Friday, October 8, 2010

Microwave Meals For A Diet

Various healthy microwave diet-meals are available in the grocery stores.


Dieters try to make their meals healthy and nutritious by cutting out excess fat and carbohydrates and adding fiber, minerals, vitamins and proteins. Another goal is to get a balanced diet within the required daily calorie count.


Microwave meals can be an option for dieters if they are too busy to cook their own meals. Several light varieties like Lean Cuisine, Kashi, Healthy Choice and Weight Watcher's Smart Ones are available in the microwaveable entr e section. However, you must look for entrees with about 300 to 400 calories, low in sodium--less than 600 mg--and at least 4 to 5 grams each of fiber and fat.


Trader Joe's Chicken Tandoori With Spinach


This is one of the many healthy ready-to-eat meals by Trader Joe's. It has 360 calories, 520 mg of sodium and 5 g of fiber. This meal is full of protein from the lean meat of the roasted chicken. "Tandoori" is the Hindi word for roasted. Adding a small side of steamed vegetables or fruit will give fill you up and give extra fiber, minerals and vitamins.


Trader Joe's has several other healthy microwave meals like lentil and rice, pad Thai, chicken with long-grain basmati rice and vegetarian pizza. You can experiment with being a vegetarian if you like; because several balanced vegetarian microwave meals from Trader Joe's and other brands are easily available. )








Healthy Choice Fire Roasted Tomato Chicken


This is a complete meal with roasted chicken, penne pasta with roasted tomato sauce, vegetables and an apple crisp for dessert. And it gives you only 310 calories. It helps you stay within the calorie budget and fulfills the craving for a dessert in a smart way. This meal contains 5g of fat, 6g fiber and 500 mg sodium. The Weight Watcher's point system gives it 6 points.


Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake


Kashi has several microwave meals for dieters. These meals are made from seven whole grains, vegetables and natural meat like chicken or shrimp. The Mayan Harvest Bake meal contains 9 g protein, 380 mg sodium and 8 g fiber.


Kashi offers several vegetarian meals like Chana Masala, which provides your share of protein from beans like chick peas. The USP of Kashi; however is the chewy-nutty texture of the whole grains that encourage better chewing of food and the nutritious vegetables that balance any meal. Some of Kashi's foods are exotic and therefore they give you variety to choose from.

Tags: fiber minerals, fiber minerals vitamins, Harvest Bake, Healthy Choice, healthy microwave