“This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Lean Cuisine, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #HonestlyGood #ad http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.”
I really value healthy eating and exercise, but they aren’t my only values. My family is of utmost importance, and some weeks even obligatory meetings, social activities and necessary evils like oil changes need to take precedent. Or heck, sometimes a trip to the pumpkin patch is more important.
During these times, I don’t beat up on myself for not ‘staying on track’ because it’s important to know that life happens. It’s how we navigate these times that make the difference.
For example, not all days allow for a trip to the gym. When this happens, I squeeze in a walk if I can, or better yet, a quick circuit workout with no gym equipment or weights needed!
This circuit by Tina Reale is great to squeeze in during nap time.
And this one from Jen DeCurtins can be accomplished in the driveway. Hailey would love chasing me back and forth, especially if I carried her over my head in place of the weight- ha! Legal Disclaimer: exercise caution when using your toddler as a plate weight 
As much as I’d love to spend every evening playing in the kitchen, I don’t always have time to make a meal like this one:
(Shameless brag on last night’s dinner that actually only took 20 minutes to pull together)
And other times, lunch would pass me by if I didn’t have something quick to grab. For those times, I try to keep a few meals stocked in my freezer. I’ve mentioned some of my favorite freezer meals before and shared how much I enjoyed the wild caught salmon from the new Lean Cuisine Honestly Good line. When I was offered the opportunity to try out some of their other Honestly Good meals, I jumped at the offer.
Since I enjoyed the salmon so much, I decided to give the Plum Ginger Grain-Crusted Fish a try.
You might have to enlarge the above picture, but do it. The ingredient lists on these meals will kick any fast food meal’s and most other freezer meal’s butt. I get it, there is soybean oil that probably isn’t organic and ‘natural flavors’ which can mean all sorts of things, but 99% of this ingredient list is real, honest-to-goodness recognizable food.
And it tastes like it.
The sauces they put together for their Honestly Good meals are freaking incredible. Seriously, I want to try and make copy-cat versions of several of them. I also appreciate that they use vegetables and grains that our outside of the mainstream, like wheat berries, edamame, millet, yellow zucchini, steel-cut oats, flax seeds and more.
I tried one new meal that might even rival my love for their salmon.
The honey citrus chicken knocked my socks off.
Hailey actually wouldn’t let me eat this one on my own. She downed the pasta and broccoli as I scrambled to try and eat them all myself.
It sure doesn’t look like a freezer meal, does it?
In a perfect world, maybe we’d all eat organically grown kale from our backyard, but I don’t live in a perfect world. I live in a world of do-the-best-I-can and when a week gets hectic, I feel good about picking up a couple of Lean Cuisine Honestly Good meals from Target to have on hand.
What helps you stay healthy during the crazy weeks?
Lee says
I sometimes eat Lean Cuisine frozen pizzas for lunch. Are they the most healthy thing? No, but they taste good and I figure as long as I’m doing mostly healthy things, eating processed food every now and then isn’t going to kill me.
Whitney says
Everything in moderation is the name of the game! Probably not a good idea to eat frozen meals everyday but once in a while it is. I get most of mine from Trader Joes, so yum! 🙂
Millie Jones says
Just love how you are so honest and REAL! Everyone has days like those and we shouldn’t feel guitly about eating a freezer meal every now and then. Even though these are much healthier options, PS I LOVE these. It is much better than a lot of options we could be choosing. Thanks so much for sharing!
Mike @ Midwestern Bite says
It’s sad that I think our new chickens (which I introduced today on the blog) will be helping with my health. Not just the organic eggs…
They make me get my ass out of bed earlier than normal to check their water and feed. Hopefully I’ll be motivated to start running again after that small (enjoyable) chore. Right now I just sit there and watch them for about a half hour. 🙂
Amy @ Long Drive Journey says
Wow, I’m not a fan of frozen food, but I have to admit that those look pretty good!
Parita @ myinnershakti says
I’m not a huge fan of frozen foods (in general) but it’s nice to know that there are some great options out there. And sometimes you just have to pick your battles – a frozen meal during a super busy day isn’t going to throw anyone off their healthy living journey! I feel ya!
Ashley @ My Food N Fitness Diaries says
I’ve actually been struggling with this lately! We’ve had a lot going on these last few weeks, and I haven’t been loving the number of days that oatmeal or PB&J is what ends up being for dinner. :/ Some frozen meals like these may be a good option! What is the sodium like on them?
Sarah says
I keep a couple Trader Joe’s things in the freezer just in case we need an unplanned quick meal. I have to be careful of ingredients though because a “quick-easy” meal can even more quickly turn into a 4 day long migraine. Those Lean Cuisine’s do a good job of keeping out the obvious baddies (MSG and yeast extract). I am pleasantly surprised!
Tina @ Best Body Fitness says
Aw, what a nice surprise! Thanks for sharing my workout. 🙂
And those do look like some good freezer meals. If you just showed the picture of them on the plate I would have had NO idea.
Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves says
That Lean Cuisine dinner does look pretty fantastic! And I love that you used Hailey as your weight for Jen’s workout. Having fun with your daughter AND working out! 😉
I love to stay healthy during the week by having healthy choices on hand for when I need a quick snack on the go. Dance classes keep me moving, and when I don’t have time to go to the gym, efficient circuit workouts like Tina’s are some of my faves!
Matt @ The Athlete's Plate says
I try to make as many quick meals as I can. I’m single and I live alone so I’m not that busy at night!
Maria says
I actually have a weakness for Lean Cuisine French Bread (has to be the french bread ones) Pizzas and will sometimes pick one up on a whim. I love the flavors of the sauce and even though they kind of taste like cardboard, I like that too. I’m so weird.
Happy to see that they are cleaning up their ingredient list and hope that the pizzas are next! My healthier alternative is making whole wheat bagel pizzas at home. Same thick crunchy bread, yet no weird additives. I toast the bagel, spread with sauce some basil and oregano and my toppings and pop it in the microwave. So simple and quick!