Lean Cusine meals - quality?

Hi All,

I have never eaten Lean Cuisine meals (with the exception of theird pizza, which is pretty good), but they were on sale at the grocery store last week so I picked up a couple for lunch at work. I had the honey dijon chicken w/ green beans yesterday and was VERY disappointed. The chicken was swimming in entirely too much sauce and of the 8 or so chunks of chicken, I had to spit 3 of them out because they were gristly fat instead of meat! I was pretty mad and emailed the company, but haven't heard back as of yet.

Has anyone else had this kind of problem with their meals? I don't know if I want to eat the rest of the ones in my freezer!

And as a follow-up question: do the cals in those meals indicate what you would take in if you ate every bit of the meal? Including all of the sauce? Just wondering because I hardly ate any of the sauce so I would think that a 1/2 cup of green beans and about 5 chunks of chicken would =/= 200cal and 7g fat. Dunno ...

Some of the meals are good.....and some not so good, sounds like you got one of the latter.  They are all a question of taste. 

I would suggest trying different kinds and you'll find the ones that appeal to you.  Personally, I like the pizza, the panninis, and the bowls.  Some of the others have too much sauce and can seem a little greasy (like you said).

The nutritional info listed on the package is for the entire contents, so you could subtract some calories if you were inclined to do so.

Hope this helps! :)

the pizzas are definetly awesome, the vegetable eggroll is good, i LOVE the chicken in peanut sauce, and  sesame chicken is awesome! those the only ones i eat over and over again, i 've had bad luck with some of the other ones.

those meals tend to be made with lower quality meat (imo) so I stick with the vegetarian ones and only use them when there's absolutely no other option for making a better meal myself.... ie. serious time crunch

I always find they are shy on ingredients and high on sauce.  I usually steam an extra cup of mixed vegies and add it all together, which makes them pretty good.  Or else I will add some brown rice or some pasta....

I really like their chicken enchaladas. They have lots of great things depending on what you find.

I used to love their Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, but here lately they have been way too overloaded with chucks of meat, which tastes fake and rubbery. Other than that, I'm a big fan of the Lean Cuisine meals. I stay away from weird stuff, like the Dijon Mustard you mentioned. If I wouldn't eat it in a nice restaurant, I definitely won't eat it in a frozen diet meal. That's a rule I live by...

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh

This is my Favorite...

Chicken Carbonara

I love portion control, yes I have had some that make me gag...

But as mentioned above... My Fave. in my freezer for quick and easy meals.

I have a few in my freezer.  I have them as there for the occassional lunch (when I'm not in the mood for anything 'major') as I know most frozen dinners - even the diet ones - tend to be high in things, like sodium.  That aside, some of the flavors of the Lean Cuisine's aren't that bad.  I like the one that has pasta and shrimp, and there is one that has chinese fried rice and eggroll.  I wasn't crazy about the eggroll, but the rice was good!  I have the lasagna one in my freezer and a couple of others that I haven't tried yet.

newdock, I like your idea of adding steamed veggies or brown rice to them.  I'll have to try that next time!!

Thanks for the great suggestions all! I'm going to the grocery store tonight so hopefully they will be on sale again :-)

I just discovered the spa cuisines....very good.  My favorite is butternut squash ravioli.  It tasted so good I wanted another one.... :) 

Overall, Lean Cuisines are good, it is an easy way to limit what you eat and know exactly what nutritional info in in your meal.  I noticed when I first joined this about 2 weeks ago that the information on this site is from 2005.... Lean Cuisine removed a lot of sodium from their meals last year so I have had to enter a few of them manually to track them here......

sorry, not a fan of these so called meals..I think they are garbage and misleading.....I understand they are convenient, but youcant convice me they re healthy and nutritious... 

I bring Lean Cuisine's to work because it is easy and otherwise- I'll succomb to all the fast food restuarants around me!!!! I like their sweet/sour chicken, enchiladas and their brick oven bbq chicken pizza was excellent....

I like Lean Cuisine meals... their enchiladas are amazing and I actually liked the dijon chicken you mentioned.

Big fan of the lean cuisine... I have one for dinner almost 5x a week (just because when I cook I cook and have HUGE portions! (yes I'm working on that)... In a month, I have lost 9 lbs so far and I am really happy.  True they are high in sodium, but since I have low blood pressure, bring on the salt!!

My favorite is the potatoes with broccoli and cheese... very yummy!!

I don't get very many of the meaty ones.  I like Santa Fe rice and beans the best- it's awesome!  I also like the pizzas, the broccoli potatoes, and cheese, and the cheese ravioli.  I like the sesame chicken and chicken enchiladas too.  I take them into the office to eat, but I wouldn't eat them for every meal (some people seem to do this) because they are high in sodium.  I also tend to eat a piece of fruit or a yogurt too with them because I don't feel like they are well-rounded meals.

I love the Lean Cuisine meals.  I take them to work with me since they are nice and convenient.   I have found them to be much tastier than some of the other "healthy" microwave meals out there.   I haven't found one that I don't like yet, but my favorites are the paninis and the pizzas.  I've even convinced my husband to take them to work with him and he likes them too.

Yesterday I had the Chicken alfredo Lean Cusine for lunch. It was pretty good, but (in my opinion) it had too much alfredo sauce. Other wise, pretty tasty!

I think everyone should avoid packaged/processed foods. They may help you lose weight, but are not great for your health. Also I think that microwaving is bad.

The Lean Cuisine stuff is good for teaching portion control, but most of the food is barely fit for compost.  I thought the veggie ones wer eokay for awhile, until I started cooking with frozen vegetables and realized the Lean Cuisine stuff is poor quality.  Then I started cooking with fresh and realized that freezing isn't too good for the veggies either.

On top of that, virtually all frozen dinners are LOADED with sodium.  Holy cow!  I gain 3 pounds if I eat one.

It's better to spend Sunday afternoon cooking and freeze what you cook yourself.  It's better than THAT to make stuff fresh twice a week.  It's best to cook every night, but who has time for that?  Thursday is my off day from workouts and I use that time to make a fresh batch of foods for the rest of the week.  I don't even have a microwave, I cook and reheat most everything in my toaster oven.

I lost about 20 pounds eating Lean Cuisines, but I think that was mainly portion control. You have to know which ones to buy. Some Lean Cuisines are good, but some Smart Ones are better. I like the Salisbury Steak, and Sweedish Meatballs. The Mac n Cheese is okay, I try to stay away from anything with frozen chicken, it is often gross stringy fat, then again so is the steak. Ground beef is a fairly safe bet as far as meats go on those meals. Sometimes I just pick out all the meat and eat the vegetables in the rice bowls.

Then again I feel better when I eat home cooked meals. I started cooking one night a week, I cook three entrees and portion and freeze them. It is much better for me and I don't have all the leftovers that I normally do.