NutriSystem week 3: Tamsin weighs in on the food

Weigh-in:
• Tamsin - 1.5 pounds (4 pounds lost to-date)
• Eden - 1.8 pounds (6.4 pounds lost to-date)

It’s Week 3 of our NutriSystem Challenge. I admit to a little frustration with my small loss. I am still struggling with getting in 8 glasses of water, although I do great some days. Good news: I cut back to ½ glass of wine with dinner on the occasional night.

As for the food, I definitely have my favourites. I really enjoy the lasagna. It’s not too cheesy, and I like the tofu in it. It’s a very filling meal when paired with a spinach salad.

For this post, I am reviewing some different dishes on the NutriSystem menu. These dishes weren't my first choices, but they provide options.

First up, thin crust pizza. The crust is a very small flatbread. The tomato sauce tastes like it came out of a little plastic pouch, which it does. You squirt the sauce on the bread, then you sprinkle cheese from a little package and pop it into the oven. Yes, the key words are “little” “tiny”, “small”. It’s barely appetizer size. Maybe I wouldn’t mind if it tasted great, but it doesn’t. I just did not find the pizza worth the effort of cooking in the oven.

Next, the vegetable fajita mix. It comes as a package of freeze-dried beans and powdered mix that you mix with water on the stove. It thickens into a moist goop that is best hidden in a tortilla. I added lettuce, tomatoes, and a little home-made salsa. Still, it wasn’t enough to make the mix palatable to me. Just not appetizing.

I was pleasantly surprised by the cheesy broccoli mashed potatoes. It starts out as powdered cheese and what I assume are potato flakes. Add some boiling water, stir, and you get some tasty and very filling mashed potatoes. I enjoyed it twice this week with a side of rapini and red peppers.

We ordered our food for Month #2, and I am very excited about trying dishes like: “Cheese and Spinach Ravioli with Meat Sauce” and “Lemon Butter Sauce with Chicken and Noodles”. Not to mention the “Blueberry Lemon Dessert Bar”. Sounds yum!

Second time lucky with the NutriSystem challenge

Weigh-in:
• Tamsin - 2.5 pounds
• Eden - 2.6 pounds (4.6 pounds lost to-date)

Other than progress, the one thing that I’ve been asked by readers, family and co-workers since I started the NutriSystem Challenge is: “How’s the food?”

Well, I’m not sure whether I’m hungrier now that before but it’s not bad. In fact, some meals are pretty darn good. Others I could do without. So without further ado, here’s my mini-review...

Breakfast
Favourite: Nutrisystem Apple Granola Bar, 8oz. skim milk lactaid, 1/2 banana

Dreaded: None. I haven’t been adventurous enough to try the NutriSystem powdered scrambled eggs and I’m not sure I will.

Lunch
Favourite: NutriSystem Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar, Salad with mesculun greens, baby spinach, raw mushrooms, radish slices, sliced eggs, no-fat dressing

Dreaded: NutriSystem Pasta with Beef. I’m lucky because I was only sent a couple of cans. I like their dinner pasta but I didn’t like this one at all.

Dinner
Favourite: NutriSystem Wedged Potatoes with Sliced Beef Steak - this meal was by far the best I’ve tasted; mixed greens with sprinkle of red pepper, two grape tomatoes, cucumber slices, sliced olives (fat serving); two portions of steamed broccoli.

Dreaded: I’m sorry but I wouldn’t serve the Chicken Breast Patty to my worst enemy. If I had to guess how cat food tastes this would come pretty close. I couldn’t eat it and had a couple of pieces of the beef from the stir-fry I made for my family that night. In all fairness, my 9-year-old asked to try the chicken and liked it a lot.

Dessert
Favourite: NutriSystem Chocolatey chips dipped in light peanut butter (fat serving). Yum yum! I’d like to know how it compares to the caramel popcorn but I haven’t seen any yet. Maybe next month.

Dreaded: None. I’m not crazy about the savoury treats. The pretzels were airy and bland. I’ve always preferred something sweet after dinner. The NutriSystem dinners are high in sodium so I’m not craving salty foods either.

Cravings
Truthfully, I’ve been quite satisfied on the program and rarely felt hungry, except I’d really like a Montreal bagel once a week. I’m not sure why the NutriSystem guide provides a list of bread servings when we can’t add them to our meal plan anyway.