So, what are your Favorite JC "substitutes" - like Lean Cuisines or Kashi entrees...I mean totally prepackaged things you can just pick up and enjoy - no measuring out or portioning yourself. Just curious and thought this might help people who are buying some items on their own.
You must calculate the exchanges on these, as I have not, but you should be able to or ask the dietician.
Bkfast: South Beach Diet bkfast wraps (180-200 calories). Lean Pocket bkfast sandwiches. Quaker weight control oatmeal (160 calories - 1 packet).
Entrees: Lean Pocket Sub sandwiches: Meatball and Phili cheese steak (280-310 calories I believe). I'm not a huge fan of Lean pockets, prefer the Sub ones.
Weight Watchers schezuan chicken or their southwestern ones (Lean Cuisines in general taste better, in my opinion).
Lean Cuisine Brick oven pizzas (all less than 300 calories), Paninni sandwiches are great! Cheddar potato, southern beef tips...
Kashi SW chicken entree (240 calories) and Lime Clinatro shrimp (250 calories). Their other entrees are higher calories - depends on what level you need.
Amy's brand Garden Veggie Lasagna (which is gluten free) and the Vegetable Lasanga (not gluten free, lol); many of the Amy's rice bowls are within calorie range, but some are way high, so be careful. Amy's has low Sodium too.
South Beach Diet lunch wraps. High in sodium, generally, but very portable.
Snacks: South Beach Diet 100 calorie bars. Pria 110 calorie bars. Snyders pretzel 100 calorie packs (sometimes popcorn just doesn't cut it, lol). Skinny Cow Ice-cream desserts (all within snack calorie range for JC). Pop-Secret snack size bags...I don't like most of the 100 calorie packs of cookies and such - I personally find them too "wimpy"...plus, I'm totally addicted to the chocolate graham pretzel twists and must eat one every night, practically!
So, these are some that I eat on occassion. I cook alot for my family, so mostly do cooked meals at dinner (no more eating from a box, yay), but bkfast and lunch is often at work and its always a microwave type entree for lunch for me! I'm really liking the new Lean Cuisine Brick oven pizzas and Lean Sub pockets - if you haven't found those, check them out!

Jen I am also a fan of the Brick Oven Pizza.
The garlic one is just a good as the Papa Johns that I order my kids on Friday nights. I don't feel deprived at all when the pizza comes, because I make sure mine is ready to come out of the oven too.

Jen & Shelley - Based on your recommendations, I tried one of the Lean Cuisine Brick Oven pizzas tonight and I am a fan! It seemed really big to me! Thanks for the great suggestion.
Until now, I've been mostly sticking to the JC foods other than when dining out - this was my first non-JC frozen food. Have either of you tried their other pizzas - like the Deep Dish ones? I noticed they were slightly higher in cal (310-320 or so), but that's not too terrible if they're any good...

I'm not a fan of the other LC pizzas - I like the South Beach Diet Chicken pizza...I think that is about 320-340 calories, so its higher than JC and alot depends on where you are in the program.
For me, the LC brick oven ones are my favorite, then the SB diet ones.

I really like the Healthy Choice Chicken Margherita. The LC paninis and garlic chicken brick oven pizzas are also a favorite. For breakfast I like the Boca meatless breakfast patties with scrambled egg beaters. For snacks, the healthy choice ice cream sandwiches and choc. covered vanilla ice cream bars.

I have found a big supply of the tuna and crackers,chicken and crackers, and seafood (imitation crabmeat) and crackers at both the dollar store and Big Lots/ they are made by bumblebee tuna/ the taste is about the same but they are much cheaper...$1.00. I always keep in my car in case I am somewhere where I can't get home for lunch.

One of my favorites is the WW mac n cheese. The noodles are not mushy like they are in the JC and Lean Cuisine mac-n-cheese and the sauce is pretty good. I sometimes add a diced tomato and some hot sauce for a kick.

wow! what great meal suggestions. thank you so much. once I get much further into the program, I will try some of these ideas.

I just tried the new Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Chip cookies - they are AMAZING and only 130 calories. A great snack replacement. I have really missed soft cookies and these do the trick. I also like Snackwells Black Forest Devils Food Cakes - each one is only 50 calories so you can have 3 as a snack. For meals, I like the LC brick oven pizzas and South Beach breakfast wraps, but hated all of the South Beach dinners I tried.

Great ideas! Thanks for the suggestions!
I like Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches 130 cals I think.
Also at Trader Joes, they sell a big bag of RF cheese curls (TJoe brand). I checked the info and it was the exact same as the JC per serving! I broke it into 7 baggies. Each serving was about $0.28 each!! They taste great too!
Love the Quaker Weight Control oatmeal. I have it almost every morning. I add blueberries. Yum!!

I am a fan of the Skinny Cow ice cream too.
I like the LC pizza's. If you are a fan of Mexican food, the Smart Ones I think its called Santa Fe style beans and rice is great. Also, I like the LC Sesame Chicken.

I was just checking out Lean Cuisine's website and noticed that the brick oven pizza's are NO LONGER below 300 cals (according to the site - haven't bought any new ones in a while as my freezer is still stocked).
The roasted garlic chicken pizza is listed at 340, the bbq pizza at 350, and the gourmet mushroom at 320. Did anyone else notice this?

Yes,
I'm bummed out - my grocery has the new garlic chicken ones, but the older mushroom ones.
I can work the calories into my day now, but I wasn't happy when I saw the change. It happens. Wonder if they reformulated OR just reanalzyed the items?
All that said: if you've been incorporating them and still loosing or maintaining, well then, if they didn't reformulate (rather, just recalculated the nutritional information)...you've been doing fine with the higher level!

Doh! I was hoping it was an unfortunate typo. I too wonder if they reformulated the pizza or if they were incorrect in the first place... hm. Oh well, I guess that's that! In the grand scheme of things, these nutrition informationals are allowed to be off by a good %age anyway, as I recall, so probably the +/- 30 cals isn't a biggie...
As you said, I am still losing (hopefully soon to be maintaining! although losses have been slowing...), so must be doing something right.

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Kashi SW chicken entree (240 calories) and Lime Clinatro shrimp (250 calories). Their other entrees are higher calories - depends on what level you need.

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I tried this and I thought they were pretty good - espcially the shrimp. They are definately hearty and the exchanges on these two are right in line with a JC meal.
I think your list is very good. It sounds like you know how to look for the right numbers! I am have been amazed when planning meals on my own how many meals that claim to be "healthy" really aren't when I read the label. YIKES!
I also like, for a snack, the KASHI TLC bars. The trail mix bar is quite nice with only one fat, one starch, and one meat, I find it very filling. These are handy when I run out of JC snacks.

Just discovered Cocoa Via chocolate bars. Not sure if anyone posted this one yet.
So much better than the Anytime Bar in taste sorry Jenny). I'm posting for the chocolate almond snack bar. Just had one and it was out of this world.
JC Anytime Bar – Peanut Butter
Calories 110
Total Fat 3g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 100mg
Total Carbohydrate 12g
Dietary Fiber 0g
Sugars 8g
Protein 8g
Vitamin A 30%
Vitamin C 100%
Calcium 20%
Iron 50%
Cocoa Via Chocolate Almond Snack Bar
Calories 80
Total Fat 3g
Cholesterol 0mg

Sodium 60mg
Total Carbohydrate 12g
Dietary Fiber 1g
Sugars 6g
Protein 2g
Vitamin A 0%
Vitamin C 10%
Calcium 25%
Iron 2%
Vitamin E 15%
Vitamin B6 10%
Folic Acid 10%
Vitamin B12 10%

I thought the point of the anytime bar was for the vitamins? It looks like the other one does not have nearly the Iron, C, or A vitamins that the JC one has. I know for me I like the bars because of the Iron, I never have enough Iron in my diets or well anytime actually
Also, the serving of calcium helps me since I am a woman and need that calcium. I don't like low sugar yogurts, I can do fat free, but not low sugar. So I use the bars instead of the multi-vitamins and yogurt.

I absolutely love the Amy's brand burritos!! Most are around 280-300 calories and are filled with yummy organic beans, veggies, etc... I usually pile on some spicy (free) salsa. It's very filling. Some of the burritos are bland IMO, so the spicy salsa really makes it great.
I also eat a lot of the Kashi frozen entrees. They are loaded with whole grains and fiber, which makes them very filling. I belive there are 3 or so that are at or below 300 calories.

Oh yes, and I sometimes substitute a Pria 110 calorie bar for the Anytime bar. They have all the same vitamins and minerals as the anytime bars, and the calorie levels are the same. It might not be the exact same exchanges as far as fats/starches, etc.. but its pretty close. They taste like candy bars, but you have to get the 110 calorie bars not the regular (grittier) bars.

Hmmm..might try that Pria 110, does it have fake sugars in it?
Of course you are talking about the girl that is at her half way point and still does all JC food. I spruce up the JC food, but I don't do meals on my own. When I hit my MW I still plan on doing JC lunches and have dinners around when I need that quick meal. I am just not a person who like to cook on an everyday basis. I love cooking for parties, but not just myself. Or even for me and hubby.

Good question, Izzy B.
I take a multivitamin plus iron. So, for me, the point of anytime bars is not the vitamins.
Because the bars I mention offer 25% calcium (similar to the JC anytime bars) I'm comfortable using them in place of a milk serving as I was instructed. And to me, the taste is far superior to the anytime bars. No contest.
Everybody customizes the program in their own way. And as long as the weight keeps coming off I say more power to us all!
Good luck to you!

I love the Amy's products and the LC pannini's... I haven't tried the brick oven pizza but it looks like i might have to ....although, like i posted elsewhere....I'm really anxious for JC's BBQ chicken pizza to show up!!!

I am using the Kashi TLC bars instead of JC bars. They are cheaper and have the same calories

I keep 100 cal snacks in my car for emergencys. My favorite is the Keebler grasshopper cookies. I did not like the JC toffee bites so have substituted the 100 cal snacks for them, There is a wide variety available.

I see that many of you are enjoying the LC line of foods. If you go to their website www.leancuisine.com click on products/nutrition detail and in orange it says to download the nutrition info. Just click on that link and it will download into an excel spreadsheet. It lists all of their food and the nutritional value for each one as well as listing it as weight watchers points and listing it also as diet exchanges. Seeing as how JC is based on diet exchanges I thought it might be helpful for some of you.

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Originally posted by Hollee:
I see that many of you are enjoying the LC line of foods. If you go to their website www.leancuisine.com click on products/nutrition detail and in orange it says to download the nutrition info. Just click on that link and it will download into an excel spreadsheet. It lists all of their food and the nutritional value for each one as well as listing it as weight watchers points and listing it also as diet exchanges. Seeing as how JC is based on diet exchanges I thought it might be helpful for some of you.

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FABULOUS--thank you!
...and thank you to all of you who shared your favorites. I have some new items to try out the next time I go shopping.

Careful Foodqueen with those tuna/cracker kits by bumble bee. I too bought some but when I compared the nutritional values they were NOT the same. They separate the tuna values from the cracker values. BB kit has a total of 23-24% Total Fat and 50 more cals then JC one which only has 8% Total Fat. I was shocked!
Just thought Id pass that info along

I am not so careful about exchanges, but here are my fave substitutions:
Reduced-fat Orange Creme Coffee Cake (320 cal)
Venti Espresso Light frappucino (170 cal I think)
Subway 6-inch turkey sub
Boston Market 1/4 white chicken--no skin or wing (with steamed veggie/fruit sides) about 250 cal
Gooood stuff! Then there are all the Trader Joe's 300-ish calorie items I like to substitute: fat-free butternut squash soup, Balela (mediterranean chick pea salad), Quesadillas (for a little cheat--a lot of fat, but only 310 cal), Clam Chowder (another fatty cheat that is calorically OK)
As you see, I take a lot of liberties with the program...but after 2.5 years, I need to shake things up or I'll lose my mind!

Just wanted to add my "two-cents" to this thread.

I came up with a way of taking the nutritional facts to the grocery store with me to be sure I am making suitable subtitutions. I picked up a index card file box and a pack of index cards. When I open one of the JC items I cut out the label, tape it to a card, list which meal it is and it's weight in ounces (I find the info helpful) and file it under one of the 4 catagories (snacks, breakfasts, lunches and dinners). Then when I go to the grocery store I either take the box or a few cards if I'm only loking for a couple of fill-in items. This has saved me some money. Just remember that it's important,if you are still trying to lose weight,to keep ALL the nutritional facts in line. Sodium, fiber and vitamins are just as important as fat and calories.
Also I don't buy the vitamins or bars. I take my own supplements based on what I was told by my doctor (fish oil, calcium, B complex and women's multi). With this routine I don't need to spend all that money on the JC items and in the end it's much cheaper. You can boost your iron by eating more foods richer in iron, spinach comes to mind. This method is also gentler on the digestive system (as iron supplements tend to be binding).
Hope this helps you all stay with the program while still keeping within your budget!