Did Hades freeze over?  Because I just had an AWESOME lunch from a diet dinner.   In fact, I am so stuffed that I can’t eat the accompaniments to go with the meal.  Someone check my temperature!!  And while you’re at it, we’ll have to check my weight in a few days too since I’m pretty sure that I’m going to have some weight loss after sticking with this plan.  Stepping out of my comfort zone and eating a mail-order diet meal wasn’t really on my radar.  I was pretty skeptical about trying it.  Boy, am I surprised and excited about the possibility of the Diet-to-Go program!   I’ve long said to my husband that I would eat healthier if I had the time to make my own separate meals.  Since that’s probably  not going to happen, I tend to just eat what my kids are having.  Okay, in your head you’re probably saying that I should just make them healthier meals, too.  You’re right of course.  In the long run, though, my kids are just meat-and-potatoes type children who wouldn’t touch a mushroom strata if they were paid to do it.  On the other hand, that’s exactly my cup of tea.  I just never have the time to prepare something like that for myself.  On a restaurant menu, you can be sure that it’s going to be the super fat laden recipe because that’s how most food is prepared at a restaurant.   With Diet-to-Go, it’s easy to have a healthy, delicious meal.  So easy, in fact, that you don’t even have to step out of your house to get it!  I received a sample of their meal program and couldn’t be more pleasantly surprised at how much I loved it.

When the email notification came this morning stating that Diet-to-Go had shipped my package, I tucked that memo in the back of my mind and we went out for a swim.  A storm cloud rolled in and we decided to come into the house after only 30 minutes.  Somewhere in that time, my package had been delivered to the front porch.  It was massive!   I brought it into the house and opened the top box first.  In it there was a “fresh pack” which included some non-frozen items like yogurt and condiments.  Surprisingly, there were lots of brand name products in this package.   That appealed to me very much since these are brands that I  know I enjoy.  The yogurt included Activia, Yoplait, and Chobani.  There was Dickinson orange marmalade and strawberry preserves.  There were several containers of V8 and Ocean Spray fruit juices.  The key to this was that I didn’t have to purchase the multi-packs of each brand-name item just to have one with a mid-week lunch.  The work (and savings) was already done for me.

Next, I noticed that the instructions to the meal plan were enclosed in the package.  The personal menu encouraged me to enjoy the meals in any order or combination.  Wow, was that liberating!!  I love having the flexibility to choose a meal based on my preferences for that day.  Since it’s already planned out for me, having the choice to grab a meal and eat is a huge timesaver.   The styrofoam cooler was well packed with all the dinners.  They’re each labeled with the entree name and heating instructions.   There was a polarpac in the cooler, keeping everything frozen, and there had been a dry ice packet as well.  Storing the meals required a few minutes of clearing out some freezer and fridge space because this was a LOT of food, even though it was only for one person for one week. I kept the Mushroom Strata meal out to have for lunch (although it is listed as a breakfast option on my meal plan).  Here’s what it looked like before being heated.

I did not have my hopes up, I’ll be honest.  It just didn’t look all that appealing.  Frozen dinner meat is usually a dealbreaker for me, so I really wasn’t expecting to even eat that part.  My lunch heated in the microwave while my kids played; it took about 5 minutes to fully heat through.  The instructions suggested that it could be cooked in the oven, but let’s be honest.  I’m going to be microwaving these things.

After the meal was ready, I plated it on one of my favorite dishes. This dish has a design to fill up the plate, so that my brain is tricked into thinking it’s more food.  When the food was hot, it smelled amazing.  AMAZING.   I couldn’t wait to dig in.  My qualms about the chicken sausage were about to change.  After that first bite, I couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed it.  In fact, the chicken sausage was the first part to disappear from my plate!  It was quality meat, flavored just right with the perfect amount of spices.  Delicious. Next, I savored the mushroom strata.  I topped a few bites with the peppers and onions, which gave the strata such a good texture.   Now, my meal plan allowed for a V8 and yogurt to enjoy with this meal.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could finish the last couple of bites of strata because I was SO FULL.   It was very satisfying and I was kind of sad that I had already eaten such a good sample from the plan.  It definitely gives me hope for the rest of the meals, though!  I’m saving the accompaniments for an afternoon snack.

Now then, I wanted to know the nutritional value of what I had just consumed.  I headed to the Diet-to-Go site and was stunned to see that this meal was less than 400 calories including the V8!!!  As for the other components, it was fairly low in carbs and fulfills many of my dietary needs for vitamins.

Back when I had gestational diabetes, I worked with a nutritionist to make sure that my meals were in check.  This meal would have been an excellent choice!  I actually lost a bit of weight during pregnancy because of healthy eating choices I was more willing to make for the baby.  Hopefully meals like this will continue that pattern.  Now, the sodium is a bit higher than optimal.  It would be nice to see that part adjusted a bit (although I fear that it would impact the flavor).   Also, I have a few concerns about the waste that will build up from all of these disposable containers.  I’m thinking about using the little trays to start seeds or something.  Even using them as an art palette for my kids’ painting activities would be a good way to repurpose them.   I’d love to see a lunch-only option since this would be the perfect plan for me to take to lunch each day at work.  Normally I take leftovers but in the past few months I’ve fallen back into the habit of taking a frozen diet dinner.  This meal was so much more satisfying and flavorful.  I’d definitely prefer Diet-to-Go over my grocery’s frozen dinner that has been sitting in the freezer for who knows how long.   Having a piece of chocolate or two tucked into the meal plan somewhere would also be a real treat.  I wonder if they’ll come up with an organic option in the future?  I’ll definitely be checking out more meals from Diet-to-Go.

Other meals that I am looking forward to in this plan are:

Breakfast—Asparagus and Swiss Frittata, V8 Fusion, Orange Segments

Lunch — Chicken Philly Sub, Honey Mustard Mayo, American Cheese, Peach Pudding

Dinner — Barbecue Chicken, Anise Roasted Potatoes, Baked Beans, Green Beans

So what do you think?   Would you be willing to try Diet-to-Go and see how it affects your health goals? 
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.