Days 13 to 15: Fasta Fagoli, Chicken Pasta Primavera, and Roast Turkey Medallions

Day 13 (April 22) started out with Apple and Cinnamon Oatmeal. Just like the Maple Walnut Oatmeal from a few days ago, this one was pretty good--creamier and richer than standard Instant Oatmeal you get in the supermarket.

For the morning snack, I helped myself to another container of yogurt. I'm finding that this is the best option for my "dairy". I love the taste, I can buy a ton of it at my local BJ's, and I can store it in the fridge for a long time.

Lunch that day was Chicken and Barley Stew. This was one of those lunch meals from the shelf-stable box, coming in the plastic cup with the metal pull-off tab. I found that for all of these meals, the microwave instructions are way off. They do have a disclaimer saying that microwaves may vary, but I wish they'd give a few more instructions on how to tell if the meal is done. Anyway I did enjoy the taste of the stew. It had thick chunks of chicken and a great taste. It put me in the mind of Campbell's Chunky Soup. 7/10.

For my snack that day, I had an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. It was soft and chewy and tasted the way it was supposed to. 6/10.

For dinner that night, I went into the non-frozen box of shelf-stable meals again. I chose the box of pasta fagioli. Now, all my life I've heard of pasta fagioli, but I never had it. But I think this tasted pretty much the way it was supposed to taste. It had a rich tomato sauce, chunky tomatoes, beans, and a few carrots. Oh yeah, it also had something called "vegetarian sausage". As unpleasant as that sounds, they did a pretty good job with it--I'm pretty sure soy was involved here too. The texture was chewy like sausage, and the flavor was infused with the taste of the sauce, which was pretty good. Another 7/10, although I think my review is helped a little by the fact that I was pretty hungry by the time I ate it.

For dessert that night, I had a Blueberry Lemon Bar. This was a treat. It was like a lemony cookie bar with blueberry jam on it, and all covered with a white frosted coating. The taste and texture were excellent. 8/10.

On April 23, I was running late for the office again. Like I said, it's real convenient to grab food out of the box on the way out.

For breakfast, I grabbed a granola bar, but silly me, I forgot to eat it. But it turned out for the best, as one of my co-workers brought in food (which was really good). So I took a little detour that morning.

By lunch, I was back. I had a plastic can of beef stew. Same deal with the other plastic cans--I had to put it in the microwave a little longer than the instructions said. I had a piping hot little bowl of beef stew that tasted surprisingly good. It had chewy beef, lots of potatoes and peas. 8/10.

For my snack, I had a peanut butter cookie. I gave this a 5/10, which probably would have been a 7/10 if I liked peanut butter cookies. Not that I hate them, but if I had chosen my own meals instead of having the "favorites" delivered to me, I probably would have chosen more salty snacks than cookies.

Dinner that night was from the non-frozen, shelf stable box again. It was Chicken Pasta Parmesan, with tomato sauce, white chicken meat, and curly pasta. Decent tasting. 7/10.

For a snack that night, I decided to have the oh-so-good Nacho crisps.

I gotta say, I wish I had some more bags of these.

On Day 15 (April 24), the day started with a "cranberry orange pastry".

I had these with a cup of lemon herbal tea from my Keurig. It was soft and fresh, with an orange taste and real dried cranberries. I'd call it a 6/10, it'd probably be a 7/10 but I generally don't like orange pastries.

For lunch and my afternoon snack, it was another case of me running out the door. I grabbed a plastic can of pasta with beef and a chocolate chip cookie. The pasta with beef was, again, a lot like what you'd find in a can of Chef Boyardee. It had a decent taste (7/10). The cookie was good and chewy (8/10).

For dinner, I treated myself to one of the frozen meals that I'd been eyeing since the first day. Roast Turkey Medallions:

The vegetables were uncannily fresh, another success for the Nutrisystem/Schawns partnership. The carrots were crispy, the cauliflower tender, and the broccoli fresh. And the turkey was perfect--juicy with a great texture and the perfect consistency of turkey and gravy. (10/10).

To wrap up the day, I helped myself to another dessert from the frozen box. It's the "fudge swirl sundae". There's delicious vanilla ice cream (fat free, but it's impossible to tell), with real, rich fudge drizzled within it. It was extremely satisfying at the end of the day (10/10)