Lean Cuisine / SmartOnes Reviews

I'm no culinary critic.  That's for sure.  With all of the pre-packaged lunches I eat over the course of my work-week, I decided to start tracking each meal and give it a rating.  Here's what I've tracked so far over the last few months:

Lean Cuisine

• Asian-Style Pot Stickers  Grade: B-.  It's a bit high maintenance to cook - 50% power for 8 minutes - but in the end, it is pretty good.  The pot stickers aren't like what you get at a Chinese restaurant, but they aren't bad either.  The rice could use a little extra spice.  And there's not a whole lot of sauce to go around either.
• Chicken Enchilada Suiza  Grade: A+.  LOVE this one.  I mix the rice in with the delicious cream sauce and eat it altogether.  Nomnomnom.
• Chicken Makhani  Grade: A+.  I love Indian food, and was skeptical when I bought this because I wasn't sure what to expect with a pre-packaged microwave meal.  Delicious beyond words.  Two thumbs up.
• Mushroom Mezzaluna Ravioli   Grade: A-.  A recent add by Lean Cuisine.  DELICIOUS.  Gets a small minus mark for portion.  Wish, wish, WISH there were even just 2 more ravioli.
• Orange Chicken   Grade: A-.  I believe this was a recent addition to the line.  If not, Target just started to carry it, I guess.  I liked it - good spice, adequate serving.
• Sesame Chicken  Grade: B+  This is always a go-to for me.  I love the spice.  The chicken is delicious.  The only reason that I wouldn't give it an A is because there really should be a couple more pieces of chicken.  Just seems so...lacking.
• Tortilla-Crusted Fish   Grade: B-.  Was better than I thought it would be.  I actually enjoyed it.  However, once you heat up the dinner, your workplace smells like fish.  Luckily, I work in a very spread-out type of workspace.  I was even annoyed by the fish smell, though.  That's what she said.  (Sorry...I had to.)
• Thai-Style Noodles with Chicken   Grade: C.  Lacking spice.  The box eludes to chili spice, but it's completely bland to my taste.  The whole wheat noodles were delicious - but the veggies got drowned and lost in the sauce.

Smart Ones

• Chicken Enchiladas Suiza  Grade: A-.  Yes, Lean Cuisine has a competitor to this.  Taste was very similar - I'd say that the cheese sauce had a bit more spiciness to it.  However, the amount of rice that the box shows vs. what's actually in the meal is ridiculously different.
• Chicken in Spicy Peanut Sauce  Grade: A-.  Was delicious.  I wish it had a little more spice.  Yes, I know, it's a frozen meal - what should I expect when it says "Spicy".  I'll get it again, though.
• Pasta with Ricotta and Spinach  Grade: A.  This is a go-to for me.  I love me some pasta.  And can you really go wrong with white sauce?  No sir.
• Santa Fe Style Rice & Beans  Grade: A.  Absolutely delicious.  Holy cheesy goodness, Batman.  Great spice, a little heat.  The only downfall is that there wasn't more of it.
• Slow Roasted Turkey Breast  Grade: B+.  Can you really go wrong with comfort food?  Turkey and mashed potatoes?  I say no.  The gravy's a little bland for my taste.
• Teriyaki Chicken & Vegetables   Grade: D.  Not good.  Meat is dry, sauce is really bland.  I ate about 5 bites of it before throwing it away.
• Traditional Lasagna  Grade: C.  I love lasagna.  However, this meal doesn't compare to what I could make.  And the serving size is tiny - probably because they're trying to squeeze it in at 7 WW+ points with all of the pasta contained. 

Winter blues.

April 24.  I shouldn't be talking about having Winter blues at this point, right?  We should be well into Spring, watching the perennials make their way through the dirt, the buds growing on the trees, the grass greening up...

Not in Minnesota.  At least not this year.

We had another snowstorm earlier this week which brought us close to the snowiest April on record in the state.  It's seriously been the longest Winter ever.  It's put me in an absolute shit mood.  And when I'm in a shit mood...I eat.  I've been completely off the plan for a couple weeks now, and even though I haven't gained much - a couple pounds - I feel like crud.  You truly are what you eat.

I've definitely lost my sense of focus.  When I start over-analyzing things in my personal life, I typically dive into something that will keep me from that over-analyzing.  Right now: it's work.  There's plenty for me to do and it keeps my head busy.  Unfortunately, I'm burning myself out because of it and am not sleeping all that well either because of the stress.  Which goes right back to my physical health.

Short-term goals over the next couple of weeks:

• Get the recumbent bike that I got from the Neumanns set up in the basement and start getting up a 1/2 hour earlier to bike in the morning - at least 3x/week.
• Get back on the plan.  Track everything I eat.  And drink a hell of a lot more water.
• Start attending WW meetings again.  Mainly because of work, I haven't been going on Wednesdays.  It's the energy that I need to get re-focused and back on the plan.  Going today will be a tough pill to swallow, because I know that I'll have a weight gain to show on my card for my lack of dedication over the last couple of weeks.

Of course, I still have my long-term goal of one-derland.  Since it's been 12 or so years since I've been there, I figure that it's definitely going to take some time to get there again.  I need to be patient and stick with it.