I get so tired of the same old lunch.  Cold sandwiches and salads are fine, but just don't excite me.  So I'm always looking for hot, delicious meals that can satisfy me without sabotaging my diet. 

Yesterday I had Three Cheese Ziti Marinara from The Smart Ones brand from Weight Watchers.  I would call it delicious.  And it doesn't kill my diet.  But I'd hardly say that it fills me up.  After eating the 9 oz. portion, I was hunting for more.  Still, coupled with a salad or some fruit, this does make a nice lunch.

You can heat it in the microwave, or cook it in the oven.  I chose the microwave method.  In five minutes the food went from frozen to piping hot.  And the aroma was heavenly.

The Ziti noodles were longer than I was expecting, and thinner.  They were not the fat tubes I normally associate with the word "Ziti".  The marinara sauce was thick, with little pieces of tomatoes, and there was just the right amount of it.  The cheese was plentiful, and melted nicely. 

Oddly, most of the sauce was on one side of the tray, and the noodles on the other side of the tray were completely naked.  It took some fancy stirring to mix everything together, without making a huge mess.  Still, once I got all the ingredients playing together nicely, I was left with a very appetizing-looking plate of food.

But how did it taste?  Yummy!  It was really quite good.  My husband and I both really enjoyed it, saying that for a frozen meal, it was surprisingly tasty.

The only problem, of course, is the fairly small serving size.  Well, you can't have everything, can you?  If they made the portion size bigger, then the calories and fat would go up, and I wouldn't have a diet-friendly meal.

In this case, the meal is 320 calories, with 8g of fat, 4g of fiber, and 590mg of sodium.  Obviously, a plate of noodles is never going to fit in with a low-carb diet - this meal gives you 47g of carbs.  On the Weight Watchers plan, this is a 6 point meal.

The only thing that would make me happier is if this meal contained some green veggies, too.  Not that I'd want them to reduce the amount of pasta, but I would happily pay a little more if the meal included some broccoli or spinach.  Something that would make me feel I was getting a few more vitamins with my meal. 

The main ingredients are macaroni, water, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, and the three cheeses - mozzarella, Monterey jack, and parmesan.

This is definitely a tasty meal, one that can fit into my diet.  While it will never be enough, on its own, to fill me up, I can enjoy it with a salad or some fruit, and be perfectly happy.

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