True Facts about NutriSystem: Part 3 The food

Disclaimer:  I'm not a nutritional expert.  I am not a representative of NutriSystem and have not been compensated by them in any way.  I have had success with a this particular program and people have asked me about it and my journey so I figured I'd share a few things.

True Facts about NutriSystem, Part 3 :  The food.

I don't have an epicurean's palate, but I do consider myself a bit of a foodie.  I like some very fine foods, a lot.  That said, in full disclosure, I also totally love a pecan waffle from Waffle House and have elected to have my birthday dinner, while traveling for work, at a Sonic.  And sometimes, I'd rather have Kraft crud over any sort of good, properly prepared mac and cheese.  I like really good food, but I'm not super uppity, except when it comes to salad--iceberg lettuce is only suitable for tacos and burgers--it is not meant for salads.  Seriously.

Now, about the Nutrisystem food.

The breakfast food is probably the easiest to palette and get used to.  The bars are mostly adequate, some, even fairly good.  The cereal tastes like cereal, just in a ridiculously small, but actually proper proportion.  The muffins taste as good (as bad) as any prepackaged, long shelf life, muffin you'd get in a store.  The non-frozen cinnamon roll is better heated, but super tiny and tasted like it's very high in fiber.  The frozen cinnamon roll is much better--not amazing, but makes up for not getting the real thing.

Here are the ones I've tried.

The pictures aren't always to scale and often look better than real life.

The non-frozen cinnamon roll is smaller than a muffin--really about the size of one mini-roll you'd get 4 of from cinnamon.  The bagel is small, but reasonably filling.  The waffles, however are the size of Eggo Waffles.  The French Toast is about the size of a slice for Texas Toast.  Both are really really good.  I don't get the cereals anymore, but they aren't bad, just not portable enough.  The muffins and bars are really easy to grab and go.  If I'm going to bother with sitting down, the frozen breakfast options are better tasting and filling than the tiny servings of cereal.

The lunches vary from pretty dang good (the red beans and rice, and the white bean chicken chili) to all right (frozen burgers and frozen chicken sandwiches) to adequate and easy (the bars) to gross (pretty much all the ones that work like cup-o-soups).  My husband refers to the frozen burgers and chicken sandwiches as "sliders" because that is how big they are.

How it looks on the package

out of the package, uncooked

Cooked and side by side with a regular burger for scale (nutrisystem burger on the right)

As far as the bars go, the best thing about them is that they are so portable--easy to throw in your purse or backpack and have on hand when you go out running errands or are traveling for work.  They are, however, rather sweet.  I might prefer something that tastes less like a candy bar, but if I eat a raw salad first, then I can pretend it's dessert.
The red beans and rice is ready in 60 seconds and has really good flavor.  Not New Orleans Grande Mere delicious, but nice to eat.  My only complaint is the microscopic portion.  That's a 1/4 cup measure in the picture below.

The dinners are all over the place.  Again, the frozen ones are better than the non-frozen.  Many actually taste better than they look.  Most need some salt.  The Tuscan inspired pasta smells and tastes much better than it looks.

The non-frozen pizza and flat breads are okay.  The frozen pizzas are as good as any other frozen pizza, just smaller.

Here are a of the dinners that have good flavor and taking only 60 minutes to prepare, make them my favorites.

 
 

Last but not least, the snacks have a lot of good options, both savory and sweet.  The fudge brownies and faux oreos are not among them.  Those are gross.  The coconut almond bars are delicious--not almond joy delicious but similar flavor combination and a lot less guilt.  I like the walnut chocolate chip cookies but not the nut-free chocolate chip cookies.  The vanilla short bread are pretty good too.  However, the frozen treats are the best.  They actually look like their pictures and taste really, really good.  The brownie sundae is crazy good, but the portion is super small.

Great or merely adequate, the program food was key to my successful loss of 50 pounds.  The pictures below show me at the same event one year apart.  

Miss AmeriCASA 2016

Miss AmeriCASA 2017