Showing posts with label Uncle Ben's whole grain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uncle Ben's whole grain. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

"Default" Dinner For the Inevitable Busy Day

Last night around 6:30 it hit me that I needed to make dinner. I had such a busy day with work, dropping off the kids at school, more work, a short work-out for me, more work, picking up the kids and t-ball practice -- that I completely forgot that the kids needed to eat something (And, oh yes, I needed to eat too). My husband was coming home late from work, so I could not ask him to get dinner started for me. At this point, it would have been easy to go to a drive through window and just pick something up. I did not, however, give in to my children's pleas for McDonald's, instead, I went home and made one of my "default" dinners. My "default" dinners are not alway completely healthy but last night the one I chose did not include chicken nuggets or macaroni and cheese -- it was just as easy, but much healthier. During dinner I started thinking about the nutritional value of our meal -- remember, I am a dietitian, so I cannot help it -- and decided to run a nutritional analysis on my "default" dinner. So, here is the dinner and the results of the analysis --
-- Sam's Club frozen chicken breasts without skin (I add soy sauce and my kids eat it with ketchup) -- microwave for less than 10 minutes
--Canned black beans (we sprinkle reduced fat feta cheese on top) -- microwave for less than 2 minutes
--Uncle Ben's whole grain 90 sec pouch (we add spray butter and soy sauce) -- microwave for 90 seconds
--Canned green beans -- microwave for less than 2 minutes
--Whole wheat bread slice (with spray butter)
--Skim Milk
The analysis showed a very low-fat meal, less than 10% a good amount of carbohydrates and an excellent amount of protein at 115% DV. Additionally, we ate 34% of the recommended amount of fiber, over 50% of the recommended amounts of most vitamins and 20%-50% of all minerals. The down-side was that folate, vit C and the omega-3 fats were low -- but remember this was just one meal. These nutrients could be made up in other meals. I would love to hear about any of your quick and healthy "default" meal tips.