To all my fellow lazy vegetarians: Lean Cuisine’s Butternut Squash Ravioli is for you.
I am forever in search of something vegetarian, frozen, and easy to prepare, that doesn’t involve the words “waffle”, “pizza”, or “burrito”. A few vegetarian options exist between Lean Cuisine and the Weight Watchers endorsed Smart Ones and I tend to go for the same bland tiny portions every time. The Lasagna Florentine was great, but after about 50 of them, the excitement fades. For this reason I branched out and bought three Lasagna Florentines, two Cheesy Zitis and two new Lean Cuisine meals. The first one I tried was the Parmesan Crusted Fish which outside of its unfortunate title, is pretty tasty. Crusted is rarely a descriptor I want on food I’m about to eat and seems more apt for food I left out for several days, but whatever LC execs. You surpassed my expectations, even if only slightly.
This Butternut Squash Ravioli, however, blew me away. It was sweet, but not too sweet, just as colorful as the box suggested, and has FIVE (count ’em, five) grams of fiber! I love fiber and pooping. The ravioli itself was positioned elegantly in a bed of snap peas and carrots and topped with a light white sauce. It advertises containing walnuts (sorry, kids with nut allergies) but I counted maybe two sparse little nut sprinklings. I thought I hated peas, but these were delightful. Rarely do I eat a shitty preprepared meal and enjoy the vegetables, but these tasted pretty fresh. The package also says NO PRESERVATIVES, but that’s also a little suspicious. Basically, Lean Cuisine, I don’t trust you yet. That’s what I’m saying.
It also has slightly more calories than the average Smart Ones meal, which I can appreciate. I am on a bit of a diet (shhhhh don’t tell anyone, internet) and appreciate low-cal meals, but you cannot expect a grown-ass woman to eat 200 calories and not go straight to the bucket of ice cream afterward. That’s not a meal, and it’s hardly a filling snack. The BSR (yeah, I’m gonna abbreviate it. I like it that much) weighs in at a whopping 280 calories, which is still not a full meal for anyone on a 2000 calorie diet, but it’s better than most.
For $3 you really can’t complain too much. It’s better than the Mac-n-Cheese or frozen pizza I would have had otherwise and unlike my other options, I feel full and free of guilt afterwards!
morningcrafter 