The Life of Bon: It's Honestly So Good! Also I'm eating dinner by myself but that's beside the point.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

It's Honestly So Good! Also I'm eating dinner by myself but that's beside the point.

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign 
with Pollinate Media Group™ and Lean Cuisine, but all opinions are my own. 
#pmedia #HonestlyGood #ad http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.


When I got married two and a half years ago I was dreading a few things. Don't get me wrong, I was all sorts of excited for lots of things about marriage... someone to cuddle with in the night, an automatic date to all future weddings and funerals, and of course someone to buy a puppy with, eeegatz!

But the cooking? THE COOKING? Was I really going to have to learn to put chicken and bouillon (I didn't know what bouillon was until I got married) and minced garlic (I also didn't know what minced garlic was until I got married) and water chestnuts (okay, now I'm just showing off. I know so many cooking words now!) together and have it come out edible? Oh, the pain!

The problem isn't that I can't cook, per se. I have learned enough the last few years to whip up a meal and not have a mini panic attack like I did in the early days. The problem is that cooking involves grocery shopping. Grocery shopping's predecessor is meal planning/ looking at recipes. Both of these processes are arduous, exhausting and stressful to me (See this post.) Even when I do manage to write out 20 needed ingredient and then succesfully buy them all at the store, there then presents itself another problem. I get home on weekdays at 4:00 after nine hours of teaching, and the last thing I want to do is stand in the kitchen and make food. So the groceries rot in the fridge and two weeks later I throw them out without ever having made any of the recipes I was going to make.

When miracle upon miracles I manage to meal plan AND grocery shop AND cook THEN comes the worst part of all.. .the clean up! Pots and pans and strainers and I swear to you if you cook dinner for your family every night then you are a goddess because just the sight of dirty dishes after the planning/shopping/cooking is enough to leave me curled up in the fetal position in a fit of sobs. I'm exaggerating, of course. Or am I?

A few months ago I discovered something. If I saved my heavy duty cooking for weekends and didn't pressure myself to cook big elaborate meals on the weekdays... Oh, sweet HAPPINESS! No more stressful meals and clean up and I'm taking my week nights back, thank you very much!

Of course, then comes the stress of what do we eat during the week days? Greg's schedule is inconsistent at best... he is home less than half of weeknights so lots of time I'm just eating by myself. That more often than not involves pouring a heaping bowl of cereal. But cereal gets old. So then I go get fast food. But fast food is fatty and gross and costs too much.  

What's a girl to eat?

That's when I kind of started dabbling with the idea of frozen dinners. I never ate one single frozen dinner growing up... I came from a family of eight children- there was no way enough frozen dinners for the Blackburn mini army could even fit in the freezer. Besides that my mom was a cooking queen- no frozen dinners necessary!

Thus, when I started shopping for my own frozen dinners I had no idea what I was doing. I bought dollar dinners that tasted like cardboard. I bought $10 specialty dinners that were good, but not filling and blew my grocery budget out of the water. I bought greasy frozen pizzas that were inexpensive and didn't taste half bad, but oh the grease! The horrific amounts of grease!

That's why when Pollinate offered a campaign to check out Lean Cuisine Honestly Good frozen dinners I was all aboard. Not only were the called "Honestly Good" but they looked honestly good!

I hustled on over to Target because there's a Target across the street from my school. Also, it's Target. Let's face it, I'm there every other day. The Lean Cuisine Honestly Good dinners come in honey citrus chicken, lemongrass salmon, pineapple black pepper beef, plum ginger grain-crusted fish, promegranate chicken, and roasted red pepper chicken. I wanted to try ALL THE DINNERS but my Target is remodeling and only had Pomegranate chicken and Lemongrass Salmon in stock. So I bought em!

And then we ate them!

^^ Pomegranate Chicken

^^Lemongrass Salmon

^^ Table set for two except for Greg was only home for approximately 2.7 seconds so I put his in the fridge to eat when he comes home later tonight.  Also, I spy a PUPPY.


^^  Greg's a big salmon fan so I saved the Lemongrass Salmon for him and helped myself to the Pomegranate Chicken.  I was seriously shocked at how good it was.  And a little insulted... how can chicken that is frozen taste more tender than anything I have ever made myself?  How rude!  The sauce is sweet and gives the perfect amount of flavor.  If someone had served this meal to me and not told me it was a frozen dinner I never would have known.


^^ This is me eating dinner alone and attempting to use the self timer on my phone. Not my finest moment. The bright side to eating dinner alone is you can read through the whole meal and chew as loudly as you want and no one gets mad at you for being rude. Winning!

The best part about Lean Cuisine Honestly Good meals (aside from affordable and delicious) is that they are HEALTHY. I am on the go all day long and it is so hard for me to make the time to eat and cook healthy. This does it for me. The meals are made with 100% all natural wholesome ingredients so I don't have to feel guilty when I eat these frozen dinners. No greasy pizza, no immediate stomach ache after eating, no added pounds to my waistline. And no clean up! These bad boys are definitely going to become a freezer staple for me!

Now, if only they would only make something to curb my mighty powerful sweet tooth... Lean Cuisine Honestly Good desserts anybody....?  (Hint hint!)



8 comments:

  1. I'll have to give those a try it looks good! Hey, the selfie turned out great! What I wouldn't give to eat a meal alone... without my little lady all up in my plate!

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  2. Considering I hate cooking and I frequently eat by myself (downfall of living on your own) I might need to try these!

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  3. If you don't have a crock pot.... get one. Throw food in before you leave for work ~ so easy ~ and it's done when you get home. :)

    An easy and very good recipe:

    SWISS CHICKEN CASSEROLE

    Ingredients:
    •6 boneless chicken breast halves, skin removed
    •6 slices Swiss cheese
    •1 can cream of mushroom soup
    •2 cups stuffing mix
    •1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
    Preparation:
    Wash chicken pieces and pat dry. Lightly grease slow cooker or spray with cooking spray. Place chicken breasts in pot. Top with the Swiss cheese. Spoon soup over cheese then sprinkle with stuffing mix. Drizzle melted butter over stuffing mix. Cook on low 6 to 7 hours or high 3 to 3 1/2 hours.

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  4. On Swiss Chic Recipe ~ frozen chic breasts will work.

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  5. I'm a big proponent of the crock pot!

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  6. Oh yum, these look delicious!

    Carly
    www.lipglossandcrayons.com

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  7. What about healthy cupcakes (you know, those with spices, those with fruits, and those with vegetables? I know someone who sells amazing cupcakes that fulfill you and at the same time healthy.

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  8. You are so darling Bonnie. So is your little pup.

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