Nature's Own Multi Grain Sandwich Round Review

It's a sunny morning and it's suppose to be the warmest day of the week. I like that it will be cooling off some, but with cool weather comes heartier foods. I no longer crave salads and light food, which I'm afraid will be a problem. I've already been eating heavier this summer than usual and I seem to be gaining weight, even doing Zumba twice a week. It's very depressing. I'm hoping that it's due to muscle mass. You know muscle weighs more than fat. My clothes are still tight, so it doesn't feel like muscle.

Enough with the bagels already. I need to check out some different breakfast ideas. I did add a little applesauce to yesterday's breakfast of half a cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter.

 

I also added a little flax to the bagel and some flax and cinnamon to the applesauce before eating it.

 

Not feeling too energetic yesterday, I also had a cup of Lipton orange, passion fruit, jasmine green tea with honey. I really needed a pick me up.

For lunch, I had a veggie burger on a Nature's Own multi grain sandwich round. I think these are great. I wasn't sure about them being so thin. I was afraid my sandwich wouldn't be as good, you know too much filler and not enough bread, but I was wrong. The thing I like most is that I didn't fill stuffed afterward. Bread always makes me feel too full compared to a big salad or a plate of cooked veggies. 

Thin and soft.

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
1 Roll (43 g/ 1.5 oz)
Servings Per Container 8
Amount Per Serving
Calories 100
Calories from Fat 10
                                                % DAILY VALUE *
Total Fat 1 g                                2 %
Saturated Fat 0 g                        0 %
Trans Fat 0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.5 g
Cholesterol 0 mg                         0 %
Sodium 170 mg                           7 %
Total Carbohydrate 19 g             6 %
Dietary Fiber 4 g                       16 %
Sugars 2 g
Protein 4 g
Vitamin A 0 %                    Vitamin C 0 %
Calcium 4 %                       Iron 6 %
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily
values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
                                 Calories:                       2,000                   2,500
Total Fat                  Less than                         65g                     80g
Sat. Fat                   Less than                         20g                     25g
Cholesterol              Less than                        300mg               300mg
Sodium                    Less than                     2,400mg            2,400mg
Total Carbohydrate                                        300g                   375g
 Dietary Fiber                                                  25g                     30g

I had my sandwich round with an Amy's quarter pound veggie burger and creamy coleslaw. I also had some chili beans on the side.

I lightly toasted my sandwich round on the outside. I'm giving the sandwich rounds 5 stars, of course the bag they come in only gets one. I manage to tear the zipper off of it. When I first opened the bag, the top part tore off of one side, then when I tried to open it a second time the zipper tore off completely. The zipper is obviously too strong for the bag. I had to put them in a different storage bag. I think an ordinary twist tie would have been better.

I did enjoy my lunch. I added a little carrot and red pepper to my slaw.

Yummy!

After lunch, I had Lexi and Mary for a little while. It was unexpected. I had hoped for a nap, but my grand babies needed me. They were very good and didn't try to kill me. We all played together in the floor with big Lego type blocks and Lexi fixed my hair, no pictures, sorry. Lexi didn't really want to go home when her Mom came to get them, but didn't put up too much of a fuss.

After the kids left, I had to get something to eat and get ready for Zumba. My dinner wasn't exactly dinner. I had a Smart Ones Fiesta Enchilada, that's it. I sort of ran out time. I still had my big puppies to feed and several other things to do before leaving. I also had a handful of almonds before leaving.

We got to work with our weights last night. I would really rather we did the weights both nights. I think it makes it harder on us just doing them one time. I need to start using mine at home more to make up for it. After Zumba I had Havarti cheese & vegetable crackers with olives as my snack. Surprisingly I was all that hungry. I thought I'd be starved after Zumba, not having had much for dinner. I did make a slightly larger snack, but I didn't really need it.

Here is one of my favorite songs which we do in Zumba. This is also the routine we do as well. It's our warm up song. It's very energizing and makes you want to get up and move. It's called Good Morning by Mandisa. Enjoy! Happy Friday!!

Lean Cuisine Asiago Cheese Tortelloni Review

Hey, what brought you here? I'm really interested in what you are looking for. Please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks for stopping by!!

Another sidetracked morning. I wake up thinking of all this stuff I want to know or do or I see something I need to do and start doing that. It's called "but then" syndrome. I still haven't figured out what to do with the "narsty" artificially sweetened yogurt. I had half a cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter and more raisins instead. I'm getting sort of burnt out on bagels too, so I'll be looking for something different for breakfast.

 

For lunch I tried Lean Cuisine's Asiago Cheese Tortelloni with tomatoes, yellow & green zucchini, and yellow carrots in a tomato vodka sauce.

 

Asiago Cheese Tortelloni Nutrition Facts

Serving Size    1 bag
Amount Per Serving
Calories    270
                                                  % Daily Value*
Total Fat     7.0 g                               11 %
 Saturated Fat     3.5 g                      18 %
 Trans Fat    0 g
 Polyunsaturated Fat    1 g

Monounsaturated Fat    1 g
Cholesterol     40 mg                         13 %
Sodium     670 mg                             28 %
Potassium     600 mg                         17 %
Total Carbohydrate     39 g                13 %

Dietary Fiber     5 g                           20 %

Sugars    7 g
Protein     14.0 g                                28 %
Vitamin A                                           70 %
Vitamin C                                           10 %
Calcium                                              25 %
Iron                                                    10 %

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

First I will tell you, I am not a fan of zucchini or squash period. The tortelloni comes in a steam in bag which you put in the microwave. I didn't use the bag. I opened it and took out most of the squash, except for a few that were frozen in clumps of sauce & pasta to be picked out later. I put the rest in a microwave steamer and heated as directed. I did like the tomatoes and yellow carrot which is also included. The sauce was yummy. I may have to buy a jar of vodka sauce and try it next. I've eaten it in the Smart Ones Mini Rigatoni and I really liked the sauce in both dinners.

 

I liked the tortelloni as well, but I did only give this dinner 4 stars, and that was just because I had to pick out the zucchini, other wise I would definitely recommend trying it, especially if you like zucchini. I had mine with a salad of spring mix, spinach, cucumber, peppers, and Zesty Italian dressing.

 

I enjoyed this meal and may even consider buying it again, even if I have to pick out the zucchini.

 

I didn't get around to having my tea until after lunch, so I did a decaf tea. I bought Stash Moroccan Mint Green Tea which includes a blend of spearmint, peppermint, & lemongrass.

This tea smells awesome. I love the smell of spearmint. I would also like to get some mint tea with a little caffeine in it for the mornings, but I loved having it without as well.

 

I had some maple brown sugar frosted mini wheats for a snack.

I had a yellow plate(no green here) for dinner. Oh, how I hate a yellow plate. I had 2 veggie patch veggie dogs, with mac & cheese and chili beans.Dinner was good, but I should have had some green in there somewhere.

This plate needs color, don't you agree?

Tonight is zumba night. I am thinking of posting a Zumba video on the days I have Zumba class. I wasn't sure whether to post it today or tomorrow when I actually tell you about class. Does this sound good? I will post it tomorrow for now, I guess. Happy Thursday!!

WW Smart Ones Fiesta Quesadilla Review

Feeling sort of blah this morning, probably the melatonin I took last night when I couldn't get to sleep. I slept good after that. I also got a late start this morning due to the internet being down (again not happy). Luckily it wasn't down long.

Yesterday I couldn't bring myself to have another smoothie made from the Archer Farms artificially sweetened vanilla yogurt. Maybe I can use it in a recipe of some sort. Any suggestions? Instead of a smoothie I had a toasted English muffin with an apple. I forgot I had the English muffins this morning, dadgummit!

 

For lunch I had a MSF veggie burger (Grillers), spring mix, spinach, onion, sweet pickle cubes, mustard & mayo....on a sesame seed bun (think big mac song).

 

I haven't fixed one like this in a while. It was really good.

 

After getting a little cleaning done and having lunch, I gave in and took a nap. I knew I would never survive zumba without one. I had planned to get some reading done and upload photos before zumba, so that I could get to bed early, but it didn't happen. I ran out of time. The day was too short or so it seemed.

Before Zumba I fixed myself a WW Smart Ones Fiesta Quesadilla. These are suppose to be for a snack I think, since the serving size is just one, so I had a salad with mine.

 

Smart Ones Fiesta Quesadilla Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 113g - 1 quesadilla

Amount Per Serving
Calories 230
Calories from Fat 50

                                              % Daily Value *

Total Fat 5g                                      8%
Saturated Fat 2.5g                         14%
Monounsaturated Fat 1.5g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5g
Cholesterol 10mg                              3%
Sodium 490mg                                26%
Total Carbohydrates 35g                 12%
Dietary Fiber 9g                              34%
Sugars 1g
Protein 10g
Vitamin A                                          6%
Calcium                                           15%
Iron                                                 10%

* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

This is what they look like straight out of the freezer, not so appetizing.

Not as bad once it was cooked via microwave in a card stock sleeve. The inside still looked sort of the same, only hot and melted a little. It didn't spread out as I had assumed.

My salad was spring mix, spinach, cucumber, peppers, & onion, with a mixture of buttermilk ranch, taco sauce and taco seasoning.

The quesadilla was much better than I'd expected, pretty good actually. I'm giving it 4 stars. It had a good flavor with the corn, beans, cheese, etc. Together with the salad it was just the right amount for dinner.

I went to zumba after dinner. We didn't use our weights last night. I was sort of disappointed. I didn't work up a good sweat like we normally do. Hopefully we will use them on Thursday. 

My after zumba snack was a few dry roasted almonds and a strawberry cereal bar. I think cereal bars are too sweet, so the salty nuts were a good accompaniment.

 

I watched a little tv and also did a little reading before bed, of course I still didn't get to bed any earlier and I assume that because of the nap, I couldn't get to sleep even though I felt tired. Thankfully I had my melatonin to give me a nudge. It took a little while to kick in, but it did the job. Now I am going to fix myself a cup of tea to wake myself up. It's a vicious cycle. Happy Wednesday!!

Smart Ones Mini Rigatoni With Vodka Cream Sauce Review

Sidetracked this morning. I think about something I'm interested in, search for it on the internet and then I'm lost in cyberspace, one page leads to another. Finally I realize I have other things to do, like tell you about yesterday.

I had a banana pudding smoothie with cinnamon. I'd pick up some Archer Farms vanilla yogurt at Target the other day. I'm not sure if I've had their brand of yogurt before, but somehow I think I would have remembered it, either way, I am going to do my best to remember not to get it again. I do remember the My Essentials brand for Food Lion that was not good and now the Archer Farms brand will join them on the "to don't" list. The Archer Farms yogurt like the My Essentials was sort of runny or thin. It was also artificially sweetened with sucralose, giving it that weird after taste. I didn't see an obvious mention of being artificially sweetened when I bought it, but after tasting it I looked at the ingredients to see that they did include sucralose, which is an artificial sweetener. Normally I avoid artificial sweeteners. I used to drink diet drinks, but I was actually 20lbs heavier before I stopped drinking them, so I didn't see the point. I like water and it doesn't leave a weird after taste. I was hoping that with the banana and everything else, it would be alright, but it still had that weird taste, yuck!

For lunch I had one of WW Smart Ones frozen dinners. It was their Mini Rigatoni w/ Vodka Cream Sauce.

 

Nutritional Facts for Mini Rigatoni w/ Vodka Cream Sauce

Serving Size  1 package(255g)
Amount Per Serving
Calories 290 Calories from Fat 50
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 6g	9%
Saturated Fat 2.5g	13%
Monounsaturated Fat 1.5g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1g
Cholesterol 10mg	3%
Sodium 440mg	18%
Total Carbohydrates 48g	18%
Dietary Fiber 5g	18%
Sugars 5g
Protein 13g
Vitamin A	6%
Vitamin C	4%
Calcium	15%
Iron	8%
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

Now for my opinions. My first thought is that frozen pasta dinners look more appetizing than other frozen dinners. Don't you agree? This one not only looked good, but it also tasted good. It had a creamy tomato vodka sauce and reduced fat mozzarella cheese.

I also had a salad of spring mix, spinach, red & green peppers with zesty Italian dressing, which went perfectly with the rigatoni. Yummy!

 

This lunch definitely got 5 stars.

It didn't hurt that I was really in the mood for something tomato-y.

I also tried out some new tea, Lipton orange, passion fruit, jasmine, green tea. I'm not sure what jasmine is suppose to taste like, but I didn't really taste anything unusual and it was good. I added a little honey. This one has a tiny bit of caffeine in it, which I needed yesterday and probably will need again today. I still haven't managed to get to bed any earlier. I avoided a nap yesterday, but should have taken it.

 

My afternoon snack was half a pink ribbon bagel (broken), with peanut butter and dried cranberries.

For dinner I had a Lean Cuisine vegetable egg roll with rice and an Asian style ginger and orange sauce. I've had this before. The main problem I have with this dinner is that the egg cooks in the sauce and comes out soggy. I remedied this problem last night by heating the dinner in the microwave for about 4 minutes at 50% power (half the recommended cook time), then I removed the egg roll and place it on an oven safe dish in my toaster oven for ? maybe 10 minutes, until it was crisp.

I also added a little corn to the rice, just because Lucas had fixed some as part of his dinner.

I also had a salad with the spring mix, spinach, cucumber, carrot, peppers, lightly toasted chow mein noodles and Kraft light Asian toasted sesame dressing. Although the egg roll is not my favorite (sort of bland), I do like the rice and I enjoyed my dinner.

I proceeded to mess around too much on the internet, not doing what I needed to do and failed to get my photos uploaded earlier in the evening, so that I could get to bed early. I have been so bad at that lately, even though I know how bad I've been feeling every morning. I may be forced to take a nap before Zumba today. Do you have trouble flipping the off switch? Do you think it's OCD related? Well, Happy Tuesday!!

Healthy Choice Portabella Marsala Pasta Review

Another dreary morning. I am so ready for some sun. I am also having a really hard time getting to bed before 12am. I went 10 whole minutes earlier last night. It's a start I guess. I absolutely did not want to get up yesterday. Lucas and I split the last Starbucks Via. These were just a special treat. They maybe cheaper than going to Starbucks, but they aren't cheap, besides, I can make this stuff with any coffee and even use half caf or decaf.

I also had the other half of my Pink Ribbon bagel with peanut butter and dried pineapple, along with half an apple.

 

This was a pretty good breakfast.

 

After breakfast, I worked on yesterday's post and was then rushed to finish and go on an unexpected trip to the mall. We don't go to the Concord Mills mall very often so we didn't pass on the chance. It was still fairly early when we got there, not too crowded then, but it started getting busy after twelve.

We mostly just went to look around and get out of the house. We checked out Books A Million and stopped at Auntie Anne's for one of there awesome soft pretzels.

 

I got the almond pretzel, slightly sweet and buttery. The pretzel snack turned into lunch.

We also went to the Corningware Store. We picked up these new drinking glasses. They are Circleware or Circleglass Windowpane glasses, simple but not plain, also easy to wash. I love that they are tapered out instead of in.

After the mall we headed over to "Tarjay" or Target. I really wish there was a Target closer, so I could go more often. I got a healthy choice dinner to go with my leftover fish & shrimp from O' Charley's. It was their Portabella Marsala Pasta.

First the nutritional facts.
Healthy Choice All Natural - Portabella Marsala Pasta
Serving Size 1 meal (255g) Servings Per Container 1 Amount Per Serving Calories 250 Calories from Fat 60 % Daily Value* Total Fat 6g 9%   Saturated Fat 2.5g 13%   Trans Fat 0g     Polyunsaturated Fat 1g     Monounsaturated Fat 2.5g   Cholesterol 10mg 3% Sodium 500mg 21% Potassium 340mg 10% Total Carbohydrate 38g 13%   Dietary Fiber 5g 20%   Sugars 4g   Protein 11g   Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 0% Calcium 10% Iron 8% Thiamine 10% Vitamin B6 10% Folic Acid 8% Pantothenic Acid 15% Phosphorus 20% Magnesium 10% Zinc 10% Selenium 40% Copper 15% Manganese 50% Diet Exchanges Per Serving**: Starch (2) Vegetable (1) Medium Fat Meat (1)   Contains: N Weight Watchers® PointsPlus™ Value***: 5 *** The PointsPlus™ value for this product was calculated by ConAgra Foods, and is provided for informational purposes only. This is not an endorsement, sponsorship or approval of this product or its manufacturer by Weight Watchers International, Inc., the owner of the Weight Watchers® and PointsPlus™ trademarks.    UPC: 7265540531

Now I'll tell you about it. First of all this was the first frozen dinner that looks almost as good, out of the microwave, as it does on the package.

 

I think it has a little black pepper in it, but not too much, just enough to make it good. The sauce was very good it sort of reminded me of brown mushroom gravy, but even better. It may be because I was so hungry when I got home, but I think I would have known if it were awful anyway. I'm giving it 5 stars. I also love that Healthy Choice has a leaf symbol on their website for the vegetarian products. Have you tried this? What was your rating? How about your favorite HC dinner?

I had some semi melted DQ vanilla ice cream. I set it out to thaw a little and sort of got side tracked.

After ice cream, I watched "The Good Wife". It was on from 9-10pm, but I still didn't get to bed early. I only read for about 30 minutes. I still have 3 more books to read before the end of the year to meet my goal on GoodReads. Maybe I can get a few pages in today and get to bed earlier than last night. Happy Monday!!