Tesco Healthy Living
Tesco very kindly sent me a £10 voucher and asked me to review some of their new range of Healthy Living foods. As I am on new regime of exercise and eating well I jumped at the opportunity. I first looked at the Tesco website to see what they had in the range. It looked great ranging from Chicken Tikka Marsala for my love of spicy food to Bangers and Mash for my partners sensitive palate. There were soups, energy bars, desserts (hurray), yoghurts, in fact the whole range.
I set off for Tesco with my voucher clutched in my hand and headed for the chilled meals counter. I was a little disappointed that there was only a choice of 6 main meals on show (on the website there are approx 30) and only 3 desserts.
Looking at the meals on offer they are all lower calorie than their ‘full fat’ equivalents but are mainly the same size. My danger time for snacking is around lunchtime when all the children are at school and I have dashed back from the gym or shopping or whatever and am starving! So I looked for a meal to keep me going until dinner. I chose the Chicken and Prawn Paella (370 cals) and the Baked Potato with Cheese (224 cals each potato) which had 2 in the packet and finally the Tuscan Bean Broth (146 cals).
I had these over one week each lunchtime and must admit I was surprised at how tasty they were. Paella is one of my favourite meals and this was a good mixture of chicken and prawn and the rice was really tasty flavoured with chorizo. It was filling for a lunchtime meal but I think for an evening meal it would have to bulked out with a salad or veggies.
The baked potatoes were another filling meal – in fact 2 meals, each potato was approx 180g so was a decent size, the cheese topping was adequate. I thought to myself that it was expensive for a couple of potatoes (£2.75) but probably better for me as if I had made them myself I would have had a few hundred calories worth of cheese and butter on top!
My favourite though was the Tuscan Bean Broth, you just add boiling water, leave to stand and it is ready. It was full of flavour, plenty of beans and so filling. You could take this with you anywhere and have a snack ready with no fuss at all.
Now being a chocoholic I could not resist a trying a dessert so went for the Chocolate Muffin Dessert (165 cals). I had this after all the children were in bed and I was able to sit back and relax. This dessert is filled with chocolate mousse, chocolate custard, chocolate muffin pieces and bits of chocolate on the top – what more could you ask for? Yes, it did taste chocolaty, not overpoweringly sweet, maybe just a hint of saccharine but it hit the spot and lasted longer than a bar of chocolate and felt very decadent.
Finally I tried the Instant Hot Chocolate (39 cals). I love a cup of cocoa at bedtime so this was ideal. It was very nice, but as you make it with water I felt it was a bit well, watery! Not as nice as a cup of cocoa made with milk, but of course a lot less calories so you have to choose.
All in all I enjoyed my Healthy Living meals and would say to give them a go instead of a full fat meal, you have nothing to lose but a few pounds
Disclosure: I was sent a £10 voucher to buy the products I reviewed.
