This Gal Cooks

Product Review: Lean Cuisine Chef’s Pick Meals

Although I love to cook, bake and bring my own homemade meals (or sometimes a sandwich) to work for lunch, sometimes I’m too busy to get anything together for lunch. On those days, I either head to a fast food restaurant for lunch or I stop at the grocery store to pick up something that’s quick and easy to make. Occasionally I’ll grab a frozen dinner because their easy to make, they only take maybe 5 minutes to heat up and at an average of $2.00 per meal, they are much cheaper to purchase than a meal from a fast food restaurant.

Now I’m pretty picky about my frozen dinners. I don’t want anything that’s full of fat and calories and I want something that tastes good. My usual go to frozen meals are the Lean Cuisine meals. They come in small portions, most have less than 300 calories and most of them are quite flavorful. Which brings me to the Lean Cuisine Chef’s Picks in the Culinary Collection line of meals. Have you tried those yet? I must say, they are pretty decent for a frozen meal.

I recently tried the Mushroom Mezzaluna Ravioli. This meal is 8 5/8 oz, it has 290 calories, 9 grams of fat and 3 grams of fiber. The packaging boasts no preservatives but I’d say that the amount of sodium could count as a preservative. At 680 mg, that’s 28% of the recommended daily value but here’s a little secret: it has less sodium than most of the frozen dinners out there. So what does this meal have to offer to put one’s hunger at bay? The Mushroom Mezzaluna Ravioli is “ravioli filled with portobello & button mushrooms, Romano & ricotta cheeses in a creamy Marsala wine sauce with spinach and red peppers.” The sauce tasted pretty good. It has a mild flavor that pairs well with the tender cheese and mushroom stuffed ravioli. My only complaint would be the red peppers. I am not a fan of many frozen vegetables, red peppers being one of them. They have a certain taste to them that screams “frozen meal.” However, if I were presented with another dilemma of not having time to make a lunch, I’d purchase this particular meal again.

Let’s take a look at the packaging so you know what to look for when you run out to buy this.

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And here it is ready to be devoured.

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So, what do you think? Would you try this meal? Have you tried any of the other Lean Cuisine Chef’s Pick meals? If so, which one and did you like it?

I have partnered with Lean Cuisine through DailyBuzz Food to help promote their new line of Chef’s Pick products. I have been compensated for my time commitment to work with this product. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments. Thank you Lean Cuisine!




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5 comments on “Product Review: Lean Cuisine Chef’s Pick Meals”

  1. When I first started my weight loss journey on October 20, 2011, I used a lot of the Lean Cuisines and Healthy Choice meals until I could get accustomed to new lo-cal recipes and changing the way I ate. Although I havent tried any of the Lean Cuisine Chef’s pick meal, I will probably try one at some time or another, since I keep a couple in the freezer still in case of emergency meal. I have to admit I like the Healthy Choice better and usually will tend to buy those instead of LC (sorry LC). But both brands have helped contribute to me losing 126 pounds and now I only have 19 more to go to reach my goal.

  2. I Love Lean Cusines! :)

    xx Michelle

    Fierce & Fashionable

  3. Lean Cuisines are the only frozen dinners I will buy & eat. Most of the ones I have tried are SO good! This one looks super yummy! Definitely going to pick one of these up the next time they are on sale at my local grocery store. :)

  4. I have been buying Lean Cuisine for at least 5 years for my lunch. Lately. the food seems to have a lemon taste or vinegar taste. Too much. All of the Chicken meals, taste the same. Even the crusted fish had this taste. Did you change cooks?

    • Hi Joyce!
      I don’t actually work for Lean Cuisine. I was doing a product review for one of their Chef’s Pick frozen meals. I didn’t notice a lemon taste in the dinner that I tried. The only thing that I didn’t like was the frozen red pepper in the meal. It had a funny taste but I feel that way about a lot of frozen vegetables.