Price: $2.25
Serving: 4.5 oz.or 1 sandwich
Calories: 270 per serving
Fat: 12%, 8g
Cholesterol: 10%, 30mg
Sodium: 23%, 560mg
Protein: 13g
Carbohydrates: 13%, 38g
Fiber: 12%, 3g
Sugar: 9g
Weight Watchers Points: 5 per pocket

Lean Pockets says: New from Lean Pockets brand – chef inspired flavors combined with the goodness of whole grain. A delicious combination of grilled chicken, mozzarella, parmesan, and fontina cheeses with a creamy garlic sauce are wrapped inside a crisp whole grain crust sprinkled with herbs and cheeses. Lean Pockets brand Made with Whole Grain contains the same amount of whole grain as one slice of whole grain bread. Feel good about eating on the go!

Angela says: Garlic Chicken White Pizza is by far my favorite flavor of Lean Pockets, although that isn’t saying much, considering how much I detest the other varieties I have tried, such as the meatball and mozzarella and pepperoni pizza.

First off, every time I microwave these, they explode and leak their insides all over the plate. If I somehow manage to avoid exploding them, it means that I didn’t microwave them enough, and they are cold or only lukewarm in the middle. The crisping sleeve, in my opinion, is worthless for these Lean Pockets, because it in no way crisps the product. The crust, although flavorful because of the herbs and cheeses, was not crisp at all. It was chewy and had a definite whole grain flavor to it. While I appreciate the addition of whole grains because of their nutritional value, I don’t necessarily enjoy the flavor the unpleasant aftertaste they add to the pocket.

The filling definitely had a lot of garlic in it, which was just fine by me. I love garlic. Unfortunately, it also tended to have the texture of and closely resembled very thick, white glue. There was some stringy cheese, which helped, but it was mostly the thick, white, garlicky paste. What chicken I managed to find was not bad and had the texture of real chicken; however, the garlic cheese flavor completely overwhelmed the chicken, and thus I only noticed the texture. There was definitely not the amount of chicken in the pocket pictured on the front of the package.

If you are watching your diet, these Lean Pockets aren’t bad, considering they contain mostly cheese/white paste. The sodium content is modest, at 560mg, and there are only 270 calories in one pocket. I microwaved two of these for lunch and had trouble finishing the second one, so I assume one pocket would make a filling lunch for most people, perhaps paired with a cup of soup or a small salad.

I only paid $2.25 for a box of two, so Lean Pockets are nice for a quick, filling meal if they are on sale. They don’t taste good enough that I would buy them regularly. If you enjoy other Lean Pocket flavors and love garlic, you might want to give these a try.

Price: $3.00/3 for $9 at Giant Eagle (note if not US dollars)
Serving: 170 oz.
Calories: 310 per serving
Fat: 7%, 4.5g
Cholesterol: 3%, 10mg
Sodium: 25%, 600mg
Protein: 23g
Carbohydrates: 14%, 42g
Fiber: 24%, 6g
Sugar: 3g
Weight Watchers Points: 6 Points

Healthy Choice says: No Fat & Reduced Fat Mozzarella, Reduced Fat Provolone Cheeses, Diced Tomatoes, Roasted Peppers & Onions, Spinach with Creamy Basil Sauce, on Italian Bread. We at Healthy Choice prepare panini that meet the highest quality and nutritional standards. Our deliciously crispy panini are specially prepared to ensure you’ll enjoy what you’re eating and feel good about it too.

Gayle says: Last summer, as a result of our credit card company’s “Gifts for Debt!” rewards program, my husband and I found ourselves to be the proud owners of a panini press. As someone who hates unnecessary appliances crowding her countertop, I was kind of skeptical of the press (which gets BOILING LAVA HOT when plugged in)…but then I made a tomato, basil & mozzarella panini (with tomatoes and basil from our garden), and lo, the heavens split open and glorious melted cheese spilled forth. Seriously. It was that good.

Having eaten frozen entrees for lunch throughout my nine (nine?!) years in the working world, I really should know better than to compare real-world food with its flash-frozen counterparts, but ever since my regular grocery store stopped carrying my beloved [roof-of-mouth burning, crust-like-rock having] Healthy Choice French bread pizzas, I’ve been looking for a substantial, bread-y alternative. And so I sunk three bucks into the Tomato Basil panini.

As soon as I opened the package, it was obvious that this was no panini of mine. For one, there seemed to be a lot of excess ingredients (Roasted peppers? Onions? Spinach? What?), and the tomato portion of the sandwich was scattered across the cheese like little cubes of frozen confetti. Perhaps this is what it looks like when Rip Taylor* makes a panini?

I was also more than a little unsure about how the bread part of the equation would turn out – especially because Healthy Choice insists on scoring the outside of the bread with those weird, fake-tan grill marks – but after cooking (excuse me, grilling) the panini open-face style for the full recommended 2 minutes and 45 seconds, I was pleasantly surprised.

The panini…looked like a panini. The bread was thick and substantial, the cheese melted nicely, and co-workers commented on the lovely smells emanating from the microwave. When I put the two halves of the sandwich together, it actually looked like something I’d pay five bucks for at the deli down the street. Pretty impressive. I ended up eating the panini one side at a time, though, because I ate at my desk and didn’t want someone walking up to me as I was doing that ultra-feminine, jaw-popping, taking-a-bite-of-big-sandwich grimace. You understand, right?

The bread crisped nicely in the microwave, but the further I got away from the crust, it got a little soggy. Maybe it was the addition of all those extra ingredients, but the tomato & cheese area was watery, so juice-filled that the excess liquid dripped off the side of the bread onto my long-suffering keyboard. The sandwich itself was a little bland (How can that be?! There is so much SODIUM in this thing!), and could have used some red pepper flakes to pep it up, but it had one huge advantage over most microwave meals: it was filling. When I finished, I didn’t feel the immediate need to scavenge my desk drawers for stray crackers; I actually felt satisfied. And while the panini lacked that signature fresh tomato and basil taste (Why so many extra ingredients? Why a “creamy basil sauce” instead of just basil? WHY?), it was still warm, cheesy, starchy, and substantial enough to get me through the afternoon.

*For those of you who haven’t heard of Rip Taylor, here’s a video of him on Youtube.

Price: $2.79 (on sale)
Serving: 12 oz.
Calories: 280 per serving
Fat: 11%, 7g
Cholesterol: 10%, 30mg
Sodium: 27%, 650mg
Protein: 21g
Carbohydrates: 11%, 33g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Sugar: 11g
Weight Watchers Points: 5 Points

Lean Cuisine says: Beef rib tips with roasted red skin potatoes and green beans.

Chavi says: Most of the time, I run — afraid and disgusted — in the best direction away from frozen beef entrees. I grew up with tire-like steaks and dry meatloafs, and these were homemade, not even of the frozen variety. I shy away from meat-and-potatoes style frozen entrees because being a Midwesterner, I got my fill very early on. But there I was shopping the on-sale Lean Cuisines and for some unknown reason, I picked up two beef-style entrees: one was “meatloaf” and one was steak tips (I don’t even know what part of the cow the “tip” comes from). My picks are usually based on point content (I never buy any frozen meal over 5 or 6 points), but the beef was singing to me. Mooing, perhaps, a gravy-flavored melody.

So earlier this week I downed the entire meatloaf entree without vomiting, which was both shocking and impressive. I was busy Twittering about it because, well, let’s just say that the “meatloaf” had fake grill marks and looked as if someone had sneezed all over it. So I packed the steak tips entree today, feeling less than stoked about it. I was reluctant to even cook it (the trash looked cozy), but being semi-poor these days, I needed to get my money’s worth. And my reaction to this beefed up Lean Cuisine concoction?

Holy beef tips, Batman. This is probably THE most delicious Lean Cuisine I’ve had in months, if not ever. I’m not even a regular beef eater, and my skepticism had me expecting to hate it no matter how good it really was, but this is one of Lean Cuisine’s true winners in the frozen food contest. I think the real boon to the meal is the fact that the steak tips and potatoes are swimming in this gravy-like sauce that has what appears to be peppers and some other vegetables. The sauce was perfect, leaving that light spicy aftertaste with every bite, offering the perfect twist to what could have been the world’s most bland meat-and-taters-style food fest. The beef was not dry or rubbery, and it soaked up the taste of the sauce, making for a flavorful bite each time. The green beans, cut in a weird shaved, yet appetizing way, also were surprisingly delicious and didn’t even need to be doused in salt or pepper.

The only downfall to this boxed beast? It’s purely cosmetic: The box cover is a little misleading, as the potatoes are in the same area as the steak tips (read: coated in the gooey sauce/gravy), but true to the box, the green beans are entirely separate in their own space.

At only 5 Weight Watchers points, I’m mystified as to how they packed so much flavor, actual food, and healthful ingredients into such a low-points meal. It’s probably because the beef was actually “seasoned cooked beef product” and the delicious gravy/sauce was actually derived from a complicated “brown sauce flavor,” but I’ll take what I can get — as long as it doesn’t kill me.

Today is the last day that you can enter to win one of the many, many fantastic prizes donated by food bloggers from all over the world. Heat Eat Review is giving away $100 worth if fine blue cheese (prize code UW08), but if artisan cheese isn’t your thing there are still plenty of great items to choose from on the Prize List at Chez Pim.

For those of you who have already purchased raffle tickets, good luck and thank you for helping farmers in Lesotho become independent food producers.