Day 10: Dinner--Chicken Fajitas

 

I had been anxiously awaiting the Chicken Fajitas dinner (which is really more like a chicken burrito) because I'm a big fan of Mexican food and enjoy refried beans, which it comes with.  I was waiting for the meal to fully defrost before eating because I thought the baby carrots were meant to eat raw, but quickly realized before prepping the meal that carrots do not defrost to maintain their texture, so I realized they were meant to be eaten as cooked carrots.  The meal also comes with salsa.

The Chicken Fajitas (which I'm just gonna call a burrito) was really good.  Lots of flavor inside and really tasty. The refried beans taste like refried beans and I enjoyed them.  The salsa is very good but a bit watery but I poured it both on the burrito and the beans.  I  also ate some of the carrots with the salsa.  I over microwaved the meal a bit as the beans did get a bit hard around the edges.

Overall this was a very enjoyable meal, although I'm still hungry after eating it.  I will definitely keep this meal for the next go round and possibly sub it in for something else in the future.

 

Week 3 Delivery

Week 3 delivery arrived and I finally took pictures! Above is what arrives on my door step.  The large Styrofoam box with a smaller cardboard box on top and they are all vacuum-packed together.  The top box has all of the sides and extras for the meals that aren't frozen.

When you open the Styrofoam box you will see what is above, all of the meals with bubble packs to cover the extra space.

 

When you take off all of the bubble packs, the frozen meals together look as seen above.

For week 3, I received the following meals:

Lunch:

• Turkey Cutlet Sub
• Tomato Pesto Meltover
• Tuscan Boats
• Michigan Turkey Salad
• Turkey Swiss Sandwich

Dinner:

• Turkey Salisbury Steak
• Chugwater Chili
• Curried Shrimp
• Chicken and Turkey Brunswick Stew
• Blackened Turkey Loin

Day 10: Lunch--Thai Chicken and Mushroom Soup

On the menu today is Thai Chicken and Mushroom Soup with Coconut Mango Rice and Sheffa Sweet Snack Mix.  The contents of the snack mix are coconut covered almonds and soy nuts and freeze-dried cranberries, papaya, and pineapple.

The soup itself is was watery and weak. I believe it is supposed to be their spin on tom yum soup and while it does have flavors of cilantro and lemongrass as well as the chicken and mushrooms, it is too watered down and does not have the bold flavors of tom yum soup.  The chicken is also a weird texture, likely due to the freezing and reheating process.

The coconut mango rice, which was put in one of those non-microwaveable plastic containers so I just slapped it on the tray and reheated it that way, manages to stay very moist almost overly so as the rice is a bit mushy but it is too sweet for my taste.  In addition to the rice, it has mango (obviously) and peas.

The snack mix is pretty tasty although some of the soy nuts had an almost burnt taste.  I liked the almonds the best followed by the freeze-dried papaya and pineapple.  I'm not a big fan of cranberries and didn't love the soy nuts, which unfortunately overwhelmed the mix.  I love coconut and did enjoy that the nuts were coconut crusted.

Overall the meal was ok.  I was definitely hesitant that a small soup with tiny sides of rice and snack mix would not fill me up and it definitely didn't.  It took me awhile after lunch to write this blog post and as I'm writing it now (about 3 1/2 hours after I finished eating), I'm currently starving and eager for dinner--which likely won't be that filling either!

Week 2 Weigh In

I weighed myself this morning and am down to 156. (The scale actually started at 155.5 but then popped back up to 156.)  I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed and wished for a greater weight loss but I know that you weight loss is really only supposed to be at a rate of 2 pounds per week so I'm right on track. I hope that when my work schedule gets a little lighter (yeah right!) and I start feeling better (I've been plagued by chronic headaches and fatigue for weeks if not months now.), I'd like to start working out regularly. Perhaps even use the p90x sitting with the rest of my DVDs.  Maybe when I start working out I'll lose more. For now the 2 pounds a week weight loss is a good pace.

5 pounds down, 21 to go!

Day 9: Dinner--Turkey Meatloaf

Tonight's dinner was turkey meatloaf with green beans and sweet potatoes.  The meatloaf is moist and somewhat tasty--it's not bad, it's just nothing special.  It does stay moist and has traces of red peppers and onions in it.  There was also a few small almost seed like things in it that were a different texture that I wasn't a fan of.  The sweet potatoes were good but I got the occasional bite that was packed with citrus.  I think there might have been lemon zest in them.  I'm not a huge citrus fan so it didn't work for me, but some may enjoy it.  The green beans are what you would expect from frozen and reheated green beans.  Overall, the meal was ok, but I think in the future I may try subbing it out for something else.

Day 9: Lunch--Waldorf Chicken Salad Sandwich

For lunch today is the Waldorf Chicken Salad Sandwich with V8 and an apple.  When grabbing my lunch this morning, I realized the apple was actually supposed to go with the Wahoo Burger and the Sheffa Zesty Snack Mix with the Waldorf Chicken Salad Sandwich, but I had already made the mistake and taken the snack mix with the Wahoo so I just subbed in the apple.

Once again, I had to deal with the issue of a mayo based sandwich and whether or not to microwave.  The sandwich was still pretty cold/possibly frozen, so I microwaved it in 30 second increments for a total of a minute.  The sandwich ended up being a strange mix of some warm bites and some cold bites.  I believe ideally this sandwich would work at a room temperature temp.  One issue I've had is microwaving bread and the bun on the sandwich held up and tastes like regular bread--maybe because the sandwich was mostly defrosted and only microwaved in short increments?

The Waldorf Chicken Salad Sandwich is chunks of chicken, apple, cherries, and walnuts in mayo. Like a lot of the Diet to Go meals, it is good but not overly great.  The apple is a standard apple on the smallish side.  the V8 is typical low sodium V8.  As I've said before, I appreciate it for the nutritional value but would prefer to get my vegetables in full form in order to enjoy eating rather than drinking and get the benefit of fiber which both fills you up and is food for digestive health.

Overall, I'd say the Waldorf Chicken Salad Sandwich is ok/good.  It's not a meal I'd skip, but it's also not one I'd double up on in lieu of something else.

Day 8: Dinner--Chicken Creole

Dinner tonight is Chicken Creole which is "creole flavored" chicken with carrots, onions, and green peppers (which you know I love) over brown rice.  As you can see from the pic, the chicken is pretty sparse.  When combining everything the chicken, sauce, etc.. taste pretty good but there really isn't much to the meal.  I was definitely left hungry and wanting more.  I even ate the green peppers to make sure I ate as much as possible!  Overall the meal is ok, but I think I might substitute it out in the future.

UPDATE: A few days after writing this blog post I realized that there was an additional side of a multigrain roll that was supposed to go with the Chicken Creole.  I knew when I saw the roll frozen separately from the meal that when it came time to eat it, I would forget that it comes with a roll.  I guess I'll just save it for another meal that it fits with to have as a side.

Office Temptation--Blech!

So the Chicken Pesto was clearly not filling enough as I was left absolutely starving after lunch, so I succumb to office temptation.  One of my co-workers left mini-cinnamon rolls in the kitchen and I allowed myself to have one cinnamon roll.  What helped me rationalize this indulgence is the fact that a few days ago I realized that while I'm on the 1200 calorie plan, each of my meals is only around 400 calories.  I'm certainly not expected to only have 800 calories a day--which would likely send me into "starvation mode" and cause my body to store up on fat rather than lose pounds.  Therefore, I'm expected to have an approximately 400 calorie breakfast that I make on my own separate from the Diet To Go meals.  Typically, I have just been having a granola/fiber bar in the morning that is somewhere around 200 calories, so having the 110 calorie cinnamon roll is not going to hurt me.  Starting next week, I plan to pre-make omlettes in mason jars with Egg Beaters, low fat cheese and lots of veggies and grab that in the morning for a filling, high profile, low calorie breakfast on the go.

Day 6: Lunch--Pesto Chicken

The Pesto Chicken is the chicken that was incorrectly labeled that I discussed in my first post.  From its defrosted state, I heated it for two minutes.  At 1 1/2 minutes it needed more heat but at 2 minutes it was really hot and almost too hot to eat.

The pesto chicken comes with a bread, which when reheated was very chewy.  It was hard on the bottom and soft on the top.  The reheating of the bread alone does not hold up as well as the bread on the sandwiches has.

The chicken itself is not very pesto-y looking and not particularly appetizing.  It has peas, olives, and red peppers.  The meal itself only had a mild pesto flavor.  I was surprised to find the chicken moist in texture, yet overall dry in flavor--if that makes sense.  Also, despite its poor texture, I found myself really enjoying the bread, in some ways more than the chicken.  The bread was flavorful and I found myself racing through it and instead had to slow down to pace myself to not finish it first and have a ton of the chicken left.

Overall, the meal was ok, but I'll probably look at the other option available for substitution the next time this week comes around to see if I'd like to try something different.

Week 2 Delivery

My week two delivery arrived and I know I promised pictures but I can't find my camera and my phone died.  Pictures will have to come next week!  Once again everything arrived in a large styrofoam box and this time there were a cardboard box on top which included extras that go with meals--it'll be a bit trickier to try to remember to grab the extras in the morning as I head off to work, but it's nice to have more options and sides with my meals.

Day 5: Lunch--Turkey Burger

Lunch today was a turkey burger on whole grain roll with mandarin oranges.  The burger was still semi-frozen so I microwaved it for 2 minutes which seemed to be the perfect amount of time.

The burger comes with two ketchup packets, but because I am not a huge ketchup fan, I skipped the ketchup to start.  The burger was surprisingly juicy and flavorful.  Admittedly, I don't eat a lot of turkey burgers, but I believe this was the most moist turkey burger I have ever had.  It would satisfy any meat lovers burger craving.  It is a bit reminiscent of meatloaf in the fact that it is not just straight meat in the patty but also has mushrooms and I presume onions to maintain the moisture.  I tried a bit of ketchup on the burger, but for my taste the ketchup was overwhelming and I preferred the burger alone.  I've already addressed that I have concerns regarding reheating bread and that became an issue with the roll which was hard in some pots and soggy in others.  It was typically soggy where the bun and burger had contact. 

The side for this lunch was mandarin oranges.  I'm not a huge fan of oranges so that wasn't a winner for me, but they were fine as far as oranges go. 

Overall the turkey burger was very good and probably a meal I would opt to get more than once.

Week 1 Weigh In

As of this morning, I have been on Diet To Go for a full week.  I have admittedly skipped a few meals and last night went to a food event in which I basically stuffed my face, but even still I am down 3 pounds.  It may not be a full 3 pounds as today I weighed myself in the morning and last week I weighed myself in the evening, but either way it's a step in the right direction and I now have a morning weight to base future loses on.

3 pounds down, 23 more to go!

Day 4: Dinner--Skipped

Before I started my Diet To Go journey, I had purchased tickets to a food event this evening so I will not be having a Diet To Go dinner tonight.

Day 4: Lunch--Grilled Cheese

For lunch today, I have a grilled cheese that comes with lentil salad and a brownie (although as you can see from the picture, it looks more like a muffin).  I was nervous about reheating the grilled cheese in the microwave as I felt as though bread gets weird when microwaved.  The texture of the bread turned out fine, but as you can see from the picture (I finally decided I should take pictures of my meals), the cheese melted out.  I first microwaved the grilled cheese alone for 30 second and then added the lentil salad (which came in a small plastic container that was clearly not microwaveable) to the dish and microwaved another 30 seconds, but when I started to hear popping/see the cheese melt out, I stopped it a little short.  Probably should've microwaved the lentil salad first and then the sandwich--oh well!

The grilled cheese sandwich is on french toast bread and while I'm normally not a big fan of sweet and savory together, the sandwich was surprisingly delicious.  When I first saw the meal, I figured this would be a meal I'd substitute for in future deliveries, but it was so good, now I'm not so sure.  I am a big fan of lentils and lentils have great nutritional benefits and are filling so I wish there was more lentil salad.  In fact, I'd prefer a larger portion of lentil salad over the brownie.  I realize that sounds crazy and the brownie was very good, but I'm not a huge sweets person and can live without/don't need dessert--especially for lunch and especially when I'm on a diet.  I'd much rather have a larger, more filling portion of the lentil salad which was yummy and I guarantee the amount of lentil salad that is equal to the number of calories in the brownie would be more food than the brownie itself.

As for the brownie, as you can see I kept it wrapped for the picture so that I could then heat it up when I was ready to eat it.  It was fully defrosted and tasted good on its own, but if you can have a warm brownie, why wouldn't you?  I heated it for about 30 second and it was predictably delicious.

Day 3: Dinner--Thai Turkey Tenderloin

For my third dinner, I chose the Thai Turkey Tenderloin.  It is a turkey tenderloin with marinade over rice with green beans and cherry tomatoes.  I've already indicated that I'm not a huge green beans fan, but I mixed them up with the marinade for more flavor.  Cooked cherry tomatoes is a bit odd, but they were fine.  The turkey itself was moist and tasty.  Although, that was mainly attributable to the marinade.  So more center pieces of the turkey I made a point to dip in the extra sauce.  I've already  mentioned that I'm a fan of rice and this rice didn't disappoint.  As far as feeling satiated, it was the same as with other meals.  I was definitely not full and still a big hungry but didn't really need more food than the meal had.

Day 3 Redux: Lunch--Chicken Philly Sub

I ended up not resuming my Diet To Go meals on Sunday--another migraine and instead started the work week off by resuming my Diet To Go meals and taking another shot at "Day 3."

The lunch I picked was the Chicken Philly Sub which comes with peach pudding. I have got to say that in its vacuum packed state and even after it is really unappetizing. Also, the thought of microwaving bread sounded gross. I could stick it in a conventional oven but neither had the patience to wait nor did I want to deal with using the toaster oven at work. Microwaving is just easier.

The Philly Sub comes with sliced chicken on a roll, a slice of cheese wrapped in plastic, and a side of tri-colored bell peppers and onions. As I believe I already shared, I do not like bell peppers so when I assembled the sandwich, I placed the cheese on the chicken and picked out the onions to put on. I threw out the peppers.

After assembling the sandwich, I microwaved it for 3 minutes but before the time was up heard it "popping" and saw that a lot of the cheese had melted out and was getting hard. I'm starting to learn that the Diet To Go times (always 2-4 minutes when thawed) are either too long or the work microwave is too high.   I pulled it out before time was up and some of the cheese and the roll was hard as a rock.

The sandwich also comes with a honey mustard mayo. It was a weird congealed texture, but I put it on. Despite the texture flaws and completely unappetizing experience, the sub wasn't too bad. I might elect to substitute it with something else in the future but I had really low expectations and was pleasantly surprised it wasn't as bad as I thought. The honey mustard mayo helped the flavor and was especially useful in making the hard parts of the bread edible.

As far as the peach pudding goes, it was essentially canned peaches with "pudding" which was just a weird, white gloppy texture mixed in that didn't add much flavor. It wasn't bad, it just also was not particularly appetizing looking.

Overall, I would say the meal was just "eh."  If I find a lunch I really like, I will definitely be substituting the next time this week comes around.

Day 3--Failure!

So on what would have been day 3 of my Diet To Go journey (a Friday), I had a massive migraine complete with a very uneasy stomach. I didn't feel like eating anything and at lunchtime, the Chicken Philly Sub which I had grabbed in the morning was far from appealing. I decided to skip the Diet To Go meals for Friday and instead sub them in on Sunday--I only got the 5 day plan after all so I can skip days.

Day 2: Dinner--Baked Spaghetti Pie

For my second dinner on Diet To Go, I went with the Baked Spaghetti Pie.  It is essentially spaghetti in a marinara sauce topped with mozzarella cheese.  (Think chicken parm if you replace the chicken with spaghetti.)  It was good, but certainly nothing special and certainly nothing I couldn't do myself.

It also comes with a side of cauliflower that is exactly what you would expect from frozen and reheated cauliflower--nothing more, nothing less.  It tasted fine, albeit a bit bland.

The instructions say to microwave the Baked Spaghetti Pie for 2-4 minutes if thawed and after overheating lunch, I went with 3 minutes.  Some of the spaghetti in the middle was bit cool, but not enough that I cared enough to reheat the meal for more time.

Afterwards, I felt the same way I had felt the night before.  I was definitely not full and definitely could have eaten more, but I wasn't famished and for a "diet" it was definitely enough food.

Overall the meal was adequate.  It didn't taste bad, but it didn't blow me away.  Then again, should I be expecting anything to?  It was good but a bit boring and was something I could have easily made myself.  Although I likely would make myself something more interesting.

Day 2: Lunch--Bistro Chicken Salad

Bistro Chicken Salad

For my first lunch with Diet To Go, I went with the Bistro Chicken Salad (you'll remember me talking about it on Day 1) which is also described as "Chicken Breast Tenders with vegetables, pasta, and sauce." To look at it in its vacuum-packed it looks like a pile of mush and isn't that much more appetizing after microwaved.  That being said I may have over microwaved it as the edges got that hard crusty aspect where the sauce burned.  The instruction said 2-4 minutes if thawed and I microwaved it for 3 1/2 minutes.  Maybe I should've opted for 3.

The meal is essentially tortellini with chicken strips in a pesto-type cream sauce.  The vegetables are pretty nonexistent with some corn, chopped onions, green peppers, and I believe spinach but it's so small it could be an herb.  The vegetables are chopped very small and there is very little of them.  For someone who doesn't like vegetables that would be a plus, for someone like me who enjoys veggies and loading up on them to balance feeling full and lowering calories--not to mention the nutritional value--I'd prefer more.  Then again, I hate green peppers and they seem to be a popular staple in per-prepared meals, so maybe I should be happy.

Overall. the meal is tasty but not very filling.  Maybe I could add a side salad with lemon juice in order to fell more full yet not pack on the calories.  Of course, that means I'd be spending even more money on food and eliminate the convenience of not having to prepare meals.  Then again a salad isn't the most difficult thing to make.

Day 1: First Week of Food Arrives & Dinner--Turkey Picadillo

So yesterday I dropped the ball a bit.  First, when I woke up I forgot to weigh myself.  So instead, my initial weight was taken when I got home from work before I had my first Diet To Go meal for dinner.  Next, I was too tired to draft a blog post, so I will instead be sharing my first impression of Diet To Go this morning.

When I got home, there was a large styrofoam box and inside was my ten meals, vacuum packed and frozen, a selection of condiments for various meals, and a list of the meals.  (I should've taken a picture, I'll try to remember next week.)  The meals could have fit in a box half the size, but I imagine they use the same box whether you get 2 meals for 5 days or 3 meals for 7 days, so that makes sense.  As I said, each meal was vacuum packed on top of a black tray that is mircorwave and conventional oven safe.  On the back is a large white sticker with the name of the meal, directions on heating, and ingredients.  Some meals said which week and day it was from, but weirdly some meals did not.  (Diet To Go cycles their meals every four weeks.)

I wish there was a bit more instructions regarding which meals to have when, calorie count of the meals, etc... on the sheet included in the box, but instead there was a list that doesn't even clearly outline what is lunch and what is dinner.  However, all of this information can be found on the web.  One thing that is frustrating is that two lunches which were clearly different had the same label "Chicken, Vegetables and Sauce."  The inventory list indicated that the first lunch "Bistro Chicken Salad" would be labelled "Chicken Vegetables and Sauce" but I had no way to know which of the two was the Bistro Chicken Salad.  By the rule of deduction, I figured that the two lunches with the same label were Bistro Chicken Salad and Pesto Chicken Salad and clearly they just put the wrong label on the Pesto Chicken Salad.  In order to determine which was which, I had to look at the pictures on the website.  (The Pesto Chicken Salad comes with a piece of bread--which in its frozen, vacuum packed state actually looks like a sausage.  The meals aren't particularly appetizing frozen and vacuum packed, but I wonder what would be?)


Since I plan on doing this for weekdays and not the weekends, I put my lunches and dinners for Thursday and Friday in the fridge and the rest of the meals in the freezer.  For dinner, I was scheduled to have the Baked Spaghetti Pie which comes with cauliflower, but I wasn't in the mood and instead opted for the Turkey Picadillo which comes with rice and beans (which I love) and asparagus (which I hate).  The heating directions from frozen are to microwave in two minute intervals on high until it reaches the desired temp.  I believe I used 3, two minute intervals.

The Turkey Picadillo ended up looking a bit like chili and the meals itself was a bit watery, which is probably true of any frozen meal.  Overall, it looked like what you'd expect from a frozen meal in size and consistency--perhaps a bit better.  As far as taste, it was pretty good.  The Turkey Picadillo was a bit sweet for my personal taste, but for someone who likes sweet with their savory this will be an added encouragement.  I actually liked the asparagus when it incorporated the flavors of the Turkey Picadillo and while the rice and beans are certainly no where near the best I've ever had, like I already said, I like rice and beans.

Overall the meal was tasty, but I certainly could have made something I liked better myself.  As far as quantity, I was still hungry afterwards but not famished and I eat A LOT.  It is probably a satiating meal for the average person and this is supposed to be a diet, I shouldn't expect to be stuffed after eating a meal.

I would say the combination of taste, convenience, and quantity leave me happy with my decision so far--it would've really sucked if I got the food and it was tiny, disgusting, and a pain in the ass!  So far it is way too early to have an opinion on the program overall.

Are you doing Diet To Go too?  Share your thoughts and experience with me!  Or if you're considering it, sign-up and share the journey with me!

Why I Joined Diet To Go

I have noticed recently that I have put on a bit of weight and my clothes aren't fitting quite the way that I would like.  I have also found myself going from making responsible food decisions to bad food decisions and have majorly increased my intake in sugar.  While I really enjoy cooking and enjoy cooking healthy foods, I work late hours and often am too exhausted when I get home to cook dinner.  Therefore, I end up either opting for take out or making something that's quick and typically not that healthy.  I decided to try out a at home, diet delivery system to take the thought out of what I was going to eat and my calorie intake.  I researched several options and settled on Diet To Go because I believe it is both affordable and potentially tasty.  I considered the least expensive diet delivery system, Nutrisystem, but after reading reviews found that it's quality of food is not very good and customer service, especially for cancelling is atrocious.  Some of the other diet delivery system with high reviews for food quality and taste such as Bistro MD, Freshology, In The Zone Delivery, and The Fresh Diet were just way too expensive for me.  At around $10 per meal, Diet To Go was about what I was already paying to buy lunches and get take-out for dinner.   Therefore, it won't be breaking the bank and the reviews of the food and customer service are pretty good.

I elected to go with the traditional plan for 5 days.  I got lunch and dinner and picked the 1200 calories per day day.  You can change your plan at any time throughout the plan and can make substitutions of meals if you find out that a particular meal you don't like or it doesn't sound good.  You must make all plan and meal changes by noon on Friday.  I signed up for Diet To Go last Friday just before the cut off and my meals were mailed yesterday and are expected to arrive tomorrow.  Meals are typically shipped on Mondays or Tuesdays and arrive in 1 to 2 days.  Considering I got the 5 day plan with the purpose of following Diet To Go during the work week and allowing myself to eat what I want on weekends, I find it a bit frustrating that my meals will arrive in the middle of the week rather than the beginning of the week, but my understanding is the meals are or can be frozen so they should last over the weekend for early next week too.

As I start Diet To Go, I will weigh myself tomorrow morning and then share my experience with Diet To Go including value and taste of the food, how hungry I am, how much weight I lose, and my experience with customer service, etc...

Are you looking to lose some weight or join a diet delivery service?  Join Diet To Go with me and share your experience!