Frozen Lunch called on account of SUN!

It is a BEAUTIFUL day out! I can hardly believe it's January. I'm mobile blogging for the first time which is fun despite the fact that I have NO control in how this post looks. Serious downside to this app.

I decided that I had to take advantage of the weather and eat outside. I got egg salad from the Creamery. I'll add the website when I get to my regular computer. Anyway, it was awesome! The Creamery is the best (and cheapest) place downtown for lunch.

Good thing I go to the gym tonight. I gotta work that sandwich (and chips) off!

Smart Ones: Thai Style Chicken & Rice Noodles

No, this isn't the frozen meal. This is the awesome quiche that Stasia made for our Saturday Girl's Lunch

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I know I did. First, I guess I should tell you that, after that horrible meal on Thursday, I just couldn't do another one on Friday. I needed to get some distance between my taste buds and that meal. YUCK! It was bad.

Back to the weekend! After checking out rental items for our upcoming class reunion with Anne, I went to Zumba with my buddy Suesan, then met with Stasia, Anne and Nikki over at Stasia's house. She fixed us lunch and we sat around and ate and gabbed and ate and gabbed and ate and, well, you get the idea. We all had a great time and we have to do it again SOON! Here's the proof we had a ball!

Stasia, Nikki, Anne and I having fun

Stasia's daughter is Miss Frederick County and just won Miss Virginia Association of Fairs!! While she was out, we had fun trying on her crowns and sashes. She caught us!! She also took this picture. ;)

Now, on to business!

Weight Watchers Smart Ones: Thai Style Chicken & Rice Noodles
260 calories/4g fat/620mg sodium (WOW); cook at 4 1/2 minutes

I'm still in shock over that meal on Thursday so I'm cheating a little bit with this meal. I've had it before. OH! And it doesn't had any red peppers! Bonus! Here's how it looked out of the nuker.

The suggested cooking time was perfect. The peanut sauce is nicely spicy and full of flavor. I do have to say that the noodles are a little rubbery but not enough to really affect it's overall score. Also, the noodles were a little slippery and hard to eat. I wiped quite a bit of the sauce off my chin from the noodles. I liked this one the first time I had it and it didn't disappoint! I'm giving it my first 5! If you try it, let me know what you think.

Healthy Choice 100% Natural: Portabella Marsala Pasta

9 grain pasta with baby portabella mushrooms and marsala wine sauce, topped with fontina cheese
250 calories, 6g fat, 500mg sodium, cook at 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 minutes

I took this one out of the freeze and I wondered why I bought it in the first place. It doesn't have any meat. I'm from South Dakota so if a meal doesn't contain meat, it's not a meal.Oh well, I'll take one for my vegetarian friends.

Since this one has pasta, I wanted to be careful to overcook it. I've done that before and the pasta gets really chewing. I put it in for 4 1/2 minutes, checked it, and heated for another 30 seconds. The pasta turned out perfect...for a frozen meal. It looked pretty good out the the microwave.

It smelled pretty good too. You could really smell the mushrooms. The problem I ran into first was with the cheese. It stayed in one clump and was a little rubbery. As I already said, the pasta turned out perfect. The sauce was spicy and tasty. I was enjoying this! Then it happened. All of the sudden, it wasn't tasting so good anymore. I was about half way through when my tummy started feeling not so hot. I ended up throwing the rest of it away. Initially, I thought I was going to give this one a 3 (knocked down a point for lack of meat). But in the end, I have to give it a 1. I will never get this one again and I can't recommend that you try it.

After lunch, I was reading the ingredients on the side of the box. I was curious because it said 100% natural so I wanted to double check. I found two trademarked ingredients: Ultragrain and Sustagrain. I'm not sure but I think natural things can't be trademarked. It also contains Maltodextrin which is man-made. Now it is made out of natural things but still, I think "Natural" and I think occurring in natural like on it's own. Maybe it's just me.

I felt better by the evening and enjoyed a little treat at Sweet Frog's (frozen yogurt), It was yummy!!!

Healthy Choice Café Steamers: General Tso's Spicy Chicken

Chicken Tenderloins with Rice and Vegetables in Authentic Spicy Brown Sauce
300 calories, 3g of fat, 500mg of Sodium, total microwave time: 5 minutes

My first thought on opening this one was: "Oh CRAP! It has red peppers! YUCK! Well, this is going to get a '1' rating for sure!". I cooked it for the highest time on the box (4.5 minutes) then took a look.

While I was picking out the red peppers, I noticed that some pieces were still cold so I zapped it for another 30 seconds. That did the trick.

This is one of those steamer type meals were the sauce is below and the food is in a steamer basket. This allows the food to be cooked by steam instead of boiling in it own juice. It's suppose to taste better. Who knows. Here it is after the stuff in the top was dumped into the bottom sans red peppers.

Well, it was AWESOME! A little sweet and a lot spicy, very good flavor overall. Is it the General Tso's from Wong's down the street? No, but for being mass produced, frozen, 300 calories, less than $3, AND with red peppers, it's a winner! It was so good, I forgot to take a picture of it all mixed up.

I'm giving this a 3 (since I had to pick out the red peppers) but leaning heavily towards a 4. If I liked red peppers, it would have been a 5. If you like red peppers and spicy food, you'll like this one a lot!

Side note: Low Sodium V8 juice...not so good. I'll be getting the hard stuff from now on.

The Journey Begins Here

Okay, here's the deal. I've decided to start blogging again. Not about a TV show this time but about something I'm more passionate about...FOOD! I LOVE food! I could eat non-stop from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed. Pizza! Chicken! Steak! Ribs! I'm not picky. Well, I can be a little picky, like I hate red, yellow and green peppers and I'm just now starting to come around to onions but for the most part, I'll try anything. Here's proof: one of my favorite things to eat is peanut butter and salami. (HEY! Don't knock it 'til you've tried it!)

This love of food is a BIG problem for me. At my heaviest, in March of 2010, I weighed over 313 pounds! That's right! 313! That's me below at my heaviest.

October 2009

I started running. I know right! At 313 pounds and 40 years old, I started running. My goal was to run the Apple Blossom 10K in 2011 (that's 6.2 miles for those of you that didn't know). When I started, I could barely run for 45 seconds much less even THINK about doing 6.2 miles! I had a long road ahead of me. I had a few set backs but I never gave up and in April of 2011, I ran that 10K and I was 55 pounds lighter! Since then, I've lost an additional 25 pounds for a total of 80 pounds. 

Here I am now (tried to find a full body shot but I seem to be behind the camera/phone most of the time).

August 2011

I still have at least 60 more pounds to go but I'm feeling (and looking) much better. 

Here's the problem, I've been stuck at 80 pounds down since August. It seems that the old way isn't working anymore. It isn't enough just to exercise and watch what I eat. I'm going to have to force myself to stick to some kind of diet. So, among other things, I started eating frozen "diet" meals in hopes of controlling my calories.

I've tried many of these frozen meals before and I remember that it was always hit and miss as far as flavor goes. Also, when I'm at the store, I forget which ones I liked and which ones I hated. So I started keep a list on my phone with ratings next to them so I'd get the right ones. A couples of days ago I was adding a new one to my phone and I thought, "I bet other people would like this information." And that was that, "As the Microwave Beeps" was born!

In this blog I will be rating all the frozen "diet" meals I eat. I will include before and after pictures, cost, calorie count, any thoughts I have about the meal and my rating. (The rating system is listed above.) I'll be posting whenever I eat a new meal. I'll also rate other products from time to time but that will be mostly if I REALLY love something or REALLY hate something.

I hope you find this blog helpful and enjoyable. OH! Let me know if there's a meal you want me to try and I'll do my best to try it...but there better not be any peppers in it!