Sometimes you just can't make it into the kitchen to cook. Dr. Gourmet has reviewed some common convenience foods, ingredients, and restaurant selections so that you know what's worth eating - and what's not.

The Dr. Gourmet Diet Plan

Lose weight the right way - the healthy way! - by following a clinically proven diet plan. And learn how to keep it off - for good!

Just Tell Me What to Eat: The Dr. Gourmet Diet Plan is an easy-to-follow diet for real people who live in the real world. So what does that really mean?

Create a two-week custom meal plan including breakfast, lunch and dinner, for yourself or your entire family - even kids under 14! NO making separate meals.

Shopping lists are automatically generated. Just print and shop for the next two weeks of meals.

Frozen meal options for lunch or dinner (such as Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers).

Easy, kid-friendly meals with leftovers for lunches or later in the week.

Special diet options include Comfort Food (great for families with kids!), Vegetarian (lacto-ovo), low sodium, lactose intolerant, Coumadin (warfarin) use, GERD / Acid Reflux safe, and gluten allergies (celiac disease). All meal plans are safe for type 2 diabetics because they are based on the Mediterranean Diet, which is known to be the best diet for type 2 diabetics. Combine special needs if needed: low sodium and lactose intolerant? Coumadin and celiac disease? Just select the options and get your delicious meal plan!

Other websites charge you as much as $29.95 per month for this service, but Just Tell Me What to Eat: The Dr. Gourmet Diet Plan is completely free. (We don't even ask for your credit card information.)

Sign up for Just Tell Me What to Eat: The Dr. Gourmet Diet Plan now!

           

 
 
 

Dr. Gourmet's Food Reviews

Two Thumbs Up for Lean Cuisine

I've been really hard on Lean Cuisine, but the truth is that they do have a pretty good track record here at Dr. Gourmet. The problem is that out of so very many meals they have on offer, few of them meet our standards for fiber and sodium. This week's two meals actually surprised me with how (comparatively) low in sodium they are and how (comparatively) high in fiber.

Lemongrass ChickenWe started with Lean Cuisine's Lemongrass Chicken. The box is labeled "New Recipe," which is what caught my eye. Then the "5g of fiber!" right next to it. "Hmmm... with only 550mg of sodium this is either going to be terrible or I'm going to be pleasantly surprised," I thought.

Hurrah! Pleasantly surprised. This dish calls for being microwaved for 4 and a half minutes, which made me suspect that the chicken would end up with the texture of rubber bullets. Nope. The chunks of chicken tenderloins end up quite juicy and flavorful - a real coup for microwaved chicken. The lemongrass-ginger sauce is well balanced and tasty, if a little strong, while the baby corn and broccoli are still crispy. Add to it whole wheat vermicelli with some nice body to it and you have an all-around winner with a whopping 5 grams of fiber. I'd definitely keep this one in my freezer for lunches. For dinner, just throw together a little salad to go along with this and you have a meal that's flavorful and satisfying.

Tomato Pesto ChickenAfter such a good start I lowered my expectations for their Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Chicken. This dish's pasta is not whole wheat pasta (and thus has only 4 grams of fiber), and all too often pasta sauces are way too sweet. I was again pleasantly surprised to find that the sun-dried tomato pesto, while maybe a tiny bit sweet, was still not at all cloying and the parmesan came through nicely. Once again the chicken chunks were cooked properly, and I finally figured it out: Lean Cuisine is putting larger pieces of chicken in their meals so that they don't end up overcooked. Good thinking, Stouffer's! The black olives might be canned, but the zucchini still has crunch. Overall, another good offering with only 570mg of sodium.

Good news and good work from Lean Cuisine. I just wish that more of their meals had more moderate levels of sodium and more fiber like these.