Seeds of Change

It has almost become a routine for me to go to Whole Foods every friday night and randomly buy one of the frozen entrees there. Because really, who wants to cook on a friday night? I buy my meal, go to my home, eat my food, and go out with my friends. That's all there this to it for a school girl.

This meal is from Seeds of Change. Sorry for the bad picture. There were so many choices at the frozen foods section in Whole Foods, but there was only one "Creamy Spinach Lasagna" box from this organic company, and it stood out. After choosing it right away (approximately three point five seconds), I went home and put this meal in my microwave for 5 minutes. That's more than enough.

I don't know if you'll like the appearance of this lasagna. I didn't. For some reason, my meal had a layer of wet, green water on top of it - meaning on top of the dough and spinach and everything. I ate that great water layer.

This meal was good. Not great, but good. The spinach was nice and there was more than a handful of it, but there weren't as many carrots featured on the box as there were in my entree. I didn't mind that, though. The "noodle made from fresh dough" was okay - chewy and a bit thin, but it was sort of folded into a thing with a thingy so fine. The cheese? It was there, but there wasn't a lot of flavor to it. Oh oh, and the portion? Large.

Calories: 340
Total fat: 10 grams
Fiber: 4 grams

And a lot (meaning a good amount..for a frozen meal) of vitamins + iron.

This meal was nice. It filled me up and to be honest, i'm actually fine with the fat, because I don't think low fat cheese was used in this. But the ingrediants sure do look PERFECT. All organic, yummy foods put together that make a happy friday night.

8/10.

Fage Greek Yogurt with Honey

I most certaintly know that most of my friends and people that I know don't enjoy the original Fage yogurt - whether it's total, two percent, or non fat. I think i'm the only girl here in the heart of Philly (represent!) that is completely in LOVE with this stuff. I usually get my non fat Fage yogurt at Whole Foods and I love adding berries and honey to it - best treat ever! That is, until one day, I found Fage total yogurt with honey.

Now, mind me, but this yogurt isn't too different from the one I usually buy, because like I said above, I add my own honey to the plain yogurt cup. However, this makes the process so much easier. And the taste? I absolutely love it. Really! The yogurt itself is delicious and the honey doesn't taste sugary or gross. In fact, it's fantastic. And want to know a lil secret? When you add the honey to the yogurt, mix in it, and dig in, the swirls of honey that you'll find while gobbling this stuff up tastes just like gooey swirls of caramel. I know, it's too good to be true! This is even better than ice cream! Oh, wait.

Even more good news. This yogurt not only comes in honey, but there's strawberry and cherry sides as well! The only problem is that those might be a little hard to find. I haven't tried them yet because I'm never actually even SEEN them in real life, but i'm sure they're delish!

Before I give this yogurt a yummy rating, there's a small problem. This yogurt only comes in total, which means it's full fat. No low fat Fage yogurt with honey, strawberry, or cherry exists. But hopefully they're working on it.

Calories: 250
Fat: 12 grams
Sugar: 28 grams
Protein: 8 grams

Yeah, the amount of fat and sugar in this is a bit too high, but I don't blame them because it's all natural sugar and this is not a low fat yogurt.

8/10.

I would buy this again if the calories went down a bit, and although it is insanely good, buying my regular Fage yogurt and adding my own honey to it is cheaper, lower in fat, and still goooood.

Amy's Macaroni & Cheese

After reviewing the country pot pie, I decided to give Amy one last try. And truly, I don't want to lie. Okay, i'm done rhyming so you can actually make sense of this review. I must say that Amy's meals are the perfect portion size. Like I said in the last entry, I expected them to be much larger and they were tiny, which is how portion controlled meals should be, and it's a lot different from those typical restaurant servings. So as I picked up this 9 ounce box of mac and cheese, I couldn't wait to try it, because I know mac and cheese like a five year old does.

When I opened the box, I almost started to laugh at the cute little sight which was basically a hard (I even knocked on it) really yellow block that had little frozen noodles sticking out of it. Now, as you're reading this, you might say, "Is this young girl mentally challenged?" Well, you know. I just don't eat a lot of frozen meals so I find the sight before the microwaving funny. Anyway, I don't clearly remember the exact cooking instructions, but I put the meal in the microwave for 2 minutes, stirred it, and put it back in for three. And that was more than enough.

I'm really, really upset to say that I did not enjoy this whatsoever. I was terribly hungry when I bought this and I was more than happy and excited to eat this, but I did not like it. The noodles were perfectly fine, but the cheese wasn't. It left an aftertaste in my mouth that made me regret ever purchasing this. And while I was looking for home-y, cheesy goodness, all I got was a bunch of noodles in a cheese sauce that I couldn't even finish.

And i'm ashamed at the nutritonal information.

Calories: 410
Fat: 16 grams
Fiber: 3 grams

A nice amount of fiber, but I'm not appreciatin' the calories. Of course, this product wasn't made with low fat cheese so I understand why there's such a high amount of fat, but still. Ugh.

5/10. Sorry, Amy.

Country Vegetable Pot Pie

When I bought this product, I honestly could not wait to try it. And trust me, I was even more anxious when I had to stand in line behind four people with full cartloads of products while I had this one pot pie and a bottle of water with me. However, I eventually did get home to try this! Now, I do not exactly remember how long the instructions for microwave cooking were but I held this pie in my baby microwave for about three minutes, and that was more than enough. Why? Because this pie is tiny! I was actually quite surprised at when I picked this up from the freezer section at Whole Foods because after visiting Amy's Organic's page for numerous amount of times, I expected this pie to be medium to large sized. I did not let that get me down, but now I actually think the size was the great because I had trouble finishing this meal. Oh no, no, no, not because it was too filling. It's because this meal was terrible in my opinion. Horrible, actually. The crust, to start with, was thin and chewy instead of flaky and full of carb goodness. Unfortuantly, although I was not fond of the crust, it was the only part of the meal I could actually find myself eating again. There were plenty of vegetables in this teeny tiny pot pie but they were completely covered in this "creamy béchamel sauce", as Amy calls it. Um, no. The sauce was so starchy and put me in a moody mood. Now, mind me, I have not have a pot pie for a while so maybe this is how it is supposed to taste like, but I remember real pot pies, and this is not even close. So, combined with plain tasting vegetables (ps. there were too many potatoes instead of the other vegetables, in my opinion. good if you like potatoes, not good if you don't), disgusting starchy potato-ey and cornyyy sauce, and a plain crust, this meal is not worth the 370 CALORIES!!! That's right.

Calories in complete meal: 370
Fat: 16 grams
Fiber: 4 grams
Protein: 12

Now, to be honest, if it wasn't for the ridiculous amount of fat, this meal isn't so bad nutrition wise. Because in fact, most real pot pies have 370 in only half the pie. However!, I will mention once again that this meal was TINY. Now, I mean tiny, people. Like..half of a real pot pie. So wait, that doesn't make a nutritional difference at all! Gr.

4/10.

I will not be buying this again. Thanks Amy.

Lean Pockets

I love carbs, and it is no secret. Anything dealing with dough is amazing, and that's why I love Hot and Lean Pockets. I've eaten hot pockets for about two years and was amazed how wonderful the product was until I flipped the box. Isn't it just dandy how nutrition information can ruin your meal? That's when I switched to Lean Pockets. Warm, warm, warm carbs and a nice filling. And did I mention I am currently obsessed with cheese? It's true. I tried almost every Lean Pocket except the most obvious and commonly bought flavor - Pepperoni Pizza. Yeah, i'm weird for trying this flavor last. But the flavor was certaintly there. However, here's the thing about BOTH Hot and Lean Pockets - they are definitely not as they look on the display. When I first discovered Hot Pockets, I was so excited to try them but found that they are flat and NOT crispy. Those "now even crispier!" commericals get you excited? Please turn off your television because it is not true. Knowing that, this Lean Pocket is good. The cheese is nice and not artifical tasting, but I believe there wasn't enough of it. The pepperoni bites were good but some were actually rubbery and undercooked. Basically, the bites have flavor but could use some work. One Lean Pocket for me is not filling whatsoever, but that's probably because I like my food and I like how I stay thin after eating 20 pounds of it.
In ONE Lean Pocket Pepperoni Pizza Flavor:
Calories: 280
Total fat: 7
Fiber: 3
Weight Watchers Points: 6

It's all good in the hood, man, although I think 280 calories and 7 grams of fat is a little bit too much for one flat pocket. 7.5/10 for this one. But the nutrition info plays a big part of it.

Peace.

Baked Lays

I love chips. Yummy, yummy, yummy chips. They're salty and light and crispy and...full of carbs and fat?! I made myself a promise last year to never again eat chips that are not natural or artifical and full of fat, and to be completely honest, I did stick to that promise. I love eating classic lays natural chips, but to be honest again, for as long as these baked ones have been out, i've never tried them until this day. My first pick was the Sour Cream & Onion flavor, and although it wasn't my favorite chip ever, it was good. I like how these chips aren't oily, because oily fingers are the most annoying thing ever. I also like how they're thicker than regular lays chips and have more flavor but use natural ingrediants. Yep, no trans fatty oils in this one. One bag of the regular baked Sour Cream & Onion chips has 120 calories, 3 grams of fat, and 2 grams of fiber, along with a bit of vitamins and minerals. Compare that to the regular lays sour cream & onion chips - 150 calories, 10! grams of fat, 0 grams of fiber, and plenty of hydrogenated and artificial flavors and colors, and the baked ones are a winner.

8/10 for these babies.

Don't worry, sour cream & onion isn't the only flavor these chips come in, so those people with who are allergic to both of those ingrediants need not worry. Baked Lays comes in bbq flavor, original flavor (also very good), and cheddar and sour cream flavor. Not only that, but there's even baked cheetos, doritos, and tostitos! What a rhyme, and there's even the ruffle kind for those ruffle lover people. Yummmm!

Uncle Ben's Bowls

I hate frozen foods. Personally, I always love myself a nice cooked home meal, but we all know that's almost impossible for us on-the-go peeps. So when my stomach was rumbling last night, where else was there to go but the nearest Walgreens? I ran to the freezer section as soon as I got there and picked up Uncle Ben's Roasted Chicken and Vegetable Bowl. I wanted to pick something from Lean Cuisine, but for some reason, this got my eye.

Too bad I didn't take a picture of the gross image I saw when I opened this. It was frozen (okay..duh), but the sauce was a puke color and the veggies were almost invisible. The instructions were to microwave this crap for a full five minutes, shovel it (uhm..mix is the word) with a utensil, and stick it back in the microwave for another minute.

As I was shovelin my dinner, the sauce was no longer puke colored. It was lightly yellow and a bit brown, but no puke here. I was, however, dissapointed with the small amount of vegetables, so I cut up a carrot, mixed it with the rice, veggies, and chicken and put the tiny bowl back into the microwave for a minute.

I can not describe how good this was. The sauce was absolutely delicious - it was a bit spicy and actually reminded me of homemade sauce my mother used to make. The chicken, although a bit rubbery and fattening tasting (what?), also had flavor. The rice was spectacular. As for the veggies, there were not a lot and I thought it was cute how bits of corn were displayed on the box but not in my meal (hehe), but i'll forgive them this time.

There were only 330 calories in this meal, about 3.5 grams of fat, but over 1,000 mg of sodium. What?! Are they nuts? How much sodium can be in this?

7.5/10. That's right. Although there was quite a lot of sodium, hardly any vegetables, and rubbery chicken, this meal filled me up and made me happy.

Hello!

I hate typing these little about me's, so let me cut to the chase: I'm young and in love with food. I think about it, I talk about it, I dream about it, and, of course, I eat it. Whenever I begin to stuff my face with brownies and hello kitty poptarts, I remember my passion for healthy eating and stop my binging for a second to think about what I really love - whole grain rice, baked salmon, roasted vegetables, etc. So here I am, maybe writing about something pointless that no one will read, or encouraging people to eat healthier and choose better options.

Oh, but mind you, I am actually no healthaholic.