Product Review: Smart Ones Pasta with Ricotta & Spinach

As I have mentioned before, I'm kind of lazy. Also, I find cooking really stressful (I love to bake, which is not as helpful right now). In fact, in our house, my husband cooks, and I do the dishes and the laundry. So, if I can take a frozen meal to work for lunch, I'm good to go. I know that this is not as healthy as preparing fresh food, but right now I'm just trying to get into a pattern of eating more reasonable servings. Where I work, we like to go out for lunch frequently, and our favorites are Noodles and Carbones pizza. This is my alternative plan.

Today I tried Smart Ones Pasta with Ricotta & Spinach (see nutrition information here). This is apparently a new flavor. I think that the sauce was tasty, if a little bland, and the noodles had a nice texture, but the amount of spinach was laughable. See the box cover above, with all that green? That was nowhere to be found in my dish. Seriously, the spinach was speck sized. My co-worker Vickie looked and commented, "If you bought that for the spinach, you were ripped off!" Nevertheless, it was a passable lunch, and I ate lots of blueberries for dessert to improve the experience. Maybe I will buy it again. We'll see.

Product Review: Fage Greek Yogurt

A splendid new discovery for me is Fage (pronounced "Fa-Yeh") Total 2% yogurt. I love it! It is available plain or with honey, peach, strawberry or cherry.

I am eating this for breakfast, part of lunch or a snack and it is helping to satisfy my sweet tooth. My history with yogurt is that sometimes I'm really in the mood for it, and I'll go on a streak of wanting it all the time, and then suddenly it is unappealing to me and I have to wait until it seems attractive again. I don't like the soft consistency of most yogurts, period. Until now, my yogurt of choice has been either Yoplait Thick & Creamy yogurt strawberry (190 calories & 7 grams of protein for 6 oz according to their website) or lemon flavors or Yoplait Whips! Strawberry Mist or Orange Cream (140 cal & 5 grams protein for 4 oz). The chocolate flavor tasted like another mysterious fruit, but not like chocolate, so I just couldn't warm to it.

I am hoping to have a more consistent relationship with Fage. One thing I like is the texture, which is thick like sour cream. The plain yogurt is tangy and when you add in the sweet stuff, it tastes like a little dessert. My husband thinks that it is like cheesecake. I wouldn't go that far, but it is yummy. Fage honey has 180 calories & 10 grams protein in 5.3 oz. The fruit flavors in the same size carton have 130 cal. & 11 grams protein. You can find more nutritional info here.



Picture courtesy of Bite of the Best