Last Friday I went back to the grocery store, and loaded up on Lean Cuisine meals while they were still on sale. I skipped the ones that were regularly prices at $2.29, and went for the ones that were regularly $3.19. There weren’t too many of those left, but grabbed all of the ones I was interested in. Then I went after the ones that were regularly prices at $2.99. There was a great selection of these. I tried to grab at least one or two of each. Even then I didn’t manage to get all of them. I skipped some of the ones that had a higher amount of fat in them, and went for the ones with the lowest amount of fat. I need to take a calculator so I calculate out the percentage of fat calories.
Anyway, this morning for breakfast I ate the Lean Cuisine Chicken Cabonara (roasted chicken tenderloins with bacon & mushrooms over linguine). It was regularly priced ay $2.99. So a $1.66 was a great price. I hesitated on this one because of the 7 grams of fat. But I love spaghetti carbonara! The total calories were 270, with 7 grams of fat or 60 fat calories making up about 22% of the total calories. It took 5 minutes of microwave time. Just had to stir it when it was done cooking. It smelled great when cooking. Then it tasted great. It doesn’t have the texture of actual spaghetti carbonara, and the taste is a little different. But it is a very good. I will probably eat more of these every once in a while. But due to the higher fat calorie percentage, I will probably limit how often. But it was really good!
Along with all the Lean Cuisine meals I got on sale, I grabbed some of the Cafe Classics Bowl’s. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but decided to try them.
For lunch today I had the Lean Cuisine Teriyaki Steak (beef steak with ginger-garlic flavored pasta, vegetables & teriyaki sauce). It has a total of 280 calories with 6 grams of fat. The fat counts for 50 calories, or almost 18% of the total calories. It counts for 6 Weight Watchers Points. It took 5 minutes of microwave time, and I had to stir it once in the middle.
I love good teriyaki. I used to eat teriyaki often when I lived back in the Seattle. There are little teriyaki restaurants all over the place. Yummy! Unfortunatly I have not found good teriyaki places back in Rochester, NY where I live now. Also unfortunatly, the Lean Cuisine Teriyaki Steak isn’t very good teriyaki either. The meal tasted okay, but if I got this at one of the restaurants back in Seattle, I wouldn’t be going back. Now if I don’t compare it to good teriyaki food, then I would have to say it is okay. Not great but okay. It tastes sort of like stir-fry. I am not a big fan of stir-fry, but I might eat this once in a while. I am sure there are others that I would much rather eat.
I think of all the Lean Cuisine Dinnertime Selects that I got on sale, this is the only the one I haven’t reviewed yet. I have a ton of the smaller Lean Cuisine frozen meals though.
I had the Lean Cuisine Balsamic Glazed Chicken (roasted chicken tenderloins in a balsamic glaze with an orzo pasta & vegetable medley with apple crisp dessert) for lunch. It has 380 calories and 7 grams of fat. The fat adds up to 60 calories, or almost 16% of the total calories. It counts as 7 Wight Watchers Points. It took 6 minutes of microwave time with no stirring or anything in the middle.
The chicken was okay. There seemed to be less of it than I am used to. Or maybe there were just fewer but larger pieces? It was just okay. I would have expected the balsamic sauce to be a little sweeter. The rice and vegetables were okay. I think there was spinach in there. I found one big green hunk of what I think was spinach, so I threw it out. I hate spinach! I mixed the balsamic sause in with the rice and veggies, and they were okay.The dessert was supposed to be apple crisp. It didn’t taste like apple though. It was good, but I thought maybe it tasted more like a cross between peach and pear. But now apple. But like I said, it was good. Overall I wasn’t impressed. I like it better than some of the other frozen meals I have had. But mostly is was kind of blah!
With all of the Lean Cuisine frozen meals on sale, I loaded the freezer with them. Most of the Dinnertime Selects were already gone, but I got a bunch of the Chicken Portabello, and couple other flavors including the Lemon Garlic Shrimp. So looking through the freezer this morning, I had a ton of stuff to look through to decide what to bring to work. I still have a ton of Healthy Choice dinners and all the new Lean Cuisines.
I have the Lean Cuisine Lemon Garlic Shrimp (shrimp & linguini in a lemon garlic sauce with broccoli florets) for breakfast. It has 350 calories with 7 grams of fat. The fat is 60 calories, and makes up abotu 17% of the total calories. It counts as 7 Weight Watchers Points. It took about 6 minutes of microwave time, and I had to stir it in the middle. I also needed to stir it at the end. It was okay. Not great but okay. It was filling enough. I thought I smelled spinach, but I didn’t see any, or see any list on the package. I won’t go out of my way for this one. It was better than the Chicken Portabello though.
When all the Lean Cuisine frozen meals went on sale at the local grocery store, I headed down there. They were all on sale for the same price, so I first went for the larger Dinnertime Selects. Most of what they had left were the Chicken Portabello. But I did manage to snag one or two other Dinnertime Selects. One of those was the Chicken Tuscan. I think I only managed to get one of these. I got a whole bunch of the Chicken Portabello which aren’t very good.
I had the Lean Cuisine Chicken Tuscan (chicken tenderloins and linguine in a sun-dried tomato sauce, with broccoli and carrots) as a mid-afternoon snack. I wanted to get something to eat as I have a karate thing going on right after work. Anyway, the Chicken Tuscan has 280 calories with 6 grams of fat. The 50 fat calories are about 18% of the total calories. It counts as 5 Weight Watcher Points. It took about 6 1/2 minutes of microwave time. Somethig different was that I had to add a tablespoon of water to the vegetables. I didn’t have a tablespoon, so I splashed it under the water fountain for a second and guessed at how much water went in. It worked. The chicken looked pretty watery out of the microwave. But I stirred it up, and it looked much better. It was actually pretty good. Not great, but actually kind of satisfying. The vegetables were pretty good too after I sprinkled them with Molly McButter. I am going to have to see if they have more of these. I am going to by the store tonight, so I will check. I wish it came with a dessert (as long as it wasn’t that gross chocolate cherry dessert from the chicken portabello…yuck!).