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I have to tell you, as much as I love the fact that my family is together for almost every single meal daily (even lunch!), it comes at a price to my ability to maximize my work day. Since I work from home, I’m the one who is in the house and can get lunch and dinner ready each day. Mondays and Wednesdays are the worst, because I don’t have the kiddos with me before lunch, and it is prime “work” time. To spend 30 minutes of that precious time preparing lunch totally wrecks my attempt at a balanced lifestyle, because it gives me less time to get my job done, which in turn makes me more stressed out.

I’ve been noticing that as a result, I’ve been throwing together meal options that aren’t the best choice for my family due to their high salt intake, and I’ve been stress eating while trying to work lightning fast on those days. I need to get back on track with some healthier options that are also really convenient so that I can focus on my work, and also not feel guilty about what I’m eating.

So I headed to Walmart to find some options that would help me make the most of my work hours without coming at a steep cost to my waistline. I really hit the jackpot, too, and now my freezer has an ample supply of healthier choices that can be prepared in a flash.

Breakfast this week has been looking like this:

This is the LEAN CUISINE Morning Collection Turkey Sausage English Muffin. I’ve been eating it with some sliced citrus and a glass of almond milk. It is totally filling and takes 2 minutes to prepare. The box I purchased at Walmart cost $2.50 for 2 muffins, which makes it very reasonably priced (I can tell you from experience that a similar product at a certain fast food joint with golden arches costs more than double that price per serving where I live, and I don’t even want to know what the calorie difference is!).

For lunch, my new favorite go-to dish is the Lean Cuisine Sesame Chicken dish.

Now, in my experience, frozen Chinese food is ok at its best. And if it is a lighter version? You’ll be doing good for it to taste edible. I know that LEAN CUISINE has a reputation for putting out excellent products, so I wasn’t expecting it to taste bad.

But I also wasn’t expecting it to taste great. But it really did! It tasted like REAL Chinese food, and it cost only $1.97 and was ready in 4 minutes. It is safe to say that I was shocked by just how yummy it was. Sesame Chicken from LEAN CUISINE immediately went back on my shopping list, and I plan to buy 5 more, and then treat myself to this particular lunch once a week for the next month! Little Layah also LOVED the noodles in the dish, and certainly ate her fill of them after tugging on my sweater and pleading, “Mommy! Noodle! Peeeze!”

Did you know that LEAN CUISINE items actually come with a Money Back Guarantee? I just recently learned this, and that’s really all I needed to hear in order to start trying multiple new (to me) products each week. I’ve tried their Salad ADDITIONS before (AMAZINGLY good, by the way), and I have just learned that they also have Wrap ADDITIONS. I picked up the Creamy Balsamic Chicken, and it is DELICIOUS, and MINE, MINE, MINE! Tim doesn’t like balsamic vinegar, which means I don’t have to share. Hooray!

 I’ve also been wanting to try the LEAN CUISINE Simple Favorites Macaroni and Cheese, as that is a go-to dish for really bad/hard days (it is comfort food, after all) and I’d really love to try LEAN CUISINE’s take on it. With that Money Back Guarantee, I’ve got nothing to lose!

But here’s the tricky thing about the mac and cheese: getting it past my kids without them taking (ridiculously large) bites of it! Not only did I NOT get to keep this all to myself, but when I prepared this dish, it was all I could do to get a few bites in. My little ones were like hungry piranhas around it!

When I was shopping, I also knew that I needed to help myself make some better choices during my coffee breaks (which are frequent!). I’ve been curious about CoffeeMate’s Sugar-Free French Vanilla creamer, so I picked some up. Now I just needed a little chocolate, and found a great option with Skinny Cow. They have Divine Candy is a variety of options, but I knew the moment I laid eyes on the peanut butter creme filled chocolates that they would be going home with me. What a delicious and guilt-free snack break! I highly recommend them! And as for the creamer, I was very pleasantly surprised! I think it will take a little bit of time to get used to the sweet factor being not quite as strong, but given how much coffee I drink, making the switch to a sugar-free creamer is going to have a significant impact on my daily intake of calories. I’m glad I made the switch!

Later today I’m going to be serving a really fun snack to my entire family. LEAN CUISINE Three Cheese & Spinach Stuffed Pretzels will make for the perfect 3 o’clock treat for my crew, and is a much better choice than the alternative, which at the moment is leftover holiday candy.

What about you? Do you struggle to find food options that don’t take long to prepare and that promote a balanced lifestyle? Any particular products you think I should pick up the next time I’m grocery shopping?