Review: Healthy Choice: Portabella Spinach Parmesan

If you are like me, you are always looking for some go-to products for when life just makes it impossible to make your own healthy meals. While I prefer things to be less processed when possible, I am a firm believer that it is possible to have something that is quick and tasty and that still contains some decent nutritional value. There is nothing I can do right now about my busy life, but this doesn't mean I have to be resigned to eating fast food and over processed grocery store items. It takes a little bit of looking but there are some good, quick choices out there.

I would like to think the Healthy Choice 100% Natural Vegetarian Frozen meals could be one of those options. This week, I tried the Portabella Spinach Parmesan. This meal is mainly composed of whole grain pasta, mushrooms, spinach, and some tomatoes and bell peppers thrown in with a light sauce. For those of you who have read my earlier Veggie Cuisine Review, you know that the big thing for me with this frozen meal is that it does not contain fake meat! Yes, it is true! Imitation meat is not necessary to have an enjoyable vegetarian meal!

I found this dish pleasant and tasty. It was by no means mind-blowing in its flavor, but I have had much worse. If I have any concern about this, it is that it is only 270 calories. Even if you are a person who is trying eat more frequent, smaller meals, the calories here are a little low. If this is your lunch, don't expect this to last you until dinner. However, if you are looking for a dish to eat with a small healthy salad or if you are looking for something that is very light to round out your day, then this might be good for you.

Other nutritional information that may be important is that this dish contains 7g Fat (2g Sat), 10mg Cholesterol, 550mg Sodium, 260mg Potassium, 39g Carbs, 5g Fiber, and 11g Protein. There is also an array of vitamins and minerals:

Vitamin A 6%	Vitamin C 40%
Calcium 10%	Iron 8%
Vitamin B6 6%	Folic Acid 6%
Vitamin B12 10%	Phosphorus 15%
Magnesium 10%	Zinc 10%
Selenium 40%	Copper 10%
Manganese 40%

Again, while this is obviously a processed dish, this item is fairly impressive in the amount of vitamins and minerals it contains along with a good amounts of protein and fiber. While most frozen meals pack in the sodium, this one falls on the lighter side of the spectrum as far as that goes as well.

Saying all this, I think my favorite part about this dish actually has nothing to do with its flavor or nutritional value. Some of you may remember that I mentioned on my review of Veggie Cuisine, that I attempted to leave a review on the actual Lean Cuisine website but that it never appeared. Furthermore, there is only one review and it only says "Yummy!" This leads one to believe that they screen their reviews and probably only allow the ones that seem relatively positive to be posted.

I am happy to say that the same is not true for the Healthy Choice website. For the Portabella Spinach Parmesan there are 22 reviews and while there are positive reviews, there are also a good many negative ones among them. After reading through the negative ones, it looks like some just didn't find that this dish tasted good. Other reviewers commented that their dish turned out watery. Mine was not at all watery, so it is possible that some of Healthy Choice's steamable packaging is faulty.

Score one for Healthy Choice on this one, both in meal composition and integrity. I am a busy gal, so I am sure there will be a new installment of my frozen vegetarian entree reviews soon, so stay tuned!