Solving My Mommy Lunch Woes with Lean Cuisine and Homemade Fortune Cookies

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As a stay-at-home/work-at-home mom, I know all too well about the mid-day adventure known as “lunch.” It’s a crazy period of time, usually filled with diaper changes, spilled juice, barking dogs, fussy toddlers, more spilled juice, and about six other unexpected distractions. Somewhere in all that madness, I manage to prepare a balanced meal for our two-year-old, but mommy’s meal is often a little less balanced.

That all changed recently with my discovery of Lean Cuisine’s Asian Flavor 6-pack at Sam’s Club. (Check out my entire shopping experience.) Each 6-pack, found in the Frozen Foods section, includes three options – sesame chicken, ginger garlic stir fry with chicken, and chicken teriyaki stir fry. And at less than $2 per meal, they definitely pass my affordability test!Lean Cuisine Asian FlavorMy Chinese food loving husband scoffed at the idea of eating a frozen meal with the word “lean” in the name for dinner. Before I put the meals to the ultimate test (my husband), I sampled each of the three varieties for lunches. Each one ranged from 220-330 calories (awesome!) and took only about four minutes to cook in the microwave. That’s plenty of time to change a diaper, clean spilled juice, let the dog out, and prepare our diva’s afternoon meal!Lean Cuisine Asian FlavorConvinced that my husband would like them as much as I did, I decided to prepare all three options for dinner and turn our countertop into a veritable Chinese food buffet. To make the meal a little extra special, I also whipped up a batch of homemade fortune cookies. I say “whipped up” because they were surprisingly easy to make! You can find the recipe below if you’d like to try them yourself! Lean Cuisine Asian Flavor

HOMEMADE FORTUNE COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 egg white
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 tsp butter
  • 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/8 tsp almond extract
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 2 tsp water

Recipe makes approximately 20 cookies.

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Combine egg white and sugar and beat until frothy. Add melted butter, vanilla extract, almond extract, water, and flour and stir (it should be slightly looser than pancake batter). Pour approximately ¾ of a tablespoon of batter in four places on cookie sheet.

Bake in the oven for five to seven minutes, until edges turn just a little brown. Remove from oven and flip each cooked circle face down on a paper towel.

Working quickly (before they cook and harden), place a fortune in the middle of the circle and fold each circle in half, leaving a pocket of air inside. Then push the middle of the bottom part upwards to create the signature fortune cookie shape. Place the cookies in a cupcake tin to hold each one in place until they harden.

Repeat until you use all the batter.Homemade Fortune CookiesThe end result was a meal that changed my husband’s perception of what “lean” meals could be and my perception about how difficult it is to create a healthy, lean lunch. All three Lean Cuisine Asian Flavors got high marks from both of us. My favorite was the chicken teriyaki stir fry (pictured above) and his was the sesame chicken (he’s a sucker for anything with pasta in it).

As for the fortune cookies, they turned out great and were eerily accurate at predicting my future!homemade fortune cookieFor more information about Lean Cuisine, including details about new products and special offers, visit the Lean Cuisine website or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Nestle Lean Cuisine. All opinions are my own. #CBias #SocialFabric

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Comments

  1. This is a wonderful review. Thank you for the recipe..

  2. Crystal Green says:

    Lean Cuisine is a very wonderful choice. They have many great varieties of food to choose from that are all equally good. I am a huge fan of theirs as well.

    Since I home school lunch is a crazy time here as well. Trying to get three kids, a husband, the dog, and everything else in between taken care during our one hour lunch break is quite a challenge as well. 🙂

  3. YUM- the Sesame Chicken one looks so delicious-actually, they all do! I love that you put a homemade fortune cookie recipe in this post! I might have to try making these 🙂

  4. That is the cutest idea with those fortune cookies. We love Lean Cuisine!

  5. Love the fortune cookies! That gives me an idea for the weekend!

  6. lean cuisine looks delicious will try it too.

  7. It would be so cool to walk into the kitchen to your very own version of a Chinese buffet–and a low calorie one at that! Your fortune cookies came out great.

  8. I’ve never made fortune cookies before! Very cool 🙂

  9. I loooove Lean Cuisine! Thanks for the fortune cookie recipe. I didn’t know it was even possible to make at home!

  10. Oh my, I love fortune cookies. Will have to try this recipe. Thanks!

  11. Looks good! I will have to try these meals!

  12. I love Lean Cuisine and I’ve been having that same lunch time balance problem. Maybe I should start getting these again. I find a Lean Cuisine with a piece of fruit and a small salad on the side is more than enough to fill me up!

  13. I love Lean Cuisine and will def. have to try making these fortune cookies. Thanks for the recipe!

  14. Amber Edwards says:

    Oh I LOVE those lean cuisine meals! They are delicious! and your Fortune cookies look amazing. I need to try those! My kids would love it.

  15. I really like Lean Cuisine and those homemade fortune cookies look great! Gosh…note to self, never go through food posts on an empty stomach!

  16. i tried these brand sometime ago and they’re good 😀 easy fix for a busy blogger and mom like us heheheh

  17. Thank you so much for the fortune cookies! My kids will love them!

  18. Yum!!! Looks so tasty.. and i’ll have to try that fortune cookie recipe, too!

  19. Jacqui Odell says:

    I love this idea!!

  20. I like Lean Cuisine. They are a life saver on crazy busy days!

  21. I can’t wait to try the fortune cookie recipe! I’m a huge fan and I’ve never been able to get them quite right. Am I the only one who thinks they’d make a totally adorable advent calendar? A cookie everyday with a Christmas quote of Christmas theme activity to do?? WANT!!

  22. I love Lean Cuisine. I buy their products a lot. I like how you combined a product review with a recipe. I especially love what you did with the fortune in he fortune cookie…cute.

  23. First of all, I love Lean Cuisine–my favorite frozen entrees for sure. But I had not idea that fortune cookies were so easy to make! Wow!

  24. What a great addition to a lean cuisine!!

  25. Momma on the Rocks Momma on the Rocks says:

    Love seeing all the Lean Cuisine fans! And so happy to know I’m not the only one who struggles with healthy lunch options!

  26. That is awesome! My local Chinese restaurant used to give fortune cookies with meals and they do not do it anymore. Makes me sad! I’ll have to try this recipe!

Trackbacks

  1. […] did have one major casualty of the night: my homemade fortune cookies (recipe here, not that this picture tempts you to try them!).  They never got crunchy and were fickle in the […]

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