Product Review: Lean Cuisine Paninis

A sandwich for lunch, yum. Most folks on diets have to sacrifice that fueled up and satisfied feeling at lunch time. Well no longer! Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Paninis have come to the rescue!

I have to admit to being skeptical about microwaving bread but Lean Cuisine Paninis come with a patented grilling tray that seems to alleviate the usual soggy, toughness normally associated with that. The tray is also supposed to put nice grilled marks on the bread but they are very faint and I wouldn't suggest microwaving longer to get the desired effect.

Lean Cuisine Paninis come in six varieties: Chicken Tuscan, Southwest Style Chicken, Chicken Spinach and Mushroom, Chicken Club, Steak, Cheddar and Mushroom, and Philly Style Steak and Cheese. All come on either sourdough bread or Italian Bread and all come in at 320 - 350 calories, 7-9 grams of fat, 6-7 points, and unfortunately contain roughly 30 percent of the daily recommended sodium. Skip salt on everything else you eat and it will be worth it. Each one of these surprisingly good paninis has meat, vegetables and gooey melted cheese. They don't taste the least bit dietetic and beat eating wilted salad for lunch by a long shot.

I've tried them all and wouldn't you know, my two favorites also have the highest calorie count. When you think about it though, 350 calories is far easier to work off than the who knows how many calories in a Big Mac. The panini I most recommend is the Chicken Club - strips of chicken, crumbled bacon, tomatoes, cheese and Ranch sauce on sourdough bread. The white pieces of chicken are tender and plentiful, the bacon adds just the right amount of diet naughtiness and the Ranch sauce is yummy. I've been known to eat this for dinner with a side of salad and low fat dressing. The Steak, Cheddar and Mushroom Panini is just as satisfying at 340 calories. The steak was surprisingly tender, I expected to have to wrestle with it. The cheese sauce is really good and I happen to love mushrooms.

All of the Lean Cuisine Paninis sell for just under $3 and when they go on sale you can get them for as little as 5 for $10. A bargain lunch, dinner or snack whether you're on a diet or not.