Bariatric Foodie Play with your food
It even happens to me, dear Foodies. I wake up late, get out the door late, get the kids to school and…”Oh crap! I forgot to pack lunch!”
Thankfully there’s a supermarket between the diva’s school and my job (I only work about 3/4 mile from their school!) so I headed there to see what they could offer me. And I came across this:
Lean Cuisine Salad Creations (Southwest-style chicken)
- Simply add your lettuce!
- 260 calories
- 9g fat
- 26g carbs (probably from the beans and tortilla strips)
- 4g fiber
- 18g protein
So I decided to give it a whirl! I like a salad and I’m an adventurous gal.
So the box gives three easy prep steps:
Step one: Put your dressing in a cup of room temperature water to thaw. Yeah. My office doesn’t do room temperature. It does hot. So I worked with it.
Step two: Microwave chicken & veggies in the steamer pouch for 2.5 minutes on high.
Step three: Assemble your salad by putting lettuce on a plate or bowl (yes it really does say that), followed by chicken & veggies, dressing, then tortilla strips (I’m a rebel. I did strips then dressing).
Firstly, this is the MOST work I’ve ever done for a frozen meal, ok? This better be good cuz this is almost as much effort as making my salad from scratch. Well not really, but still.
So I taste and…
- Um…the star of this salad is definitely the dressing. The corn lends a lot of flavor and I am amenable to the texture of black beans but the dressing popped. Wasn’t too spicy. It was just right.
- The chicken, however, was a wee bit…bland. But it’s only got 590mg sodium (which is paltry in terms of frozen stuff) so what can we expect?
- I wish I’d let the chicken cool a little bit more before I put it on my salad. It made my lettuce a bit wilty (and it was already wilty cuz it took me until 10:30 to put the bag of salad mix in the fridge).
- Some might question my decision to use the tortilla strips. My pouch, my choice. They do separate them out so there is nothing stopping you from tossing them if you are deathly afraid of tortilla strips. I like the crunch.
Final verdict: I actually liked this. I think if I was better prepared I would not have found the steps quite so labor intensive. But then, isn’t the point of frozen meals that you don’t HAVE to be prepared? That’s a debate point I’ll leave to you, dear Foodies. Long story short, I think it’s a good option, especially on those days when you want a salad and can’t/don’t want to go out and procure one.
And lookit! I even found you a coupon so you can try it for yourself! Squee!
I just tried the Asian salad this week, and I thought it was very good. i actually put the boxc in my fridge overnight to thaw and did not have to go through all those steps. Like yours, the dressing is the star of the show. The asian salad has chow mein noodles for the crunch. My only question is, How do they figure there are 17g of protein in the very small amount of chicken they give you? Seems a little high to me. I would buy it again, though, and will, thanks to the coupon!
Hi Karen!
There's 8.5g protein per ounce of chicken. So if they put just 2 oz. of chicken in there, that'd be 17. I suspect most of the protein comes from the chicken and TINY bit from the beans.
I've tried a couple to add to my salads, and I love them. My one idea is to hit the chicken and then let it cool. I didn't care for the dressings I tried but over all they are delicious and an quick and fast meal or something different to do with a Salad!!!
I had someone in the office say she did not like the warm veggies on a salad she would cool them down in the freezer, but I like the idea of just letting it thaw. And I have a coupon for Target buy one get one free. Hmm maybe try it with brocolli slaw.
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