Changing your diet doesn’t always mean cutting back on fat, calories, or carbs. For some people it means making the switch to being vegetarian or vegan. If you’re making the switch, please check out our Vegetarian Meal Reviews and Vegan Meal Reviews.

Price: $3.50
Serving: 1 tray, 10 oz.
Calories: 340
Fat: 16%, 10g
Sodium: 31%, 750mg
Protein: 20g
Carbs: 13%, 40g
Fiber: 15%, 4g
WW Points: 7 Points

Seeds of Change says: For this heavenly cheesy Italian dish, we begin by rolling out each lasagna noodle from freshly made dough. Next, we layer ricotta and Parmesan cheese with spinach and a medley of carrots, onions, garlic and thyme. Then we top it all off with a layer of mozzarella cheese. Lactose lovers, rejoice.

Jess says: So I live in a group house, like a mental patient or a frat boy, except I don’t think any of us are on the heavy meds (just the normal everyday stuff, like Zoloft and Ritalin) and there are no kegs in our bathrooms (sadly). One of my roommates is leaving, so we have to fill his spot. On Wednesday, Craig’s List vomited up a bunch of eager “easy going” and “clean” prospectives to come and knock on my door.

This one girl who came by was awesome. I didn’t want to live with her. I wanted to be her. She was a grad student in a program on sustainable living or something just back from a long stint in Central America. Obviously we can’t live with her though. We all said that right away she’d be all Green and follow the 3Rs by the book, and then I’d have to feel guilty every time I took a long shower or used a plastic fork or ate animals. Shudder. Who needs all that heavy, global warming talk after a long day at the office? You know?

But man, Seeds of Change meals are like an instant environmental halo. As you can see from my picture, the design on the box is modest. There is a crap load of organic spinach in this thing. Also, they do not skimp on the cheese. It’s the kind of cheesiness that leaves cheesy trails en route to mouth and then even stains the (mental) fork with cheesy residue. This thing is really pretty good, filling, and it’s all organic so you feel so fresh and so clean, free from the pesticides that otherwise alter the genetics of your potential offspring. It’s a little high on the sodium and calorie side, but that is a small price to pay once you read the back of the box. It states: “May contain traces of: Abundance, Random Kindness, A Slightly Expanded World-view”. Hell yeah. You got a deal!

Price: $3.50 per box
Serving: 1 brownie, 2oz.
Calories: 110
Fat: 0%, 0g
Sodium: 0%, 0mg
Protein: 2g
Carbs: 10%, 28g
Fiber: 4%, 1g

No Pudge says: Makes traditional thick, fudgy brownies. Great for folks who don’t want anything but a rich, all-chocolate taste.

Abi says: My real workplace (Not HeatEatReview.com) is semi-obsessed with trivia. We have a daily trivia game (you can make an office one on www.funtrivia.com) and every week our organizational update email contains a single trivia question.

While I often completely rock the daily trivia game (I was winning until 9:42 a.m., when my boss beat my time by 4 seconds. Argh.), I do not have a good track record with the weekly trivia game. Part of the reason for this is that I am often away from the office and using stupid Outlook for the Web. Outlook for the web does not lead to speedy email updates. Since I’ve been in the office ALL OF THE TIME during winter break, I’ve become accustomed to getting the weekly trivia emails in a timely manner. Unfortunately, I have been a complete idiot: actually reading the email instead of speedily scrolling to the bottom to read, Google, and complete said trivia game.

This poor course of action pretty much always leads to Kate and Chad (fellow cube-workers) winning the trivia game. Well, not this week folks. This time, immediately after the trivia went out, I was once again not paying attention to my email. Paying too much attention to email is not part of getting things done. Luckily, my coworker Sarah (writer of said trivia) and my boss Bill (um, my boss) were having a chat about something that was probably work related. I was sort of eavesdropping, but not really. Fortunately for me, the very moment I chose to be a more active eavesdropper (which really could not be considered eavesdropping because it is a freaking cubicle farm. You cannot have expectations of privacy here.), as I was saying, the very moment I decided to eavesdrop actively, Sarah informed Bill that the weekly trivia game had gone out and he’d best get back to his desk to even have a chance of winning.

I took this as my cue to check my email, scroll to the bottom of the weekly update for the trivia, and use the CIA factbook to figure out the major export of Antigua. Why Antigua? One of my coworkers recently left the office (by recently I mean gave 6 hours notice) and is now attending medical school in Antigua. My office is completely enamored/transfixed with all things Antiguan. We also threaten to leave work and move to Antigua during difficult staff meetings.

What does this have to do with No Pudge Fudge Brownies?

No Pudge Fudge brownies made an appearance in the office Friday as the prize for all of the trivia contest winners. They were also handed out to non-winners, including officemate Bale. Bale is a definite guy’s guy who reacted to the brownies thusly:

“These brownies are great!” says Bale.
“Yeah?” asks Sarah
“Yeah! And they don’t have any nuts.” Bale is obviously psyched about the lack of walnuts in these brownies. He’s allergic.
“They’re fat free too.” Sarah replies, dropping the double f-bomb.
“No way! These are awesome.”

Then we all laughed because we already knew that No Pudge Fudge Brownies are super-fantastic. They’re wonderfully gooey and rich and unbelievably fat free. Before I start sounding too much like H-G, I should tell you that these brownies are a bit too sweet for my taste. Also, they may be fat free but they are not calorie free. It is easy to eat four or five servings of these brownies without even thinking about it. At that point, you’re not helping your waistline or your overall health.

But yeah, they get five stars because they are super-good and you can make a single serving in your microwave. Also, I was happy about winning the weekly trivia game (finally!).

And yes, I am really freaking tired of eating diet food. Fortunately for all of you, I will continue to eat this stuff through the end of January. Sigh.

Price: $3.49
Serving: 1 bowl, 10 oz.
Calories: 330
Fat: 34%, 22g
Sodium: 32%, 770mg
Protein: 21g
Carbs: 3%, 10g
Fiber: 3%, 1g

if they brought back the rice

Tandoor Chef says: Boneless chicken breast marinated, roasted and simmered in a robust, creamy sauce.

Abi says: The during the late summer of 2006, Deep Foods consolidated their Curry Classics and Green Guru frozen meal lines into the Tandoor Chef brand. The sauces and quality are the same, but the some meals no longer include rice.

The loss of rice took Tandoor Chef’s Chicken Tikka Masala from ‘Excellent’ to ‘Pretty Good’. I don’t particularly want or need to eat an entire container of sauce along with my chicken. Sure, the chicken is deliciously tender and bathed in a masala sauce that defies diets, but it isn’t what I want for a whole lunch. After a brief examination of the nutritional info (9 net carbs!), I wonder if someone at Deep Foods is on an Atkins kick. Let’s pray that it ends quickly and without further food-altering incidents.

All of you sauce-lovers are in luck; the masala is fragrant with spices; warming and hearty. Unfortunately, I want a slightly balanced meal, a meal with rice, a meal with carbs. I miss mixing my chicken and sauce and rice together in a loving, community-building action. Hey Deep Foods, bring back the rice!

Price: $3.89 (worth it!)
Serving: 1/2 tray, 7 oz.
Calories: 360
Fat: 23%, 15g
Sodium: 25%, 590mg
Protein: 24g
Carbs: 14%, 42g
Fiber: 4%, 1g

Trader Joe says: Four Cheese: Cheddar, Swiss, Havarti, Gouda

Abi says: I was skeptical when I opened this box of TJ’s macaroni and cheese; it contained nothing more than a bunch of macaroni piled high with shredded cheese. That and butter.

“Ha!” I thought with awakening memories of Girl Scout camp. At the age of 10 I attended Girl Scout camp in rural Oregon and spent a week learning how to take care of and ride horses. Everything but the food was great and I learned some interesting lessons:

1. It isn’t that fun or nutritous to eat Girl Scout cookies for dessert every day for a week
2. Campfire songs are overrated
3. People from the city don’t know how to whittle
4. Just because you mixed cooked pasta and shredded cheese together doesn’t mean you actually made mac and cheese

I was a picky kid and didn’t eat much at camp. That was partly due to my macaroni and cheese preferences and partly due to the fact that I am a picky eater. I enjoy mac and cheese baked or from a box, but the prospect of just mixing some hot noodles with cheese in the hope that it would make some luscious comfort food seemed more than a bit absurd. By ‘more than a bit absurd’ I mean ‘disgusting’.

So when I opened up this box and found a bunch of shredded cheese over noodles, my hopes fell precipitously; I popped the tray in the microwave expecting nothing more than a mediocre noodles+cheese=lunch experience.

I could not have been more wrong in my assumptions. Trader Joe’s Macaroni and Cheese is clearly the best microwaveable macaroni and cheese in existence. If it was legal (and sane) to marry food, you’d see me walking down the aisle with a box of Trader Joe’s Macaroni and Cheese.

The cheese melts perfectly to become one with the noodles. I have seriously contemplated buying a couple of boxes of this, topping it with seasoned panko, broiling, and calling the whole thing my own homemade mac and cheese creation. This macaroni and cheese is so freaking good that if you are anywhere near a Trader Joe’s you need to buy it right now.

Eagerness aside, this is not a healthy meal. It is full of buttery cheesiness and delightfully firm noodles. Just 7 oz. will run you 360 calories. But when you think about it, there are about 360 calories in 2 small cookies. Go for the mac and cheese!