Lean Cuisine Gilled Chicken and Penne Pasta

By: Tanya Taylor, PhD | Sep 18, 2006
4 stars

Lean Cuisine Gilled Chicken and Penne Pasta has "grilled chicken tenderloins, penne pasta and vegetables in a garlic sauce, with a caramel apple dessert." I tried this based on a recommendation from a regular website visitor. She says her co-workers swear by it, but she's vegetarian and thinks it stinks when they heat it up. So the first thing I did was a "smell check." Fortunately, the smell wasn't overpowering to me, and I was looking forward to eating it, especially based on the picture on the front of the box which makes it look so yummy. And I wasn't disappointed. The chicken was tender, and there were quite a few big chunks. The vegetables, broccolli and carrots were crisp and tasted fresh even after microwaving. The lightly flavored garlic sauce ties everything together, and no need to worry about garlic breath if you are having this for lunch, because there is only a hintof garlic.

Lean Cuisine has also included a "caramel apple dessert" in this meal. I don't know why Lean Cuisine is following Healthy Choice by including some fruit pieces in syrup and calling it dessert. It just adds sugars (in this case 24 grams of it) and adds to the calories to the meal- almost 100 calories extra. It tastes okay - maybe even good - but I don't think this should be a part of a 'healthy' meal, and why does their dessert have to be something sugary and syrupy?! I might be alone on this one, but I am really against this.

The Lean Cuisine Gilled Chicken and Penne Pasta has 330 calories, 4.5 grams total fat and 1.5 grams of saturated fat which are both 7% of the recommended daily amount. There is no trans fat, 24% of the RDA for sodium (580 mg), 20 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber which is 24% of the RDA and 24 grams of sugar (52 grams total carbohydrates). You can also get 90% of your daily vitamin C, 35% vitamin A and 10% calcium.

I enjoyed this meal, and the nutrition facts are good, but I wish they didn't include the dessert - which I didn't eat. The price was $3.00 on sale, and Lean Cuisine goes on sale often.

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