Holy Cow, Marie!

I eat the Healthy Choice meals if I ever eat anything frozen. Some of the dishes are even below 300 calories. You just have to watch out for the sodium.

thanks for making me laugh this morning, that is incredible.

Thanks

This just goes to show : Always, always read labels!

Thanks for the ideas. Alas, we don't have Safeway (or Randall's or any of the other names it goes by here). I'll have to take a look at some of the healthy choice meals for those lazy days.

Maybe soon I'll be out of the funk enough that I can cook a couple of things in small batches and have one meal and two meals left over instead of a 'big' pot of something like chili that ends up with us eating chili every day for a week.

If you're looking for the pre-made stuff, check out the Healthy Choice steamers. For being processed pre-prepared food, they actually have pretty good stats, like usually around 500-600g of sodium, and have lower fat and calories. Get the ones w/ meat in them so you get a better amount of protein (vs the ones that are just pasta and veggies).

Low sodium diet was difficult for me because of the bland taste. I found a few no sodium salt substitutes that over time has satisfied my need for the salt taste. I am going to check out the great sounding solution from Safeway. Thanks , Lorrie.

Safeway store has a line called Eating Right with frozen healthy meals. They all are around 300-400 calories, and vary on the focus of protien, fiber but all are fairly low sodium.

I've been using the Diabetes Management SparkPeople meal plan. They all focus a limited carb and very low sodium. I've been cooking some of the meals in advance and freezing them myself. Its working pretty well.

I wish you the best!

Lorrie

Have you checked out the spark recipes section ? If not, start there. Chef Meg as well as many members have posted thousands of healthy and great tasting recipes.

recipes.sparkpeople.com/home.asp

This is Chef Meg's version of chicken pot pie.

recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?
recipe=716237

That's just one example of the different recipes you could cook at home. If you don't have an oven buy a slow cooker (crock pot). Slow cookers are a great way to make healthy meals at home.

So I'd been in a big, huge, deep depressive funk for awhile. I used to love baking and cooking but I didn't even want to do that (let alone do the dishes). For awhile, it was take out 3 nights a week, and I thought "Hey. I should save some money and at least buy some quick frozen meals. That'll be better than fast food hamburgers.." YEAH RIGHT!

I just read the nutrition label for Marie Callender's new "Cheesy Chicken & Bacon" pot pies. 520 calories, 31g, of fat, 43g of carbs and 740mg of sodium... for HALF the pot pie? Really, Marie? And who eats half of a pot pie? That makes the whole thing 1040 calories, 62g of fat, 86g f carbs, and 1420mg of sodium.

To put that in perspective? That's more calories and fat (but less sodium, though not by much) than a Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger from Jack in the Box. 907 calories, 55g of fat, 44g of carbs and 2140mg of sodium.

So... anyone have ideas for lower-sodium and lower-carb (no rice or pasta-based) quick/frozen meals for the days I just can't cook? I have a TINY (apartment sized) freezer that's half taken up by an automatic ice maker. Cooking several big dishes when I am in the mood to cook and stocking them away isn't TOO much of a real option. Everything seems to be just loaded in sodium - it's ridiculous!