Thursday, January 3, 2008

Trying To Keep My MANY New Year's Resolutions: Day One

Tip Of The Day: The lovely folks at Cub Foods make it cheap and easy to lose your post-holiday poundage. All varieties of Lean Cuisine Frozen Entries are 50% off, until Sunday. Yup, the pizzas, too. At Target, you can get 4 Smart Ones Classic Favorites Frozen Entries for only $7 and 100 Calorie Yoplait yogurt for 50 cents a container, until Sunday.

Tip For Tomorrow: The most important meal of the day. No, I don’t mean Happy Hour.

Further Elucidation Of My Cheap Deal: So the holidays are finally over (except for Twelfth Night/Epiphany on the 6th, which some of us celebrate, i.e. use as an excuse to keep on with the partying and gift-giving) and for the most part, you are back on the straight and narrow with your diet. Notice how positive I am about you? Glass is half full, I say.

By diet, by the way, I mean healthy eating habits – not cabbage soup or the Master Cleanse. I mean the actual consumption of food that will nourish you, not make you faint from starvation. The Cheap Chick does not condone fad diets. Eating right may not be easy, but at least it won’t kill you. Didn’t you see that episode of Grey’s Anatomy? With the girl who died from too much diet and exercise? Moderation is what I’m getting at here.

I admit it’s hard for me to eat well, because, as I’ve said before, I hate to cook. Plus, I kind of suck at it. And I have no children to set a good example for, so why bother eating vegetables? Therefore, I tend to default to Totino’s Party Pizzas or fast food – neither of which has much in the way of redeeming nutritional value.

I found the best way to get myself to eat more fat-free and cheap is to go the low-fat frozen dinner route. You just nuke one in the microwave for 4 minutes and, presto! Dinner. I round out my frozen and boxed gustatory experience with a side of fruit or veg. Or chocolate.

Don’t be all judgy. Chocolate is good for you, ask any doctor.


I prefer Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones from Weight Watchers – most of their entries taste like actual food. Healthy Choice, not so much. Their stuff is too much like reheated cardboard box.

My faves are Lean Cuisine’s Butternut Squash Ravioli (90% of my daily allowance of vitamin A!) and Roast Turkey Breast (90% of my daily allowance of vitamin C!), also Smart Ones’ Ravioli Florentine and Chicken Enchiladas Suiza (less than 90% of everything! Oh well). But you can choose your own favorites. I won’t mind. No really, I mean it.

And Yoplait yogurt makes for a tasty dessert after your frozen dinner – if you like yogurt. I go through phases with it. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I just want some damn ice cream already. Right now, I’m pro-yo-gurt. Plus, it’s on sale for only 50 cents a container at Target, so it’s cheaper than ice cream.

Keep In Mind: frozen entries, diet or otherwise, have much sodium in them. If you are like me and have crazy-low blood pressure, the extra salt is fine – even good for you. Sort of. But for the rest of you, be mindful of your salt intake. You don’t want to puff up like a big water-retention balloon. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of eating better, no?

Stock up today on Lean Cuisine, Smart Ones, and Yoplait – you’ll eat better while spending less. Just one way of getting your 2 B’s back on track.

Where To Shop: Cub Foods are located primarily in MN, but also Ohio, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. Target, of course, is nation-wide. Yay!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, the South Beach frozen meals aren't bad either. And Amy's makes some good gluten-free stuff as well as gluten-full.

I also like bags of frozen vegetables that you microwave as is, and POOF! In 5 minutes you have tasty vegetables (for those of us who like that sort of thing, you beans hater you!).

President of the I Love Beans Club:
Larue
P.S. And I'm not talking about baked beans. Those things are nasty. Brown sugar does NOT make them better.

The Cheap Chick said...

Liar! Baked beans are like bacon-y, bean-y candy. Yum. Green beans are the anti-Christ.

Anonymous said...

Baked beans are stinky, and have unpleasant after-effects. Green beans are flavorful and filled with vitamins. And taste good with butter.

I know you are, but what am I?!

The Cheap Chick said...

You, my friend, are a weirdo-green-bean-lover. That's right, I said it!

Anonymous said...

I will have to be a slight party pooper about Yoplait. It's got a crap load of processed sugars in it. I personally like Stonefield (or is it Stoneyfield) yogurt - either way it doesn't have processed sugars. Granted, it has organic cane sugar and it costs more than Yoplait, but I feel so much better knowing that my sugars aren't processed by some big Eastern syndicate.

George

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

Over to visit from Mrs. G.

That bacon recipe is something else!

Mrs. G. said...

Like Larue, I love all things Amy's. If we have to resort to frozen, she's our girl.

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one just now getting around to a few of those New Year's resolutions that were a little further down the list.

Tracy said...

Your Maple Bacon recipe on Mrs. G's blog looks YUM-A-RIFFIC!

Crystal Gable said...

I'm so glad to find your site. I'm a recovering spend-a-holic. Have you read The Tightwad Gazette? A friend loaned it to me and I have learned SO much. I'll be stopping by a lot now that I know where your site is...thanks to Mrs. G.

Karen Jensen said...

Target, here I come. But let me add my vote for Amy's. Thats some good eatin.