Frozen Food Find: Amy's Spaghetti Italiano

Love, love, love Amy's for having all vegetarian frozen meals and also lots of vegan ones too.  I love making my own food but I don't always have time and I have yet to come up with a "meatless" ball recipe that I love.  Now Amy's has one!  This pasta bowl from her new Light & Lean line is under 300 calories and a better portion than I would've expected.  It has 3 meatless meatballs, little pieces of broccoli and a very tasty sauce.  This one's a keeper!

New Vitalicious Breakfast Sandwiches!

Just spotted the brand new Vitasandwiches by Vitalicious (aka the maker of those delicious Vitamuffins).  These new egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches come in plain and veggie and they're delish.  Each sandwich only has 150 calories, 2 grams of fat, 7 grams of fiber and a whopping 14-15 grams of protein that makes them super filling!  And let's not forget the added vitamins and minerals.  Click here to locate them.

Heatlhy Snacking for a Recessionista

Finding healthy, budget friendly snacks is nearly impossible for a Ressionista (aka single girl on a budget). Even worse when you're trying to find easy, individually portioned snacks to bring to work. Luckily there's Trader Joe's 94% Fat Free Microwave Popcorn. You'll get a filling snack that keeps you occupied much longer than those 100 calorie packs that are gone in a blink of an eye. For $1.99 you'll get 6 mini bags of popcorn made with all natural ingredients and it's low in sodium. Cheaper and healthier than other brands. Happy snacking!

1 bag (3.5 cups popped)

130 calories

2g fat

0 cholesterol

100mg sodium

4g fiber

All Natural Sweetner - 4 calories

Sun Crystals are only 4 calories a packet and NO chemicals! Available at Whole Foods or purchase online at http://www.suncrystals.com/.

Soy Nut Trail Mix - Buy One Get One Free

Crum Creek's Brilliantly Blended Soy Nut Mix is a delicious, organic blend of soy nuts, chocolate chips, raisins, and pumpkin and sunflower seeds. The best part is that it comes in individually portioned bags for only 130 calories. They're the perfect on-the-go snack that keeps you full thanks to a whopping 9 grams of protein.

Normally these cost $4.75 for 1 pack (10 bags), but they're doing a buy one get one free good until April 20th. Just enter the promo code "bogosnm" at check out to get 20 bags for $4.75 + shipping.

While you're there, check out the Soy Bites. They're like little, crunchy breadsticks and the Everything flavor is delish. You get a ton of them in each individual 105 calorie bag.

New Banana Nut Vita Muffin

Not only is there a new Banana Nut Vita Muffin, but Hungry Girl is doing a promo Vita Pack with free shipping. You'll get 22 Vita Tops for $29.50.

10 Banana Nut

6 Deep Chocolate

6 Banana Fudge (Limited Edition)

Order at Vitalicious

Clif Kid Zbar = Dessert

The Clif Kid Zbars are so absolutely addictive! It's the best little dessert or on the go snack for 120-140 calories. All natural with no refined sugar. They all also have vitamins and protein which makes them a lot better than other portion-controlled snacks which are just empty calories. I highly recommend heating them a little bit and maybe even adding a spoonful of some low fat vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt. WARNING - they're all pretty sweet but oh so delish!

MY FAVES

Chocolate Chip - When warmed this is like a chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven.

Apple Cinnamon - Reminds me of apple pie and a little like an apple Pop Tart too.

Blueberry - Yummy like a blueberry muffin.

Peanut Butter - Like a peanut butter cookie with a little chocolate drizzle on top!

Spooky S'mores - This hits the spot if you like s'mores.

The Chocolate Brownie and Honey Graham are good but not over the top amazing.

They sell them individually at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and I even saw them at Jamba Juice. They're about $69 cents each but you can get them at Target in boxes of 6 which ends up being cheaper.

The Alternative Bagel - 110 calories

I'm hooked Western Bagel's Alternative Bagel! I make sandwiches with these almost everyday. I use the onion bagel because it adds a little extra flavor. These are a good size, taste great, and have fiber and protein so they fill you up for little calories. 110cal, .5g fat, 8g fiber, 7g protein, 1.5 points

In LA I have seen these in Whole Foods and Ralphs or use the store locator. You can also order these online. Just make sure to get the ALTERNATIVE bagel because Western Bagel makes other larger bagels that are higher in calories.

They also have an Alternative Pita and English Muffin.

PS - I was a little upset to find that these bagels aren't "all natural" -- they have Sucralose in them but at least it's the very last ingredient.

Granola Swaps

Kashi GoLean Crunch! cereal makes an awesome granola for less calories. It's a perfect for adding to yogurt, oatmeal, ice cream, or fruit. They list stats for a 1cup serving but as a topping you only need 1/4cup - 48cal, 1g fat, 2g fiber, 2g proteinThey also came out with a new Honey Almond Flax flavor that I will be trying soon!

You may not want to keep a big box of cereal around because in "single girl" world that means either A. It will go bad or worse B. You randomly take handfuls out of the box and realize you demolished it 2 days (ouch). So I would also recommend these Kashi Crunchy Granola Bars for those who prefer individually packaged. If you crush these up it's just like granola. They come in a pack of two and since they're higher in calories I would use 1 bar and save the other (it's called willpower).

1 bar (Honey Toasted 7-Grain) - 90 cal, 3g fat, 1g fiber, 3g protein

Tortilla Chips

Guiltless Gourmet - The best baked tortilla chip!!! Waaaay better than the cardboard-like Baked Tostitos. These are made with organic corn, no preservatives and are so delicious I never miss the "unbaked" tortilla chips.

For 18 chips 120 calories, 3g fat, 2g fiber, 2 points

So far I've tried...

Blue Corn - The best for salsa and dips

Yellow Corn - Runner up

Mucho Nacho - Just like Doritos

Chipotle - Like a spicy barbeque tortilla chip

Spicy Black Bean - Pretty tasty

They sell them at Whole Foods or use the store locator

If you can't find them I would say the next best thing is Tostitos NATURAL Yellow Corn. They're slightly higher in calories and fat but they only contain 3 ingredients (same as Guiltless Gourmet). When it comes to ingredients on packaged foods, less is always more.

Coconut Milk Yogurt

SO Delicious yogurt made with coconut milk is the first yogurt I've ever tried and actually really, really liked. I never liked the taste of yogurt and wasn't crazy about the soy ones either, but this one is DELISH!

Now I'm no vegan but I do know it's not good to gorge yourself on dairy products so this is a nice alternative. It's also soy free for those who are allergic or don't like the taste. It doesn't have much protein but you will get 25% of your calcium and pre and pro-biotics.

Store Locator

Fyi... I did some research and found that Dannon Light & Fit has Sucrose (aka Splenda) and Yoplait has High Fructose Corn Syrup. You might as well eat a Krispy Kreme donut with extra glaze.

Popped Potato Chips

Simply the BEST fake potato chips! Baked Lays are crap. Pop Chips are absolutely amazing! 120 calories in 19 chips. No trans fat or other artificial ingredients and they taste almost the same as regular chips.

Buy online at Amazon, which sells individual portioned bags. Or find in stores (I've found them in Whole Foods). Trader Joes also makes their own version which I have seen in Plain and Barbeque.

Fabulous Frozen Herbs

Dorot Frozen Herbs

Why? Because the single girl doesn't want to waste time or money on a bunch of fresh herbs when most are going to go to waste. And forget dried herbs. I found these little frozen cubes of fresh herbs at Trader Joes in the frozen section. So far I've only found the basil, cilantro and garlic.

Vita Muffins

Can't live without these muffins! 100 calorie, delicious treat and get your vitamins NO preservatives. I recommend the Vita Tops or the Vita Mixes and then you can bake your own. Just add water and egg whites and even better if you use a muffin top pan (they sell these). They even have recipes for the mixes. You save money getting the mix but they don't have all the flavors. My picks are:

Vita Mix - BlueBran, Banana Nut, Deep Chocolate, Brownie
VitaTops - Apple Berry, MultiBran, Double Chocolate Dream, Triple Chocolate Chunk

Buy online