Homemade 'Lean Cuisines'

hkulbacki
hkulbacki Posts: 187 Member
edited November 8 in Recipes
OK, who makes their own 'Lean Cuisine' lunches? Please share your recipes.
I had a few actual Lean Cuisines last week and saved the containers, not to re-use really, but just to use as a serving size guide because those lunches do seem to be a good portion for me.

So today I made lunches for next week - 2 days worth of chilled asparagus with a ginger orange dip (very yummy), plus tuna with olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and some Mrs. Dash, and a couple Wasa thin & crispy sesame flatbreads - then 3 days worth of pasta, sauce, and grilled asparagus with butter and parmesan - cooked and frozen to nuke at lunchtime.

Note, I LOVE the Gladware plastic containers and they are CHEAP at Target :)

Recipes:
Chilled Asparagus - about 75g of asparagus is only 17 calories :)!!
snap the tough ends off
in a large skillet, bring about 1" of water to a boil
simmer asparagus uncovered until barely tender - less than 5 min.
drain and dunk in ice water, drain again and chill until serving - very convenient for lunch, no nuking needed :)

Ginger Orange Dip - this makes about 2 cups, I use 2 Tablespoons for lunch (about 93 calories)
3/4 cup Mayonnaise
3/4 cup sour cream
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 Tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest (I use orange extract)
1 garlic clove (I usually use a clove but used garlic powder today)
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1-1/2 Tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt & pepper
mix, dip, and enjoy - yes you can use the low-fat/no-fat/chemical filled mayo and sour cream but it's only 93 calories with the full fat variety and the taste is NOT the same, enjoy your food - eat the fat, but moderate it

Tuna - this works great in the little round 1/2 cup Gladware containers
1 can chunk light tuna drained
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
a little salt & pepper
- after mixing that I put 1/2 into each of 2 of those small Gladware containers then mixed into them:
Mrs. Dash - I used the Italian Medley in one container and the Original Blend for the other.
I take the Wasa thin & crispy sesame flatbreads in a zip lock, then at lunch time break them into quarters or thirds and scoop the tuna with them.

Pasta, sauce, and asparagus - this one has a little more of the 'Lean Cuisine' feel since I put everything in one of the rectangle 3 cup Gladwares and froze them to nuke for lunch, about 295 calories for all.

about 3/4 of a serving whole wheat pasta, cooked (just barely to Al dente since it will be nuked later) and drained
1/4 cup Newman's Marinara

Asparagus:
snap off the tough ends, I found some super skinny ones and found about 9 of them to be just under 50 grams.
line a baking pan with foil and line the asparagus up in a fairly tight row, but not overlapping.
slice some pats of butter, then cut those into quarters and line them up covering the tops and bottoms of the asparagus
sprinkle about 1 Tablespoon of paresan cheese per serving over the asparagus.
Since I will be nuking these later I also under cooked them ever so slightly - bake at 350 for 5 min then broil for 5 min (the directions I had said to bake for 10, but since I'll be re-heating I cut that time.
- I then let the asparagus cool, cut the spears in half and put them into one end of the Gladware, put the drained and cooled pasta in the middle, and the marinara in the other end - tossed each container into the freezer, ready to go.

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