I’ve long been one to shy away from food manufacturer’s attempts to take something that I remember as being awesome and making it healthy (which probably explains my expansive waistline). Recently Healthy Choice has been advertising a new product known as Fresh Mixers, this is the tale of my experience with the Ziti and Meat Sauce variety.
Health experts have long held a theory that the ritual of eating is almost as important as what you eat when it comes to controlling weight. A healthy eating ritual, for example would consist of preparing a meal, sitting down at the table to eat, and then going on to the next part of your day. In America many times our eating ritual is similar to: Grab fast food, eat it while [watching tv/surfing the web/working] etc, Healthy Choice’s new Fresh Mixer puts the cooking back into corporate lunch, or even a quick dinner.
The idea is simple you cook the pasta yourself, strain the pasta yourself, apply the sauce yourself and (hopefully) eat it, yourself. Compared to other Healthy Choice products which include “put tray in microwave for 2 minutes” this makes you feel like a real chef. The packaging is unique and includes everything (except for water) you need to cook your meal including a strainer, a bowl for the pasta, a bowl for the sauce and very easy instructions.
Preparing the meal is trivial, you simply remove the label on the straining lid, remove the lid, add water, put the lid back on and microwave for 3 minutes. Then you microwave the sauce for 30 seconds and combine the two in the bowl. No Muss, No Fuss.
For being a pre-packaged product I must say that the taste and texture of both the sauce and the pasta impressed me very much. The pasta was not watery and the meat sauce had (surprise) actual meat in it. The meat sauce also didn’t taste like watered down Ragu like so many other quick heat and eat meals provide. At 7 ounces coming in at just 340 calories and 6 grams of fat, this is a great lunch or main entree for any healthy dinner.
All in all the product is easy to cook, healthy, filling, and hard to resist. I would highly recommend the Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers Ziti & Meat Sauce. The best news is that it doesn’t set off the Alli atom-bomb.
Note: Most supermarkets only carry single containers of this, you can use the link below to order a 6 pack from Amazon for a little more than $20
-Drew
