Are you aware that the company Lean Cuisine has a product recall for three of their frozen entrees? If you enjoy Lean Cuisine you may want to check your freezer to see if you have one of these three:

Lean Cuisine Pesto Chicken with Bow Tie

Lean Cuisine Chicken Mediterranean

Lean Cuisine Chicken Tuscan

These particular chicken meals may contain pieces of hard blue plastic. You can read more about the product recall and get the production codes to look for at the Web MD site.

Food production on a large scale is not easy. There is the potential for so many things to go wrong. I worked in Quality Assurance for a small food company many years ago and I can honestly say that despite rigorous procedures and care, things happen. It’s a wonder that we don’t have more product recalls than we do.

Lean Cuisine offers reasonably healthy and nutritionally balanced pre-prepared meals. I am not affiliated with the company in any way. Nor do I recommend depending on frozen entrees or any other packaged meals on a regular basis. Home-prepared meals from fresh whole foods are best. (In addition, there are the questions of environmental impact and social justice but that’s another discussion.) I do eat frozen entrees from time to time like most everyone else.

I particularly like some of the Spa Cuisine choices because they seem to have more added fruits and vegetables than the others. Lean Cuisine has partnered with the non-profit organization Fruits and Veggies: More Matters. I agree, fruits and vegetables are very important!

The Lean Cuisine website and Fruit and Veggies site offer some resources you might find helpful in your efforts to eat low calorie healthy meals.

Lean Cuisine:

You can download a PDF version of nutritional information for Lean Cuisine products. With the included chart you can get a better sense of which meals might fit best with your diet. Trying to keep your carb or fat grams down to a certain amount? Or maybe you need to watch your intake of saturated fat like me. Well now there’s no need to stand at the frozen food case at the grocers reading one Nutrition Facts label after another. (To learn how many grams of fat or carbohydrate you need on a 1200 or 1500 calorie diet you may want to read: 1200 Calorie Diet: Protein, Carbohydrate, Fat, and Fiber Needs)

Lean Cuisine Products: Nutrition Information (Look for Wellness Tools then Nutrition Information. It is only available as a download.)

Fruit and Veggies: More Matters

1. This organization provides lists of what fruits and vegetables are available by season. Very nice! This can be quite useful when you are planning meals for the week but you can’t remember if it is the right season for a certain fresh fruit or vegetable.

Fruits and Vegetables: Availability by Season

(Be sure to check my lists on the Women and Weight Website for which fruits and vegetables are your best bets as far as calories and fiber content:

Fall Fruits and Vegetables: Low Calorie and High Fiber

Low Calorie, High Fiber Winter Fruits and Vegetables

High Fiber, Low Calorie Spring Fruits and Vegetables

Low Calorie, High Fiber Summer Fruits and Vegetables

2. Something else you might want to explore is the recipe section for the Fruit and Veggies site. I spent a few minutes looking around and found some recipes I’d like to try! The calorie counts for certain recipes seems to be reasonable but do pay attention to the serving size.

Fruits and Veggies: More Matters - Recipes

There’s also a menu choice (see the sidebar on the right) that offers recipes that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less.

If you would like more information on sites that offer healthy recipes or where to go to get nutrition information you may want to check out two of my previous review articles:

Healthy Low Calorie Recipes: 8 Super Sites to See

Nutrition Calculators: Review of the Best Sites Online

Till next time, watch those calories and remember to eat healthy!

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a new 1200 Calorie Sample Menu. Many younger women do not get enough iron in their every day diet. Obtaining enough iron on a low calorie diet is especially difficult. However, this menu will provide you with plenty of iron.

If you are over 51 or otherwise don’t need a lot of iron, you can easily adjust the total iron by changing a few of the menu choices. I’ve provided you with the iron count so that you can substitute other foods.

The cereal I selected for this menu has 8.1 mg of iron for a 3/4 cup serving. There are other cold cereals with significantly more iron but I intentionally stayed away from those because the day’s menu includes other iron-rich foods. Your body will absorb more of the iron if smaller amounts are consumed throughout the day.

Also, eating iron-rich foods along with a good dietary source of Vitamin C will aid the absorption of iron. For breakfast that source of Vitamin C is the orange juice. For lunch it is the tomato slices. And for supper it is the broccoli.

In addition to iron, this menu offers plenty of fiber. The recommended dietary fiber count for women between the ages of 19 and 51 is 25 g of fiber. For women over the age of 51 the recommended amount is 21 grams of fiber.

Sample Menu for 1200 Calories #14

Breakfast

3/4 cup Crunchy Corn Bran cereal (Quaker - 90 calories, 8.1 mg iron, 5 g)

4 oz. Skim Milk

4 oz. Orange Juice (56 calories)

1 Egg - Hard-boiled

Snack

6 oz. Yogurt - Creamy Raspberry Light n’ Fit (100 calories)

Lunch

6 Tbsp Hummus - 100 calories, (1.4 mg iron)

4 Slices Tomato

6 leaves Red Leaf Lettuce - (1.2 mg iron)

2 Slices Flax & Fiber Bread (Arnold, 160 calories, 5.4 mg iron)

water, unsweetened tea or coffee

Snack

1 medium apple with skin

1 cubic inch Low Fat Mozzarella (55 calories)

Supper

3 oz. Chicken Breast Roasted - (.9 mg iron)

1 small baked potato (138 calories, 1.6 mg iron)

Image via Wikipedia

1/2 cup Broccoli steamed

2 tsp. Light Butter with Canola Oil (Land O’ Lakes, 33 calories)

water, unsweetened tea or coffee

(Always remember to drink plenty of water throughout the day.)

Total Calories = 1216

Total Fiber = 32.5 g

Fat = 19%

Carbs = 58%

Protein = 24%

Calcium = 1101 mg (Women between 19 and 50 years need approximately 1,000 mg a day, 51+ need 1,200 + mg a day)

Iron = 21.1 mg (Women 19 to 50 years need 18 mg of iron, 51+ need 8 mg)

1500 Calorie Diet Menu

Modify the 1200 Calorie Diet Menu to fit your needs. Other than coming up a little short on calcium for women over 51, this is a healthy well-balanced menu. You can increase the total calories to 1500 by choosing larger portion sizes for any of the foods in the menu. Or you can add additional foods.

Till next time, remember to watch your calorie intake and stay healthy!