Healthy Choice Kielbasa

I LOVE Kielbasa. Love it, love it, love it. But it's soooo high in calories, that I can't really justify eating it except on holidays (it's a breakfast staple for Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter, but don't ask me why). But now, Healthy Choice has kielbasa which is really pretty good. It doesn't get as crispy on the outside, which I kind of miss, but the flavor is good, and it's got 160 calories in 4 ozs (a typical meat serving), though they list the serving size as 2 oz (and 80 calories). Even the kids like it. So I give this a big thumbs up!

Lean Cuisine's Chicken and Peanut Sauce

While not my favorite Lean Cuisine offering, this dish had a decent flavor. My complaint, I think, stems partly from my microwave, but also using whole wheat noodles. It's strange, because that's all I use in cooking for the most part, but I've found that they don't reheat well. Something about the texture changes, and it doesn't appeal to me, and that's what I am running into with this convenience dinner. It also contains snow peas and water chestnuts (which amazingly always stay crisp), and the chicken was really good. I'd definitely recommend it on flavor, but if you are like me and don't like reheated whole wheat pasta you may want to pass.

Lean Cuisine's Chicken Carbonara

From the box: "Roasted chicken tenderloins with bacon and mushrooms over linguini". This offering from Lean Cuisine is really good. There's just enough bacon flavor to satisfy and the chicken is consistently good. My only complaint is that there could be more chicken. I'm often confused about whether convenience meals like this are supposed to be a meal in and of itself, or if you are supposed to eat them with other things. Personally, I'd rather have a higher caloric meal that's more filling, than having to cook the meal, have a salad, fruit or something else. It'd be great if each meal had different levels- say a 250 calorie version and a 450 calorie version. I realize, for the sake of having a variety of products, this probably isn't possible, but it'd be nice. But, the Chicken Carbonara gets my vote for yumminess.

Ginger Garlic Stirfry With Chicken from Lean Cuisine

Lean Cuisine's Ginger Garlic Stirfry is a new offering. It's loaded with vegetables like sugar snap peas and carrots and features nice pieces of white chicken in a ginger garlic sauce. The actual meal is not as pretty as the picture on the front of the box (though they rarely are) and it cooked up nicely in the microwave I used. My only warning is that this dish is SPICY. I don't mind spicy, but I wasn't expecting it and it took me a bit by surprise. So be sure to have something to drink on hand. It clocks in at 290 calories and 4 grams of fat. Pair with a salad or piece of fruit and it's a perfect lunch.

Special K Cereal Bars

Special K Bars are a great snack that comes in under 100 calories (only 90!) The Chocolatey Drizzle is a perfect sweet snack with a nice crunch, but I find the Vanilla Crisp to be almost too sweet. There should be a flavor though to suit your tastes as there are at least 6 flavors to choose from. Nearly all of them are available on amazon.com, which had a few flavors I hadn't seen at our local grocery store.

Healthy Choice Hot Dogs vs Oscar Meyer Low Fat Hot Dogs

And the winner is....Healthy Choice! These hotdogs are only 70 calories each, with just a few of grams of fat. The flavor is great and taste more like "real" hotdogs. If grilling though, you'll need to watch them more closely than regular dogs. There's something about the "skin" that cooks different than most hotdogs. Oscar Meyer hotdogs are okay, but I've never been of fan of the regular ones- I prefer Mackenzie or Nathan's (the god of all hotdogs). If you like the Oscar Meyer brand, you'll probably like their low fat ones. I find they're best mixed with baked beans, while the Healthy Choice dogs can be eaten either way- but for best calorie bang for the buck, they're better off mixed with baked beans as well. The protein will be far more satifying than having a bun- which is usually around 100-120 calories and nothing that'll "stick to your ribs."

Healthy Choice Paninis

It was just a matter of time before Healthy Choice came out with their own paninis. One is a Smoked Chicken, and the other a Chicken and Basil. I really enjoyed the first (just be sure not to overcook it or you won't be able to eat the bread). Despite overcooking it, the chicken and cheese on the sandwich had a really good flavor. The second I didn't enjoy quite as much- it had more tomato taste than I would have liked, but it was still good. Both I believe were under 300 calories- but I forgot to take notes to be sure. But as I will at least be getting the Smoked Chicken panini again, I will update this post then.