“Please join us to experience new Birds Eye Steamfresh…” was all I needed to read before deciding to head into the big apple for their editor’s event. I’ve been a Steamfresh fan since first trying their products. (So much of a fan that we’ve written Bites on both the long grain rice and the veggies.)

The Birds Eye team held the event in the Glass House 21 on the top floor of the Chelsea Arts Tower (545 West 25th Street, NYC) with  cocktails served on a small terrace overlooking the Hudson River. Quite nice, the heat wave had just broken.

These new complete meals for two cook in just 10 minutes in the microwave, producing ample portions for two. What I found most interesting is that Birds Eye designed these products with a clean label in mind. That means, according to brand manager Matt Mazzaferro, Birds Eye doesn’t include any ingredients on the Whole Foods list of the “banned” ones. (Whole Foods has a list of ingredients that they find unacceptable in food products. Kudos to Whole Foods for creating such a list — I also find these ingredients unacceptable!)

The luncheon consisted of samples of the six varieties of Meals for Two, with my two favorites the Asian Style Chicken Vegetables Medley (with 290 calories, only 6 grams fat, a whopping 10 milligrams fiber but too much sodium —1290 milligrams per serving) and the Sweet and Spicy Chicken (with 370 calories, 10 grams fat, 4 grams fiber and 930 milligrams sodium).

Meals for Two in six pasta-based varieties will be in supermarkets this October at $7.49 for the two-portion 24-ounce package.