did not have a ton of people there. The people working there were friendly. The person working did look for a coupon for me but had no luck.

The food coming out of the box did not look great. These little plastic containers just looked cheap.

Shellie did the review with me. This is her pre-thoughts on KFC.

Shellie: KFC comes with preconceived notions about it being particularly unhealthy, ingrained in me since childhood when I wasn’t allowed to eat fried chicken. 

Joejoe: The chicken was good! I was surprised. The original chicken was a cohesive unit. The flavors went all the way through the chicken. The extra crispy was also delicious and had more of a spicy flavor. The chicken was better than Bojangles.

Shellie: I got a white meat breast just like at Bojangles. KFC’s chicken flows together better than the Bojangles. The white meat is less dry. The breading is more bready. It’s greasier than Bojangles, though, contributing to my regretting of life choices.

Joejoe: The biscuit was garbage. It was both hard outside and doughy inside. We did not finish the one biscuit between the two of us.
Shellie: Biscuit smells good, but that’s all it has going for it. It’s a little bread brick with no flakiness whatsoever. It should be brought to protests for throwing at your detractors.

Joejoe: The fries were super good. The correct crispy, like they are fried in meat fat. KFC has upped their game on the fries. Comparing them to Bojangles: Bojangles fries may be healthier and have a nice cajun seasoning. If you want just tasty fries, KFC is the clear winner here.
Shellie: These are doubled fried, tripled fried, with breading. Amazing. The best part of the meal.

Joejoe: The mac and cheese was delicious. Noodles were the correct texture. The cheese somehow had a stronger cheese flavor. Also, a winner ahead of Bojangles.
Shellie: Gummy. I don’t want to eat it.

Joejoe: Taters and Gravy: I first want to point out that the presentation is not good. When I looked at them, they looked like something from the future where there is no food. They feed you whatever they mashed together. However, the taters and gravy were good. The flavor was more consistent than Bojangles. It felt like I was again eating a more cohesive food. I enjoyed them.
Shellie: They have spent many decades perfecting these. Much better than Bojangles. But I’m still not a huge fan of mashed potatoes.

I am shocked that I enjoyed my KFC experience. I am also not feeling quite as sick after eating. I would not say I am feeling great, just not as bad. The price is higher by about 16%. This is not a huge difference, but it does affect my experience.

Shellie: I feel a bit grosser after eating KFC than I did after Bojangles, like my arteries aren’t doing so well. Bojangles chicken tastes like an occasional treat. KFC tastes like a lifetime of bad choices. You don’t go to KFC because your life is going well.

Joejoe: Currently, KFC is the winner. That being said, if I was getting a chicken biscuit, I would go to Bojangles. KFC is a much better biscuit to throw at people, which is the only good thing to do with them.

This is a review of Bojangles. In the end, I will compare the following fast-food chicken restaurants: Bojangles, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Popeyes, and Church’s.

I should note that Bojangles is my default for going to get fried chicken. Because of this, it might have been a bad idea to post about Bojangles first. The other three will compete against a memory.

My order was a three-piece combo of all-white meat with a side of fries. It came with free diet Pepsi. I then ordered a small side of taters, gravy, and mac and cheese—total price: $13.07.
This was ordered at lunchtime. The drive-thru was backed up, and inside had a small line. There were plenty of people working there. They were prompt and friendly.

Shellie did this review with me. Here we go:

Shellie: Bojangles is the gold standard for chicken. I am guessing the Bojangles will be the best of all the chicken-fast-food meals we will try in this experiment.

Joejoe: The chicken was fresh, juicy, and tasted good. The breading has a mild cajun seasoning that is very tasty.
Shellie: I had chicken breast. I may prefer thighs, but I’m sticking with chicken breasts for this experiment. The skin was crispy and amazing. It was amazing. My only criticism is that the inside was slightly dry, but that goes with getting chicken breast. I ate every bite except for a few small pieces of bone.

Joejoe: The biscuit was very good. I was expecting a little crispier. It was a buttery flavor and was very fluffy.
Shellie: The biscuit was ok, but it was more “bready” and less flaky than I remember. But maybe I forgot what a Bojangles biscuit tastes like because it’s been a while. I always say Bojangles biscuits are the best, but it wasn’t amazing.

Joejoe: The fries, while a little soft, have a very nice cajun flavoring. Overall, good. They would probably be better with some extra cajun spice or hot sauce. However, for this test, I wanted to eat them as they came and not add different spices.
Shellie: The fries were a bit cold once I got to them, but they still tasted great. I liked the spice on them.

Joejoe: The mac and cheese was ok. The noodles were firm, which I like. The cheese was a little bland. This would need some hot sauce or some cajun spice.
Shellie: I’m not a fan of mac-n-cheese, but I could tell it tasted good.

Joejoe: The taters and gravy. The gravy has a small amount of meat that makes it good. It was kind of bland other than that. Good for taters and gravy, but not great.
Shellie: generally, I wouldn’t say I like mashed potatoes and gravy, but they tasted pretty good. I probably wouldn’t order them, though, of my own volition.

My ending notes. The food tasted good. While we were eating, Shellie commented that it didn’t taste healthy. I didn’t notice it then. I am full, and the food was good. But it was greasy. I am full, but I don’t feel healthy. I wonder if this will be the same at all of these fast food places. Bojangles is currently first and last place.

 

I used to love Swedish Meatballs when I was a kid. When I was in the store the other day, I grabbed a Stouffer’s Swedish Meatballs as this is what I used to eat when I was a kid. I had not bought this for a long time. After I grabbed it, I saw there were multiple Swedish Meatball options! What a great and fun taste test.

Notes: I did not eat them all the same day. I also made sure to cook them as close to the directions on the box as possible.

The first one I tried was Marie Callender’s. This one had this fascinating wine smell when cooked. It is also the only one with a compostable trey. However, the flavor was bland. The meatballs were ok. The noodles were not a bad texture. I can’t say I was satisfied when I was done eating it.

Boston Market was the second one I tried. The smell was better than Marie’s. This had more than what I think of the smell of Swedish Meatballs. The meatballs were pretty good; the noodles were ok. The sauce was a little bland. I was not as hungry when I finished it.

Stouffer’s was the third. I used to eat these when they came in the weird plastic bag. This is the Swedish Meatballs from when I was a kid. The smell was what I expected from Swedish Meatballs. The sauce was 3/4 as strong as I wanted. It was good. The meatballs were flaky, which I like. I was less hungry after I ate it.

Note: Read the directions when you make this. Part of the directions says 5 1/2 minutes and 50% power. This was how I made it.

Final judgment: Stouffer’s is the best all-around, in my opinion. If Boston Market were like half the price of Stouffer’s, I would get Boston Market as it was ok. I would not get Marie Callender’s again.

Suppose you don’t care about how food tastes. You only care about the environment. You most likely want Marie Callender’s for the compostable tray. I would guess it’s also the healthiest option.

The Bumped App has changed drastically. It used to be great, but now it’s useless. I used to love this app. I would drive out of my way to go to Walmart so that I’d get free stock on bumped. I would enjoy going to Taco Bell or Wendy’s because I’d get free stock on bumped. Earning stock made me feel more connected to the companies I was doing business with.

Here’s my idea: It would be neat to attempt to buy stock in every company I buy things from, whenever possible.

If the company I shopped at has stock for sale on Robinhood, I will buy $1 worth at the end of the month. This is because I can buy “fractional shares,” or portions of stocks, on Robinhood.
If the company I shopped at does not have stock on Robinhood and is on Schwab, depending on price and current finances, I will buy one (1) share on a different investment platform.

Here are additional rules for my game:

If I go to BP 5 times I will buy $1 of BP stock.
if I go to BJs and buy Pepsi, I will buy $1 in stock of Pepsi and BJ’s. I will do this to the best of my ability.
If I buy an automobile repair part from Subaru. I will buy Subaru stock. However, I won’t buy stock in Subaru just because I drive a Subaru.

At the end of this month, this is what I bought in stocks:

I bought one (1) full share of ANCUF (Circle K stock), as this was the only one I did not find on Robinhood.

My plan is to do this at the end of each month. I may or may not post in my blog every month, depending on what other thrifty ideas I want to blog about. I will check the end value of everything I purchased at the end of the year. In my end-of-year assessment, I may not pay attention to dividends, because that would be too complicated to keep up with.