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Healthiest Supermarket Foods: Dairy Aisle

FitSugar — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:00:00 -0700

Women's Health has read all those confusing food labels for you and compiled a list of the 100 Best Supermarket Foods. Next time you're shopping in the dairy aisle be sure to put the following items in your grocery cart.

Curious about other foods? Then also check out healthy carbs and healthy Frozen Foods.

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Healthiest Supermarket Foods: Frozen Foods

FitSugar — Wed, 28 May 2008 05:30:00 -0700

Women's Health has read all those confusing food labels for you and compiled a list of the 100 Best Supermarket Foods. If you're looking to pick up some quick-to-make frozen foods, be sure to put the following items in your grocery cart next time you go shopping.

Curious about healthy carbs? Then also check out this list of healthy breads, pasta, and rice.

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What's Your Advice For a Healthy Frozen Meal?

FitSugar — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:30:00 -0700

Sometimes I get a question that I know you guys will be able to answer better than if I were to attempt it myself. So help fellow user mandy2lin out by giving her your expert advice.

"Being a college student, I practically live on frozen meals. I was just wondering which healthy entrées are the most delicious. I just recently discovered South Beach Living Pizzas. What other frozen meals should I try?"

I've found that I enjoy frozen meals from Amy's Kitchen and Kashi, especially the Lemongrass Coconut Chicken. You may also want to check out my advice on how to pick a healthy frozen meal. I know you guys have your own go-to tasty and healthy frozen foods so share them in the comments section below. You may even find a few items to add to your grocery list this week.

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How To Pick a Healthy Frozen Meal

FitSugar — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:30:00 -0700

In a perfect world you can do all you want and need to do as well as make yourself a lovely dinner. Unfortunately, the world just doesn't really work like that. When push comes to shove on those tightly scheduled days, a frozen dinner doesn't necessarily have to be an unhealthy option. You just need to know what you are looking for. Here are a few guidelines to following when shopping for a frozen meal.

Fat: Look for a fat to calorie ratio that is three grams to 100 calories. If the meal is 500 calories, you want there to be only 15 grams of fat.

Saturated Fat: Keep the ratio of saturated fat to calories per serving to be one gram saturated fat to 100 calories. So that same 500 calorie meal should have only 5 grams saturated fat.

Trans Fat: Steer clear of trans fat. If you see the words "hydrogenated oil" on the ingredients list, put the package down and move on!

Fiber: You want a frozen entrée to have at least three grams of fiber. Fiber helps keep you feeling full.

Sodium: You want no more than 200 milligrams of sodium for every 100 calories. A 500 calorie dish should have no more than 1000 milligrams sodium. Remember, the recommended upper limit of sodium intake per day is 2,300 milligrams.

A couple of frozen food ideas for you: Bean and Rice Burrito from Amy's Kitchen and Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken.

All this being said, you still should supplement your frozen meal with some fresh fruits and veggies just to ensure you're getting all the nutrients you need per meal.

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Healthy Freezer Meals Evaluated

FitSugar — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:15:00 -0800

We all have those times when we just want to pop something in the oven, or microwave and have it come out ready, healthy, and tasty. A simple goal for the girl standing in the freezer aisle at the grocery store pondering hundreds of frozen foods, right? Wrong. Often times we get these healthy frozen meals home and heated up only to find they lack one key ingredient: taste. Lucky for us the good folks over at Epicurious have done the dirty work and evaluated healthy frozen meals to find the best of the best.

Here's their take:

The Winner: It's not just for cereal. . . Kashi, a newcomer to the frozen-dinner scene, was our favorite of the bunch. We really liked its Lemongrass Coconut Chicken, a colorful, well-balanced meal that combines a chewy, nutty whole-grain pilaf, chunks of chicken, carrots, and sugar snap peas with a sauce that had a lemongrass kick. Though Kashi's frozen dinners aren't marketed as diet meals, this one comes in a fairly large portion (10 ounces) for only 300 calories, which is comparable to a similarly sized diet meal, plus it has fiber (7 grams) to fill you up. We also liked Kashi's Chicken Pasta Pomodoro, which has toothsome multigrain pasta, veggies, and a well-spiced, not overly sweet tomato sauce.

There's more so read more.

Runners-Up: If you're looking for the comfort of pasta with an Alfredo-style sauce, we recommend Lean Cuisine's Chicken Fettuccini Dinnertime Selects, a fairly big portion of pasta with a creamy sauce and fresh-tasting broccoli, along with a side dish of caramel apples for dessert (12 ounces, 360 calories). Also good was the cumbersomely named Weight Watchers Smart Ones Bistro Selections Chicken Fettucini [sic], which had the cheesiest-tasting sauce but no veggies (10 ounces, 340 calories).

I always loved Kashi myself, so I'm glad I'm not the only one supporting such a great brand. If you have a healthy frozen meal that you're particularly fond of, share it with us in the comments section below.

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More From Amy's Kitchen: Pesto Pizza

FitSugar — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:30:00 -0800

Foods made by Amy's Kitchen are perfect in a pinch because they take less than 10 minutes to cook and are made with all-natural, organic ingredients. Plus the veggies are full of flavor and are never overcooked. The other night, I needed a quick meal for the whole family, so I picked up this Pesto Pizza.

Want to know how it was? Then read more.

I was loving this Pesto Pizza because it had a crispy crust with a chewy center, and instead of tomato sauce, there was a delicious pesto sauce spread on the crust. It wasn't too overwhelming, and complemented the veggies well. I'm a fan of broccoli on my pizza, and I was pleasantly surprised that the pieces on this pizza tasted fresh and had a firm consistency (cooked broccoli can be oh so gross). The juicy tomatoes added a little bit of sweetness, and the overall taste was really, really good. I'd definitely buy this pizza again.

On the label, the nutritional info was for one third of the pizza, but half the pizza is a much more reasonable serving size, so I included them both.

Serving Size	1/3 pizza	1/2 pizza
Calories	310	465
Total Fat	12g	18g
Saturated Fat	3.5g	5.3g
Cholesterol	10mg	15mg
Sodium	480mg	720mg
Carbs	39g	58.5g
Fiber	2g	3g
Sugar	3g	4.5g
Protein	12g	18g

The sodium content seems a tad high, but it's not too bad considering that the recommended daily amount should be around 2,300 mg a day. I definitely wouldn't eat this pizza every day, but since it's made with wholesome ingredients, I'd feel good about picking this up every once in awhile. I'm excited to try the other flavors, too.

Lean Cuisine Flat Bread Melts

FitSugar — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:00:00 -0800

I am not one for processed food, let me state that up front. In a recent pinch for lunch the other day I tried a Lean Cuisine Flat Bread. I tried the chicken pesto melt because even in a pinch I have a weakness for pesto. The flat bread cooks in less than three minutes, but needs to rest, much like a steak, for 60 seconds. It tasted good though not great, but only kept me full for about two hours. There was a generous portion of chicken and I had a sweet sun dried tomato in almost every bite. The problem with many of these quick food solutions is you need other food to make them a sustaining meal, but when you are on the go chances are high you don't just happen to have a salad or some steamed broccoli stashed in your back pocket.

To see nutritional information and what the flat bread truly looks like, just read more

The flat bread looks very much like the image on the box, you can see there are a lot of red peppers and sun dried tomatoes.

Calories	Fat (g)	Protein (g)	Cholesterol (mg)	Sodium (mg)	Fiber (g)	Sugar (g)
330	8	22	20	630	5	6

My main problem with this meal is the amount of sodium, since it contains 25% of the recommended daily intake of sodium (2,300mg is the upper limit of healthy per day). Plus why not use whole wheat in the crust and make the bread part healthy and more than just a vehicle for toppings? I do think it is great that Lean Cuisine gets credit for not using trans fat in this one.

Wolfgang Puck's Pizza: Margherita

FitSugar — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:30:00 -0800

Wolfgang Puck is an awesome chef, so when I saw one of his frozen pizzas, I thought I'd give it a try.

Want to know what I thought of the Margherita pizza? Then read more

Serving Size	1/3 of pizza	1/2 the pizza (more realistic)
Calories	330	495
Total Fat	14g	21g
Saturated Fat	6g	9g
Cholesterol	30mg	45mg
Sodium	700mg	1,050mg
Carbs	36g	54g
Fiber	2g	3g
Sugar	7g	10.5g
Protein	15g	22.5g

So aside from the fact that the actual pizza doesn't look as glamorous as the photo on the box, I thought it tasted delicious. It's made with all-natural ingredients, like spinach, wheat flour, tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese, which is a total plus. The crust was soft, chewy, and a little sweet. The pizza could have had a few more slices of tomato to make it even tastier and healthier, but then again you could always add some yourself.

From my photo, you can see that I could fit the entire pizza on a regular sized dinner plate, so it's pretty small. That means the serving size seems a little tiny, since most people would be more likely to eat half the pizza instead of just a third. So I figured out those numbers too so you can compare. Eating half the pizza isn't the worst thing you could do, but since it does have a lot of sodium, you'd have to limit the rest of your day's food so as not to exceed the recommended daily intake limit of 2,300 mg. Aside from that, this pizza is great in a pinch, and you can feel good eating it since it's made with simple ingredients.

Fit's Tips: The cooking directions say to bake it for 13-15 minutes, but it was done in my oven in seven minutes, so be sure to check on it halfway. You don't want to end up with a burnt pizza.

Fast Food Mayhem: Frozen Treat Edition

FitSugar — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:30:00 -0700

When you are on the road, traveling across country or just across town, during the Summer months, you often want a cool treat. A treat so cool it is frozen, but what to order? Take this little quiz to see if you should order a "flurry" or a "blizzard."

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Fast Food Mayhem: Baskin Robbins Frozen Treat Edition

FitSugar — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:00:00 -0700

You all enjoyed my first frozen treat quiz that I thought it would be fun to take it a little further. One of my guilty Summer pleasures is a Baskin Robbins shake. ~~Foolishly~~ Wisely I glanced at the nutritional information for the shakes and will probably be opting for a small cone from here on out. You'll be shocked to see the nutritional information in some of BR's tastiest treats.

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