Review: Lean Cuisine Panini

The Good: It's super-quick. It's hot. And let's face it: sometimes that's just what a healthy foodie needs {especially a busy, or in my case, particularly sick one}. The bread is on the thicker side, there's a bit of creaminess from the jack cheese, and the flavor was good, with just enough heat to leave a lingering spiciness on your tongue. It's perfect as part of a lunch or light dinner. Add a bowl of soup or a fresh garden salad and you're good to go. According to this review at Hungry Girl, it's the lowest in calories of all the Lean Cuisine Paninis. Plus, It's ready in only 4 minutes!

The Bad: It suffers the same fate that all nuked baked goods do: lack of crunch. If you're looking for the crispness that an real-deal panini offers, you'll be disappointed. It's about as crispy as a lightly toasted piece of bread. It's not super filling & only has very tiny chunks of chicken. That's really the worst of it. It's pictured on a 6" sized salad plate, so you have some sort of reference as to how big {or small} it is.

The Low-down: This particular panini clocks in at 280 calories, 7 g of fat, 20 g of protein {!!}, and 3 g of fiber, which means 6 WW POINTS. Perfect amount to fit in with my around 6 PT lunches and easily can be made part of a larger quick dinner. At $2-ish per panini, I'm not sure I would load my freezer full of these. I usually only buy Lean Cuisines when they're on sale {less than $2 each} and with that only eat about 1-2 per week. It is a cheaper {and more than likely ~ healthier} alternative than eating fast-food. {Good to remember when you're feeling famished & tired after running errands or just plain running after the kiddos.} Yep. I would buy it again. If I had my own panini press though.....

Ode to Mashed Potatoes

How I love your buttery richness!
You are so comforting, especially on these bitter winter days.
I carefully sprinkle you with kosher salt & fresh cracked pepper.
Even days later as leftovers, your creamy goodness still shines through.
I'm wondering though....

....could you have anything to do with the 2 pounds I've gained?

Switch-a-roo

I read a little blurb in December's All You magazine about how to replace some of your favorites and at the same time cut 100 calories. I'll list the items that they suggest to replace with my own ideas about what to eat instead {just cuz I'm a little rebellious like that}:

Replace..............................With This
Ice cream............................Fit 'N Active Slim Ice Cream Sandwiches
Vegetable Oil.....................Pam Spray {Spray it on veggies for roasting!}
Ranch dressing..................LF or FF ranch {Sometimes you just gotta have ranch!}
Pizza with pepperoni........Thin crust pizza with lots of veggies
Chips with dip....................Pretzel thins
Cheese dip........................?? Homemade low-fat version ??
Sandwich............................No need to replace a sandwich!
Slice of Quiche..................Crustless quiche made w/ low-fat Bisquick

Anything you used to eat, but don't anymore? Feel free to add your own "replacements"!

Sampler: The Lunch Edition

Now that I've told you what I'm having for breakfast & what I'm snacking on, I'll move on to lunch! I try to keep my lunches around 6 PTS and it's usually a combination of the following:

• Leftovers: hey, they're not glamorous, but surely are frugal.

• Grilled Cheese Sandwich on Healthy Life bread with (2) 2% cheese slices & ICBINB

• Salad with LF dressing. I'm loving Kraft Catalina right now because it's 1 PT for 2 T.

• Chicken burger with caramelized onions on a Whole Wheat High-Fiber bun. I *love* the Fit 'N Active chicken burger patties from Aldi, although I'm having a hard time finding them now :>(

• Lean Cuisine: either a 4-5 PTer with an additional side or a 6 PTer. I nearly *always* add additional sauteed veggies to my Lean Cuisines. Too bad Aldi doesn't make a Fit 'N Active version!

• 0 or 1 PT Progresso Light Soup. Love, love, love it! Great filler, warms me up on a cold day & makes a great snack too!

• Lunch meat sandwich. Great go-to meal for when I'm feeling lazy, which seems to happen quite frequently. Sometimes I'll put some 2% cheese on it & broil it til toasty.

• BLT with basil. Turkey bacon for the "B" part & light mayo. Since you know I'm a foodie, I'll pretty much only eat these when tomatoes are in season or if some really good "on the vine" ones can be found at the market.

• Terra Chips. Love 'em. They're a gourmet brand of chip {gourmet = $$}, but oh, so yummy. I love the Mediterranean flavored Root Veg chips. There are only certain ones that I buy. Basically the ones that are 3 PTs for 1 ounce. For some reason, eating "potato" chips makes me feel like I'm still "normal" and not missing out on food that's bad for you!

Go ahead and add your favorite lunches! You're so close to the comment button, you might as well click it.

Snack Sampler

Next up, snacks! I must, must, must have snacks throughout my day. I just think my body {and probably most bodies} work better when constantly fueled throughout the day, instead of in three lump sums . Here are many of the snacks that I keep stocked on my shelves:

• 1 Laughing Cow cheese with some crackers, like Trader Joe's Ak-mok, All-bran high-fiber or even Aldi's Light & Fit wheat crackers {1 pt for the LC and I eat 1 pt worth of crackers}
  

• String cheese {1-2 pts depending on brand}
  

• Banana

• Apple with one ounce of really good sharp cheddar cheese {I just found a great 2% sharp cheddar sold in a brick!}

• Frozen grapes {Haven't done this in a while, glad I reminded myself!}

• Hard-boiled egg with kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
  

• Healthy Life bread spread with ICBINB and roasted garlic

• Light popcorn

And my top two favorite snacks are.....

• Pickles {I don't know what I would do without pickles! Nearly 0 calories so I can eat a couple for 0 pts!!}

and

• High fiber bars like Fiber One or Aldi's Fiber Now -- almost makes me think I'm eating a candy bar plus it's a good source of fiber -- yummy!!
  

Ok. Bring on the Snack Attack! Got some favorites to add to my list?

P.S. I'll be doing "Sweet Treats" separately, so save up some ideas for those!

Breakfast Sampler

Thought it might be kinda fun to post about some of my typical meals while on WW. Maybe you'll see that eating healthy really isn't such drudgery or it'll shake up your current healthy eating plan. Here are some typical breakfast menus:

• Multi-grain english muffin with 1 Laughing Cow Cheese spread & a banana {4 pts.}

(I love this combo because the muffin with the laughing cow reminds me soooo much of a bagel with cream cheese, but a lot lighter of course.)

• 1 c. of frozen berries with 1/2 c. of low-fat homemade yogurt & about 1/8 c. of homemade granola {3-4 pts.}

• Kashi cereal {different varieties, but usually GoLean} with skim milk {I make it add up to 4 pts.}

• one scrambled egg with 2 slices of Healthy Life bread {with 1 T. ICBINB light} and 1 slice turkey bacon {4 pts.}

• 2 slices Healthy Life bread spread with 1 T. peanut butter and one apple {3 pts.}

• 1 small pancake with ICBINB & syrup with a slice of turkey bacon {3 pts.}

Those are pretty much my go-to breakfasts. If the kids are having cinnamon rolls {reduced-fat} I might have one of those with an egg and a piece of fruit. Or if I made waffles that morning, I'll have too. I'd like to maybe work in some smoothies or maybe low-fat muffins, but haven't had time to plan ahead for those. Guess the breakfast of frozen berries with yogurt & granola could easily just be added to the blender, yes? I think at this time of year, some pumpkin-y breakfasts might be an order.

Any favorite healthy breakfasts to add to my rotation?