35% Of Your Daily Sodium - September 2009

As a service to you, I've kept track of my pre-packaged lunches for the month with a short critique of each. That's good eating. Enjoy!

Sept 02, 2009 - Banquet Cheesy Smothered Meat Patty Meal: Much like a hot dog. Tastes good, but I never want to see the ingredient list. Ever...

Sept 04, 2009 - Smart Ones Creamy Rigatoni with Broccoli & Chicken: A quick note to Fazoli's. Smart Ones makes this meal in a box that gets frozen and shipped cross country, stored at the grocery store and then packed in my freezer. It is weeks or months old. It should not taste better than everything you make. But, it does.

Sept 08, 2009 - Banquet Chicken Fried Chicken Meal: There are pros and cons to this one. On the positive side, it's a fried chicken patty smothered in gravy with a side of mashed taters. On the downside, you should probably not eat this if you are having body image issues. It will not make you feel better. Also, good luck getting the song "Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band out of your head.

Sept 09, 2009 - Smart Ones Lemon Herb Chicken Piccata: "Lemon Herb" is a lot like "ice brewed" or that pleasure stuff they put on Trojans in that it sounds a lot better than the actual finished product. One of the pieces of chicken ended up with a consistency and chewability of what I imagine an Achilles tendon has. Not a good showing.

Sept 10, 2009 - Smart Ones Three Cheese Ziti Marinara: This can be described as a "marginally better Chef Boy-R-Dee Beefaroni." Gotta apologize to this dish, I was in a bad mood when I ate it. I swear to God that my company employs one person to go around when I'm on lunch and clean the bathroom closest to where I am warming up the meal. Me crabby.

Sept 15, 2009 - Smart Ones Swedish Meatballs: This meal reminds me of one of the big unresolved internal conflicts in my life: "Do I like egg noodles or don't I?"

Sept 17, 2009 - No lunch today, just wanted to put Lean Cuisine on blast. So, I'm out at Wal Mart last night acquiring some new fare to write about in this space, and I check a few decent looking Lean Cuisine meals. Checking the nutrition facts on the back, I catch out of the corner of my eye the heating instructions. "Cook on 50% heat for 7 minutes. Stir. Cook for another 3 minutes." Ten minutes!?!?! If I wasn't on salary and had a rigid 30 minute lunch break (which, if my bosses are reading this, I still religiously adhere to 100% of the time), I'd be spending 1/3 of it standing in front of a microwave!?!? Bad form, Lean Cuisine.

Sept 18, 2009 - Tai Pei Sesame Chicken - I am glowing right now. First, it comes in a little container shaped like a Chinese carry out box. Secondly, The heating instructions are basically, put the whole think in the micro, cook for 4 minutes, remove plastic, eat" which is a welcome respite from "slit film, remove film, stir, reapply film, etc..." Finally, it is delicious. Obviously, not "Chinese restaurant good" but definitely "Chinese leftovers good." Bravo!

Sept 22, 2009 - Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup - The old classic NEVER fails to deliver. I became so nostalgic to my youth while eating that I wanted to start an argument with someone about why G.I. Joe's were far superior to Masters of the Universe toys. Then I snapped out of it... but, I'd still have that argument if anyone dares to oppose me.

Sept 29, 2009 - Smart Ones Chicken Enchiladas Suiza - Um... Not my cup of tea, or more accurately, not my cup of "zesty sour cream and green chile sauce with Spanish rice."