Below is a review of some quick and diet-friendly convenience foods from my friend Gloria. I inquired about locations – and she said that you can usually find these brands at Giant and Genuardi’s. I’m going to be trying the Amy’s stuff soon because I adore Indian food so much (and I admit, I’ve been getting a little tired of cooking).
The hardest part is getting home so late from work, already hungry, and then having to start cooking a meal that isn’t finished until eight or sometimes nine o’clock. By then I’ve gone from hungry to ravenous and put myself in danger of eating more servings than I should.
Anyway, without further ado – Gloria’s convenience food review:
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Amy's Frozen Foodhttp://www.amys.com/products/category_view.php?prod_category=18I have been eating these for lunch almost every day. Normally I try to eat fresh food from our cafeteria, but they recently streamlined their menu and hardly have anything healthy anymore. Amy's has a bunch of Indian entrees that are *awesome*, and some non-Indian stuff that are very good too. So far I've tried the matter paneer, palak paneer, and vegetable korma. They all *rock*. In the non-Indian food department, I've tried the brown rice & vegetables bowl which was quite good too (nowhere near as good as the Indian stuff, but filling and not too boring, for just rice and veg), and the roasted vegetable tamale with black beans which was *really* good.
Only thing with Amy's is not all the stuff they have is diet friendly; everything I have tried has been no more than 320 calories, and I've never been left feeling unsatisfied (sometimes happens with pre-portioned food like that). The other thing is that they can sometimes be more expensive than other frozen foods ($5 each). On the other hand, they seem to have more real food in them than other frozen foods do.
Kashi Frozen Foodhttp://kashi.com/products/kashi_frozen_entrees_mayan_harvest_bakeI went through a phase where I was eating these a lot too. The Mayan Harvest Bake is TERRIFIC. On the whole, these aren't as good as Amy's but they are better and more interesting than your average Lean Cuisine type thing.
Del Monte Fruit Chillers (or whatever they're calling them)
http://www.fruitundressed.com/You find these in your refrigerated section of the supermarket. Granted, most of these have added sugar which I am generally against. But I have thrown away so much fresh fruit recently because as you know it's hard to eat every day since it's so high in calories. And Brent never eats any, so if I buy fresh it often gets moldy before I can eat it. They have pink grapefruit (60 cal), citrus salad (70 cal), and sugar free (splenda) peaches (40 cal). I add these to my normal oatmeal breakfast. They also have them in bowl sizes - 4 servings per bowl. I will sometimes eat a whole bowl by itself (no oatmeal) for breakfast if I'm in the mood for something lighter. They also have small sugar free (splenda) peaches for 25 calories each, but they are in the applesauce-and-canned-fruit aisle. I'll stir one of these into my oatmeal, or into my Greek yogurt for dessert. They have other flavors which I haven't tried yet, either because they don't appeal or because they're too many calories. The website says they have no sugar added grapefruit, which I haven't seen yet but will snap up when I do. I know you like grapefruit and I do a lot too.
