09/24/2007

Lunch Ladies: Flavored waters
Plenty of zero-calorie flavored waters now line shelves at convenience stores and super markets, and they make meeting that daily 64-ounce quota much more palatable. But flavored waters don't have to be sweet at all.

09/10/2007

Lunch Ladies: Starbucks
Starbucks, a Lunch Ladies favorite, has introduced even more healthy lunch offerings. As expected, the java joint didn't disappoint with its to-go containers packed with salads, pasta and other fresh offerings.

08/27/2007

Lunch Ladies: Olive Garden
Nothing says good eats like Italian cuisine, so we checked out the Garden Fare menu at the Olive Garden where they know their way around a plate of pasta. Noodle dishes make for a great lunch so we ordered the classics and of course their famous minestrone soup. This installment of Lunch Ladies is not only tasty, but poignant — it's Gretchen's final one.

07/31/2007

Lunch Ladies: Which Wich sandwiches
Readers have been asking us for years to try Which Wich* sandwiches, and at long last we saw that they added nutritional information to the Web site.

07/16/2007

Lunch Ladies: Jimmy Dean D-Lights
Let’s face it. Not only are there days when you eat lunch at your desk, sometimes you eat breakfast ala cubicle. You know the days – you get to work early so you can get work done before the coffee klatch arrives and the time-sucking meetings begin. On those days it might be a good idea to have a few breakfast items stashed in the refrigerator like Jimmy Dean D-Lights breakfast sandwiches. The muffins are made with whole grains, and the sandwiches have 1/3 fewer calories and less than 1/2 the fat of other breakfast sandwiches.

07/02/2007

Lunch Ladies: Amy's single-serve pizzas
Two of the Lunch Ladies favorite things: pizza and Amy's. The organic vegetarian company hardly ever disappoints us. Finally they come out with single-serving sized versions of their pizzas. Unfortunately, these pizzas are not microwaveable, so you'll need to have a toaster oven in your break room or reserve these for dinner at home. All the pizzas have 0 trans fat, no added MSG, no bioengineered ingredients and no preservatives.

06/18/2007

Lunch Ladies: Morningstar Farms
Sometimes even vegetarians crave "junk food." At least that's what we've gathered from the company that makes vegetarian chicken nuggets, buffalo wings and corn dogs. Overall these items tasted and looked impressively like their meat counterparts, making it easy for the "starter vegetarian" to ease into this kind of diet. But even if you don't want to eat these in your everyday diet, you might consider serving them at your Texas hold 'em poker night. We bet no one will even suspect that they're veggie! You can also try using these products in the inventive recipes that Morningstar lists on their Web site.

05/22/2007

Lunch Ladies: Tabatchnick soups
The Lunch Ladies were browsing the frozen foods at Central Market when we found Tabatchnick soups. We picked them up to discover wholesome ingredients and low calories. Tabatchnick is a family name and according to the box, the recipes from Great Grandma Tabatchnick. They have more than three dozen varieties, including six Kosher recipes.

05/07/2007

Lunch Ladies: South Beach Diet frozen wraps
The South Beach Diet is hanging in there, and Kraft continues to introduce new products associated with the diet. Frozen pizzas, cereal, snack bars, salad dressings – the turquoise South Beach logo is all over the grocery store. The frozen wraps are some of the line's newer varieties. Each box has just two

03/26/2007

Lunch Ladies: On The Border
On The Border was recently bashed for encouraging "extreme eating." The Center for Science in the Public Interest scorned the restaurant's Double-Stacked Club Quesadillas (1,860 calories, 52 g saturated fat, 3,140 mg sodium) and Ranchiladas (1,870 calories, 46 g saturated fat, 3,810 mg sodium). However, On The Border is also brave and consumer-conscious enough to provide nutritional information. So we set out to find the lesser of the evils.

03/12/2007

Lunch Ladies: Hormel Microwave Trays
Roast beef and mashed potatoes sitting on the store shelves next to the canned goods? How bizarre. But there they were, Hormel Microwave Trays in a variety of options: chicken and rice, spaghetti with meat sauce, turkey and dressing, and many more. The pictures on the boxes looked OK, and you sure can't beat the convenience of comfort food that doesn't have to be refrigerated and heats in 90 seconds. But convenience often has a cost, and in this case the cost was quality. We kept that in mind going into this tasting.

02/12/2007

Lunch Ladies: Soy Milk
Not all milk comes from the same place. While peanut milk never measured up to its butter cousin, the popularity of soy and rice milk has soared. We decided to check out some vanilla-flavored versions that came off the dry goods aisle and the refrigerator shelf -- regular, light, unsweetened or infused with extra vitamins.

01/29/2007

Lunch Ladies: The String Bean
Dining out at a home-style restaurant that serves mouth-watering chicken fried steak, pork chops and meat loaf can be a challenge if you're trying to stick to a heart-healthy diet. That's why the Lunch Ladies were super-impressed with The String Bean restaurant's heart-healthy entrees featuring steamed veggies and grilled lean protein. They've been endorsed by Medical City's Heart Healthy Dining Program, which requires menu items to have limited levels of fat, calories and sodium and no trans fat. We're not these were the yummiest things on the menu, but they were certainly good for you.

01/14/2007

Lunch Ladies: Frozen burritos
The charm of the frozen burrito comes in its tightly compact package that's easy to heat, simple to eat and light on the pocket book. These burritos take up little space in the freezer and can make a tasty, quick meal on the job for breakfast or lunch. The Lunch Ladies tried three brands that we found at Whole Foods: Matthew's, P.J.'s Organics and Amy's.

01/01/2007

Lunch Ladies: Thai Kitchen Noodle Cart
We saw a variety of noodle bowls on the store shelf, but most were two or more servings. We know what we'd do: eat the whole thing and feel like a big bowl of bloated noodles afterward. That's why we loved Thai Kitchen Noodle Cart's tasty single-serving kits. The downside was that the preparation was a little tedious with all the straining and mixing, and we feared burning ourselves handling the flimsy trays. Sure they come with a fork, but they should come with hot pads!

10/24/2006

Lunch Ladies: Soup's on!
After a long, hot summer the temperatures finally dropped making the Lunch Ladies hanker for the warming comfort of a hot bowl of soup. We noticed that there were lots of soups out there, and we can’t try them all. We just scooped up what grabbed us and gave them try.