healthy living Archives - Page 10 of 10

Sep 10, 2010

Review: Healthy Choice’s New Steaming Entrees

Many of you know that in July I agreed to take on the Healthy Choice Better for BlogHer Challenge, replacing one meal a day with a Healthy Choice entree. (Which has been an incredible success – I feel great, I’m looking better and better, and I’ve lost 7 pounds!) While I was at BlogHer, I was given the opportunity to have lunch with Healthy Choice representatives and learn more about the new steaming entrees that were just introduced last month. It wasn’t until I got home, though, that I really had the chance to try them out.

The new steaming entrees utilize a special steam film that creates a simple and fast way to cook a delicious, fresh-tasting meal. The steaming process locks in the steam to create an ideal amount of pressure while cooking, and does not require poking any holes in the film or stirring halfway through. Cooking time is about four minutes for most meals, making it an easy choice for a quick lunch – take it out of the box, toss it in the microwave, and a few minutes later enjoy a yummy meal. The less work I have to do, the better!

While the steaming process is cool, what I really like is the food itself. The vegetables are large and vibrant in color, looking like they were just picked yesterday. These aren’t your old frozen meals where the veggies are chopped so small you can’t be sure what they are. These are big cuts of vegetables, like whole cherry tomatoes and big stalks of asparagus. The meats are equally large, with whole shrimp and generous chunks of chicken. There’s also no filler – just healthy, simple ingredients. It’s total truth in advertising – what you see on the package photo is what you get.

There are eight new steaming meals, and I’ve tried five of them so far. I’ve loved all but one of them – and the one I didn’t like was simply because the flavor wasn’t bold enough for me (and I like strong flavors). My favorite has to be the Honey Balsamic Chicken – if you only try one, make it this one! The meat is tender, the vegetables are crisp, and the flavor of the sauce is fantastic. I bring this one to work with me at least twice a week.

All of the meals have a suggested retail price range of $2.00-2.79. The meals also range from 170-320 calories each, all with no more than 600mg (25% daily recommended value) of sodium. They’re also certified by the American Heart Association.

Want to try them for yourself?

I have a coupon for a free Healthy Choice frozen meal to give to three lucky readers! To enter, just take a look at the eight new steaming entrees and then leave a comment below telling me which one you’d like to try first. Comments will be open until 11:59pm eastern time on September 17, 2010. Don’t forget to leave an e-mail address so I can contact you if you win. One entry per person.

Three winners will be selected at random after the giveaway ends. US residents only. (Sorry, Canada!) Good luck!

Full disclosure: Healthy Choice provided me with samples of the new steaming entrees to facilitate my review as well as the three coupons for the giveaway. I am also participating in their Better for BlogHer Challenge where I was provided with free meals and compensation for my time. All reviews are my honest opinions, and I never lie where food is concerned.

Filed Under: food, reviews · Tagged: better for blogher

Jul 9, 2010

Losing My Hind

By Christina ·

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook may know that I started working out again. And while I had a blast with Hot by BlogHer last year, I wanted to create a more year-round space to document my attempts at good health and losing weight. I haven’t said much about it yet because I wasn’t exactly posting much, and was fighting with myself over how much I wanted to share. Truth is, I need to share this kind of stuff – it helps me keep going.

So if you like reading about more than my two adorable children, be sure to check out Losing My Hind. There’s even a juicy new post today about what a head case I am when it comes to physical activity.

Filed Under: clearly insane, healthy living, me me me ·

Jun 28, 2010

Local, Healthy, Yummy

By Christina ·

This year we decided to be wild and crazy and join a CSA. What’s a CSA, you ask? Well, you could click the link that explains it, or I could just tell you that it’s like buying a share of a local farm. You pay your set price for a share of the farm, helping the farm cover operating expenses, and in return you get a share of the harvest from that farm.

Every week we get new and delicious vegetables delivered to our door. I’ll admit – I’m not much of a vegetable expert, and occasionally I find something green in the cooler that I don’t recognize. But most of the time I get excited to peek in the cooler, seeing a vegetable I wouldn’t have ever thought of buying, but something I know I like.

This is what greeted me the first week:

And this week, when I checked to see what the produce fairy had left on my doorstep, I squealed as I spied several ears of sweet corn and a green pepper, along with some lettuce, green onions and spinach.

So far I’m loving our CSA. It’s giving me a reason to eat more vegetables – I’ve had corn two nights in a row now, and will likely have it tonight as well – and we’re helping to support a local farm. We know where our food came from, we know how they grow it, and we can visit the farm any day we want to. And our food doesn’t have to travel long distances to reach us, reducing the amount of energy required to transport it.

If you have a CSA in your area, I highly recommend looking into it. If not, or if you can’t commit to that amount of produce, find a farmer’s market nearby and search for local fruits and vegetables on a per-week basis. I can’t guarantee it’ll make your kids want to eat their vegetables any more than they do now, but it might get them a little more excited about learning about where their food comes from.