Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Lunch ladies: Grocery favorites
Looking back
on lunches past
The Lunch Ladies have reviewed hundreds of items from the grocery store aisles. In fact, thinking of how many frozen dinners we've eaten makes us a little queasy. However, some of those meals stood above the rest and were awarded the illustrious five lunch bag rating. Looking back, it's possible that we were generous with some of these because we were having a good hair day, but whatever the reason, these meals were deemed worthy. To help make shopping easy for you, we've compiled a list of our five-baggers. Enjoy — and don't say we never did anything for you.
BEVERAGES
Diet Cherry Coke: It lacked the red fizz of the Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, but was the best-tasting of the flavored diet sodas.
Minute Maid Light (all flavors): These non-carbonated drinks were more like fruit-juice beverages than sodas. The flavors were strong and unique, and they had only 10 calories per serving.
Nestle Rich Chocolate Cocoa: Richer than the rest we tried — perhaps because it's made by the chocolate experts. This brand also had the best packaging.
BREAKFAST
Lean Pockets Bacon, Egg & Cheese: The best part was that these were completely heated in just one minute!
Weight Watchers Smart Ones English Muffin Sandwich: This was a winner — the ham was perfect, the muffin was soft and the cheese gave just the right taste.
LUNCH
Amy's Mattar Paneer: Looked and smelled like the real deal, from the basmati rice with little flecks of veggies to the chunks of paneer (cheese).
Kraft It's Pasta Any Time, Penne with Tomato Italian Sausage-Flavor Sauce: The noodles were the perfect texture straight out of the bag, and the spicy tomato sauce went perfectly with the penne.
Lean Cuisine Crispy Crust Pizzas (all flavors): A big improvement over Lean Cuisine's original French bread pizzas.
Lean Cuisine Three Meat Deep Dish Pizza: A hearty-sized pizza with flavorful toppings. Are they sure this is healthy?
Lean Pockets Pepperoni Pizza: Well, by now one thing should be obvious — the Lunch Ladies love pizza. Even in a pocket.
Life Choice Beef Pot Roast with Green Beans and Red Peppers: These portions were big! With some beef meals, you only get a few pieces of meat, but this one had a lot.
Michelina's Lean Gourmet Five Cheese Pizza: Surprise, surprise — more pizza! This one hooked us with its gobs of cheese.
ICE CREAM
Healthy Choice Caramel Swirl Ice Cream Sandwich: The uniqueness of the caramel won us over.
Klondike Slim-a-Bear 98% Fat Free Sandwiches: We didn't miss the fat one bit. The chocolate sandwich was far better than any of the other brands. It was our ultimate favorite.
Silhouette "Skinny Cow" Low Fat Ice Cream Sandwich (vanilla): The ice cream was really creamy. If you use your imagination, it's like you're eating cookies and cream.
— The Lunch Ladies dish about healthy dining options for the workplace every other week.
Visit The Dallas Morning News online.





