Price: $2.12 + tax
Serving: 1 entree, 9 5/8oz.
Calories: 220
Fat: 9%, 6g
Cholesterol: 7%, 20mg
Sodium: 28%, 660mg
Protein: 18g
Carbs: 8%, 24g
Fiber: 16%, 4g
Weight Watchers Points: 4 Points

Lean Cuisine says: Wild salmon on a bed of whole wheat orzo pasta with yellow and orange carrots and spinach in a basil sauce.

Becky says: I like seafood. A lot. I like it prepared in every way imaginable (yes, that includes raw!). But frozen fish worries me – I am treated to flashbacks of my youth, when the only fish that my mother dared to feed us was canned tuna or cod that had been frozen, and thawed, and frozen again numerous times before being broiled to a consistency that resembles something that should not be consumed by anyone. Needless to say, I didn’t have high hopes for Lean Cuisine’s salmon.

But this is one of the instances where I am glad to say that I was wrong, wrong, oh so wrong. Once cooked, the salmon in this dish is tender and moist, and has very little of the nasty ‘fishy’ flavor/smell that is so often present in frozen fish. Once you separate the fish with your fork and mix everything together, there’s plenty to go around. Even though the veggies are limited to carrots (yellow and orange) and spinach, there are plenty of each. The spinach is cooked, but not slimy, and the carrots maintain their somewhat crunchy texture. The sauce is fantastic, though if you don’t like basil, you probably won’t care for it. I was pleased with how well the flavor accented the fish and vegetables.

I’m not sure why orzo pasta was chosen to accompany this dish, but kudos to whoever thought it up! This small, tender pasta soaks up the sauce well, and doesn’t overpower the dish. My main complaint overall is that there isn’t more pasta. The meal only has 220 calories, for crying out loud, people . . . I need MORE! That’s why I usually end up bringing a package of veggies to nuke when this is on the menu…or today, I just ate more Christma…I mean, holiday cookies & candy that co-workers brought in to work.

Overall, this meal has become one of my ‘standards’ – something that I know I like, and purchase on a regular basis.

Price: $3.00 on sale
Serving: 1/5 Pizza, 4.6oz.
Calories: 230 per serving
Fat: 9%, 6g
Cholesterol: 3%, 10mg
Sodium: 21%, 510mg
Protein: 13g
Carbohydrates: 10%, 31g
Fiber: 16%, 4g
Weight Watchers Points: 4 Points

Tombstone says: Nothing, really, but it makes a point of pointing out that this pizza has half the fat of other meatless frozen pizzas. And apparently it’s a good source of calcium (20% DV, not shabby).

Andrew says: The only pizzas this site has reviewed before, I believe, are Kashi pizzas and Amy’s Kitchen pizzas, so rather than shock the system with some cheese bomb pizza, I thought I’d give Tombstone’s light pizza option a try. Also, it was on sale.

When I was a tot, I abhored Tombstone and other frozen pizzas. Back in my day (the late 80s), Pizza Hut had yet to become crap pizza with far too much oil, and thus was a wonderful dining experience. Compared to the old hand-tossed or pan pizzas at Pizza Hut, frozen pizzas had no flavor and no body.

But then, in the last several years (read: college), I acquired a taste for frozen pizzas. Thin-crust, rising crust, stuffed crust, it was all good, and it was relatively cheap. Among the “cheap” brands, Tombstone took the top spot in my heart for its wide variety of toppings and crust styles. To this day, the Tombstone BBQ Chicken is one of my favorite frozen foods of all time.

I’d never bothered to try the light ones because I’m already pretty svelte, but the toppings on this vegetable pizza (including broccoli! green onions! red bell peppers! black olives!) struck me as a potentially interesting and different pizza experience.

And it was! I’m not exactly sure what they did to the traditional Tombstone pizza to make it qualify as Light, but I did notice the crust was a bit more crackery, which is no big deal to me. Other than that, the onions and olives played nicely with the peppers and mushrooms and … whatever else was in there. I especially liked the fresh onion flavor of the green onions. It wasn’t an overpowering onion flavor like some other onions I’ve had on pizza. And the cheese was plentiful enough to cover the pizza and didn’t peel off in one sheet like some cheap pizzas.

My main complaint with the pizza is that, other than the onions, it is a bit light on the flavor. I generally sprinkle my frozen pizzas with crushed red pepper stuff to spice it up, and this pizza benefited greatly from that. You can get pizza-style spices at any grocery store for cheap, so if you’re not already augmenting your frozen pizzas with sprinkled spices, you should be soon. And if you’re counting calories, you can start with this pizza.

Price: $2.99, 10 packets (cheap!)
Serving: 1 packet, 3oz.
I make mine with half a cup of skim milk, this is reflected in the nutrition information below
Calories: 200 per serving
Fat: 3%, 2g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 13%, 312mg
Protein: 11g
Carbohydrates: 13%, 38g
Fiber: 12%, 3g
Sugar: 13g
Weight Watchers Points: 4 Points

McCann says: Made with All Natural Flavors

Abi says: The best microwave oatmeal ever. Ever. I buy this stuff at Trader Joe’s and fall into a deep depression whenever a cold morning rolls around and I have neither McCann’s instant oatmeal nor coffee. You don’t want to see me on mornings like that. You should feel sorry for George on mornings like that.

This oatmeal is sweet, but does not taste ultra-sugary even though it contains exactly the same amount of sugar as just about every other oatmeal on the market. Seriously, it is about 1/4 sugar, which is why I’ve knocked it down to four stars. Yeah, the deliciously perfect for oatmeal flavors of Maple and Brown Sugar translate to sugar and sugar, but don’t think about that too much and you’ll be okay.

Another reason why this is not a five star item? The milk requirement. I suppose that I probably could make this oatmeal with water, but contrary to the front of the box, the back of the package (where the cooking instructions reside) recommends making it with milk. So I make it with milk. This keeps the oatmeal firmly in ‘at home’ territory. Milk is not office friendly, not just because you shouldn’t be using a half cup of the milk expressly for coffee for your oatmeal, but because there’s something a little sketchy about community milk. It just hangs out in the fridge all day collecting off flavors from coworkers’ leftovers. And who knows how long that pad thai’s been sitting on the shelf.

Price: $2.59
Serving: 1 muffin, 2.5oz.
Calories: 190
Fat: 3%, 2g
Sodium: 13%, 320mg
Protein: 4g
Carbs: 13%, 39g
Sugar: 21g
Fiber: 8%, 2g
Weight Watchers Points: 4 Points

Smart Ones says: Never skip breakfast again with a rich chocolate muffin, made even more decadent with melted chocolate chips inside.

Abi says: There’s a Krispy Kreme doughnut place on the south side of DC’s Dupont Circle, a location approximately a block north of of my former workplace. They don’t make doughnuts there, they just glaze and fill them. The glaze appears to be a constantly recycled vat of Elmer’s glue. Don’t think about this too much, it is sort of gross.

So, heeding my health and reader requests for more Smart Ones reviews, I picked up a two-pack of Smart Ones chocolate muffins. I also bought a couple of desserts (Key Lime Pie and some S’mores looking thing, but I’m sort of scared to try those).

First impressions of the frozen muffin were promising. Unable to wait an entire hour for the defrosting period to elapse, I opted for the microwave thaw option. This also meant that I’d have melty chocolate chips and if there’s one thing I adore in the morning, it is melty chocolate chips. Too bad this 4 point muffin got my hopes so high.

Smart Ones Chocolate Chip Muffins aren’t a smart substitute for doughnuts. Just like a doughnut, one of these muffins left me feeling empty and yearning for just a bit more breakfast. Sure, they’re chocolatey, but they’re full of a whole lot of nothing.

They’re so full of nothing that they’ll completely fall apart in your hands as you desperately try to keep muffin bits from falling all over your cubicle. And then, because little bits of chocolatey fake muffin are deadly to computers, you’ll have to go get out the Windex and really, who wants to smell Windex at 9am?

If you’re looking to eat something chocolatey, buy a bag of mini chocolate chips, some brown sugar and a box of trustworthy oatmeal. I prefer McCann’s, but you may have some other favorite brand. Make the oatmeal in the microwave (yes, Instant Irish Oatmeal), toss in a spoonful of brown sugar and a half-handful of mini chocolate chips. Now you’ve got a chocolatey breakfast that won’t leave your stomach begging for satiety.

FYI, if you’re doing a Google Image search for “Brown Sugar”, I highly recommend turning on the ‘SafeSearch’ option. Also, the title of this product is not a typo, it really does say “Chocolate Chocolate” on the box.