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[	Tags	|	5 stars, dairy-free, itailan, organic, pasta, rising moon organics, vegan, vegetarian	]
[	Feelin'	|	calm	]

For dinner last night I FINALLY tried Rising Moon Organics “Organic Lasagna”
“Made with organic PRIMAcotta soy ricotta and organic pasta”
-380 Calories
-10g Total fat

Molly Says: I've had this meal in the freezer since just after Thanksgiving and for whatever reason (likely the barrage of Amy's meals we received in the mail...) I've passed it over time and time again. Last night I finally found myself craving Italian (and willing to be satisfied with the lesser frozen Italian.) The microwave directions are simple. Cut a one inch slit in overwrap and microwave for five minutes. This went on without incident, which is something we rarely notice and I feel should be appreciated (especially after having several explosive meals and hours of back-breaking scrubbing of the inside of the microwave...) In the interest of full disclosure I must add that I did garnish the top of this lasagna with Parmesan cheese, dried basil and red pepper flakes. Though the addition of these ingredients surely made the meal more appealing to me, it would have been plenty tasty without. The sauce was somewhat chunky and punchy- but not overly acidic. The PRIMAcotta soy ricotta replacement tasted NO different than an average (actually quite good tasting) ricotta cheese. Basil is mixed into the smooth PRIMAcotta mixture making it sweet and delightful. The noodles were noticeably better than most other frozen noodles. They had a distinct homemade-style texture. They were not as thick as some brands, but instead, were delicate and light-which worked well with the rest of the meal and was, in my opinion, ideal.

I give Rising Moon Organics “Organic Lasagna”
* * * * * 5 of 5 stars
For its chunky, homemade style sauce, delicious PRIMAcotta soy ricotta replacement and delicate noodles. Yum!

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[	Tags	|	4 stars, helen's kitchen, italian, organic, pasta, vegetarian	]
[	Feelin'	|	busy	]

Helen's Kitchen “Farfalle & Basil Pesto”
“With Tofu Steaks”
-320 Calories
-9.1g Total Fat

Molly Says: Helen's Kitchen (known for making jaw-dropping, delicious tofu) is a company that makes very few frozen meals. Their line of frozen food is limited to 6 tasty meals. I'm sure their company motto is something like “Doing a little and doing it right.” That said, I had a issues with this meal. I'm sure you've all noticed that the picture on the box and the food itself look quite different. I was disappointed when I opened the box to find ONLY noodles, pesto and tofu in this meal. There were no chopped tomatoes or punchy red spices, no garnish of freshly plucked purple herbs (?); no, none of these things were present in this dish. I'll admit I felt a little gypped when I dumped the meal out onto my plate and confirmed that these garnish items that seemed picture perfect were not present in this meal at all. I managed to accept that the meal would be “simple health” (Helen's Kitchen's actual motto) and took my plate to the table. I read over the ingredients and was impressed with what I found. Organic durum wheat farfalle pasta, organic tofu, fresh organic basil, organic Parmesan cheese with sea salt, organic olive oil and pine nuts, and a slew of other organic vegetables (carrots, garlic, onions) which honestly went unnoticed. I'm sure these ingredients must have been blended into the pesto, possibly aiding in the flavor of the pesto. The pesto sauce was tasty. The basil was delicious, and every now and then a pine nut would crunch in my mouth, adding a nice contrast to the semi-smooth pesto sauce. The pasta was alright. The mixture of pasta and sauce tasted much like leftovers from a really great home made dinner. If you've ever made a pesto pasta, refrigerated it and then re-heated it in the microwave the next day, you know what I'm talking about. The pasta was a little bit chewy, but the texture was good (tasted like the kind of pasta you'd buy at the store [vs. the kind of pasta you find in frozen meals which is altogether unique in texture.]) The tofu was, as I mentioned, jaw-dropping and delicious. Think really awesome frozen chicken. I doubt that most meat eaters would be able to tell the difference between this tofu and the chicken pieces they find in their favorite frozen meals. The texture of the tofu is superb, and the flavor is chicken-like. Overall, this meal was very tasty. I wish the box hadn't deceived me into expecting more ingredients than were present, but beyond that, I'd buy and eat this meal again (if I ever find it in my grocery store... This was another meal we picked up while visiting my parents in Syracuse.)

I give Helen's Kitchen “Farfalle & Basil Pesto”
* * * * 4 of 5 stars
For its somewhat "leftover" tasting pasta, false advertisement, but delicious pesto sauce and even more delicious tofu.

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For lunch today I (reluctantly) tried Smart Ones “Fettucini Alfredo”
“Fettucini tossed with tender broccoli florets in a creamy parmesan sauce”
-300 Calories
-6g Total Fat

Molly Says: I'll admit that I didn't want to love this meal. I've had some terrible experiences with Smart Ones meals in the past and I've since given up most of my hope for the brand as a whole being able to impress me. I found that the best way for me to eat and rate this meal, was to compare it to my favorite Lean Cuisine “Fettuccine Alfredo.” There were pros and cons to this meal, like any other. When put back to back with my staple frozen-fettuccine-Alfredo by LC, they managed to come out close to even. Smart Ones adds broccoli to their fettuccine Alfredo, which instantly attracted me to the product. Broccoli and Alfredo sauce were practically born for each other and any meal containing both is worth entertaining. I find that the Alfredo sauce in this Smart Ones meal is inferior to that in the Lean Cuisine meal. Lean Cuisine's Alfredo sauce is very smooth and the taste is sensational. The quality of the cheese tastes better and it is not as thick as the sauce in this Smart Ones variety. The Smart Ones Alfredo sauce is very thick, and you don't get as much as you do in the Lean Cuisine variety. I wanted to compare the weights of the meals and surprisingly, they are exactly the same at 9.25oz. By adding broccoli to the Smart Ones meal, they've taken away what you get in pasta and sauce in the Lean Cuisine meal. The pastas texture was hearty however, probably more so than the Lean Cuisine pasta. The hearty pasta was less favorable in the thick sauce than a thinner pasta may have been. The sauce clung to the pasta and it created a very thick, hearty (and strangely so) overall feel to this meal. I did find that toward the end, as the sauce REALLY thickened up, it tasted gritty. This NEVER happens with the Lean Cuisine sauce and so, I found that I still prefer the Lean Cuisine variety to this Smart Ones Fettuccine Alfredo. The Lean Cuisine Fettuccine Alfredo comes in at the same weight, 20 calories less. This leaves me the option of adding veggies to the dish and increasing both the amount of food and flavor without having to add a great deal of calories. There is also enough sauce in the LC variety to facilitate the addition of ingredients such as vegetables. (Why are there like 5 different spellings for Fettuccine? Fettucini (as Smart Ones spells it) ? ...)

I give Smart Ones “Fettucini Alfredo”
* * * * 4 of 5 stars
For it's strangely thick sauce, hearty noodles and addition of yummy broccoli. I still prefer Lean Cuisine, but this is a good option.

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I wasn't particularly craving anything when I tried Kashi's “Pesto Pasta Primavera.” I didn't quite know what I was looking for, but I don't think I found it in this Kashi meal.

Kashi “Pesto Pasta Primavera”
-”Yellow carrots, sweet red peppers, and peas are served over our 7 Whole Grain penne pasta with a basil pesto sauce and shredded Parmesan cheese.”
-290 Calories
-11g Total Fat

Molly Says: I wasn't particularly hungry for anything this afternoon. I've had this meal for quite some time and figured I could give it a shot. There wasn't anything about this meal that was particularly offensive, nor was any part of this meal outstanding. As a whole, I found this meal to be relatively bland in flavor. The pasta was gritty (which should be expected with whole grain pasta), but it was also overly soft in texture making the gritty-ness especially unpleasant. While the pasta was less than satisfactory, the “Primavera” part of this meal (Italian word for "spring style." Culinary, it refers to the use of fresh vegetables as a garnish to various dishes--often pasta.) was pleasing, but again, not pronounced in flavor. The texture of the vegetables was ideal. The carrots were crunchy, the red peppers were soft, the peas popped pleasantly in my mouth. Still, these “fresh” vegetables were lost in the overall blandness of this dish. The most disappointing part was the pesto. Though the smell of basil and rich olive oil billowed from the dish as I peeled back the plastic wrap, the flavor left much to be desired. The Parmesan cheese was NOT sharp or tangy, and was virtually lost in the dish. The basil did NOT give the meal the freshness I have come to associate with a freshly plucked basil pesto. As a whole, this dish was weak. It was lacking the UMPH that could have easily been brought by a higher quality Parmesan cheese, or a fresher basil, or a less gritty pasta. Though the meal does read as very healthy and well rounded, it does not preform in terms of flavor and texture (overall.)

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[	Tags	|	4.5 stars, italian, lean cuisine, pasta, vegetarian	]
[	Feelin'	|	cheerful	]

I was shocked to find that, at some point (probably long, long ago...) I bought a vegetarian Lean Cuisine meal that has been patiently waiting in the back of my freezer for consumption. For lunch today, my tummy shocked me when it chose this Lean Cuisine meal over EVERYTHING else in our freezer.

Lean Cuisine “Three Cheese Stuffed Rigatoni”
“With vegetables in a fire-roasted tomato sauce”
-240 Calories
-6g Total Fat
-4 Weight Watchers Points

Molly Says: It feels like it's been ages since I've reviewed a Lean Cuisine meal. I've almost felt guilty for reviewing organic brands so exclusively, as I know that many of you don't buy/ are not interested in /can not find organic meals in your grocery stores. That said, I was happy to try and review this vegetarian Lean Cuisine meal as soon as I found it. I am sad to say that microwaving this meal was more of a pain than most. Of course its the typical “Microwave three minutes, remove cover, stir, MICROWAVE UNCOVERED for and ADDITIONAL 2 MINUTES.” That sent up flags for me. Since the first time I had to clean a microwave, I've known not to microwave tomato sauce uncovered. Still, I trusted in Lean Cuisine to create some microwave friendly sauce that could easily be nuked uncovered without creating a huge mess. I should have gone with my gut on this one. I'll definitely work off the calories I ingested CLEANING the microwave after I finish writing my review. By now I was a little urked, but the meal smelled good, and looked good, so I was able to move on. As I had expected, this meal was really great. I counted 9 “stuffed rigatoni” (or, for people who don't translate “desperate attempt at a new concept AKA re-vamping ravioli with some hot new lines”) in the dish. They all cooked up nicely in the yummy “fire-roasted tomato” sauce. I think “fire-roasted” is code for punchy. The sauce was very nicely spiced, sassy, and tasted great in the dish. When I first started eating, I found myself really impressed with the vegetables. Actually, I ate all of the vegetables first, before even touching the “stuffed rigatoni”. I was chewing along on a mouth full of yellow and orange carrots and said to myself “Wow! Yellow carrots (?) rock!” So I got thinking about yellow carrots and what could possibly make them taste so grand. I decided that I'd take a look at the ingredients and try to figure out exactly what was in this meal that made it so delightful. Sure enough, I find a list of words I won't even try to spell or pronounce, and I got to thinking. If there are so many brands who can make fantastic, fresh tasting meals without the use of thiamin mononitrate and riboflavin, why don't brands like Lean Cuisine jump on board the organic express? To me, it seems really silly that so many brands are still using these convenience products in food. What I like most about organic meals is that the ingredients list reads more like a recipe, where as meals like lean cuisine read more like a formula. Sure, everything tasted great (the zucchini, tomatoes, carrots (yellow and orange) and pasta), but why does the ingredient list have to read like a Britney Spears drug test? I guess thats just something to think about. Regardless of ingredients pronounce-ability, this meal was yummy and filling.

I give Lean Cuisine “Three Cheese Stuffed Rigatoni”
4.5 of 5 stars
For its yummy and generous pasta serving, punchy “fire-roasted” tomato sauce and appropriately textured vegetables, though it left me with a big ol' mess in the microwave.