Michelinas Lean Gourmet Vegetable Rice Pilaf

By: Tanya Taylor, PhD | Mar 5, 2007

Michelina's Lean Gourmet is one of my favorite frozen food brands. Although their meals tend to be small, the price is cheap, they are usually low on calories and most are pretty tasty - although there are a few that just don't make the cut - sorry Michelina, but that Lean Gourmet Rotini with Prosciutto and Basil was a disaster [read the review]. But thankfully, the Vegetable Rice Pilaf turned out to be a great find. Michelina's uses whole grain rice and a tasty vegetable mix of zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers and carrots. There is some kind of sauce that makes the rice and veggies moist, and a look at the ingredients list shows that it is probably a chicken broth. This makes the meal cohesive and Michelina's took a chance on including dried currants in the dish which added an extra bit of sweetness in almost every mouthful. The combination of textures from the crunchy whole grain rice, the softer vegetables and the sweet bite into the currants, work well together to make this a very enjoyable meal.

Michelinas Lean Gourmet Vegetable Rice Pilaf has 270 calories, 6 grams of total fat which is 9% of the recommended daily amount (RDA), 3 grams of total fat which is 15% of the RDA, 24% of the RDA for sodium, 7 grams of protein and 50 grams of total carbohydrates which includes 6 grams of sugars and 20% of the RDA for fiber (5 grams).

This meal is totally worth it, but take note of the amount of sodium- which I'm happy is under 25%, since it seems that the sodium content in ALL frozen dinners are not likely to be below 20%. I would buy this meal again and again - especially since it is only $1.

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