Over 10 years ago, both my grandfather and my dad went into surgery to have their gallbladders removed each within a month of each other. Perhaps, all the years of fried foods and other poor food choices caught up with them. While my family does not know the reason for their surgeries, we do know that they were both faced with invasive surgeries in addition to high blood pressure problems.
Since that time, my grandmother and mom went on a crusade to introduce diet foods in the house, while I was still a 9 year old child. I’ve been eating diet foods ever since that time not because they taste good, but simply out of habit.
In my family, sugar was substituted with Sweet N Low. Real butter was substituted with margarine and later Fleishmann’s and Smart Balance. These habits are so ingrained in me, that I feel awkward, if I were to actually bring real sugar and real margarine in my house.
Even the microwaveable foods I buy all are diet in some shape or form. Although I don’t have a weight problem, I can’t help myself.
It’s not an unusual experience for grocery cashiers to scan 10 Lean Cuisine dinners and give me the side glance, when I top it off with 1 package of chocolate chip cookies, which take me over a month to eat, because I snack on one per day.
Along the way, I learned that certain diet meals just plain taste good. Based on years of eating diet foods, here are the top 5 of the best tasting diet foods for the weight conscious individual starting with dessert first:
Weight Watcher’s/Whitman’s Double Chocolate Mousse Candy: The Double Chocolate Mousse candies can be found at your local Walmart. I found these last year while walking down the candy isle of Walmart store. With 1 Weight Watcher’s point for those who follow the system, these double dark chocolate morsel’s are the closest that one can get to a chocolate mousse without actually going to a restaurant. Russell Stover’s has a comparable Chocolate Truffle, but it has lighter milk chocolate and less flavorful to some.
Smart Ones Melted Chocolate Cake: Chocolate cake serves as the bane of most diets. Yet, SmartOnes found a way to give dieters guilt-free chocolate cake for 150 calories without sacrificing tastes. This is one of the best desserts ever.
Lean Cuisine’s Lemon Pepper Fish: This vegetarian option offers a rice medley filled with broccoli, red peppers, herbs, a hint of parmesan cheese in a light lemon sauce. The fish is Alaskan Pollock finely breaded in bread crumbs. At 330 calories and 8 grams of fat, this meal is all taste with no regrets to your waistline as long as you don’t overindulge during the day. Healthy choice also offers a lemon pepper fish which includes an apple crisp dessert and 310 calories. However, the Healthy Choice lemon pepper fish does not always stay as crisp as the Lean Cuisine version and it lacks the riccatta cheese rice medley.
Healthy Choice Sweet and Sour Chicken: Can you say low-calorie Chinese takeout? The key ingredient in this microwaveable diet dish is the portion control. Like regular Sweet and Sour Chicken, Healthy Choice captures the authentic taste of the Asian American staple and adds a peach crisp dessert.
Trader Joe’s BBQ Chicken Teriyaki plus Healthy Sides: If you’re up to a little more effort, pick up a bag of Trader Joe’s BBQ Chicken Teriyaki and measure out 1 cup or 1 servings worth of chicken. Heat in a microwave. Then, voila! This dish makes the perfect main course meal, if you add a side of brown rice to it with baby spinach.
Microwaveable diet food and diet snacks do not have to be completely tasteless and disgusting. For those transitioning in the early stages of healthy eating and perhaps, weight loss, these microwaveable meals provide fast food for lazy cooks without the heavy calorie count. In comparison to traditional fast food, microwaveable options are certainly a better alternative.
Sources:
Haku, “Nutrition Facts.” FatSecret: All Things Food and Diet.
Bridgitte Williams, “A Review of Stouffers Lemon Pepper Fish.” Associated Content.
Jami Floyd, ” Can Fast Food be Lean Cuisine?” ABC News
