Day 2:

Breakfast:
Lowfat Granola Cereal 40/40
I love, love, love- granola. I don't usually buy it because it is so high in calories and very expensive. When I think of granola I think of a strong sweet almost honey-cinnamon flavor to the clusters and a crunch when you eat it. It should be golden brown and pack into larger chunks when you pour it. Looking at the package this is what I'm supposed to get. Those words 'low fat' make me wonder... I've had low fat cereal from the store- cardboard was the overall flavor, I'm curious to see what Nutrisystem has done.

Visual Appeal: 10/10-pouring it into the bowl, I really can't tell this granola from any other. Which is great! It has several large clusters of granola which is nice.

Smell: 10/10- After emptying the package, I literally put the bag to my nose and sniffed. No chemical smell. In fact, all I smell is cinnamon and oats. Very nice.

Taste: 10/10- Wow! Wonderful. The flavor is exactly what I think granola should taste like. It is sweet and nutty in flavor. There aren't any almonds or fruit mixed in, but I suppose that you could add as part of a fruit serving. I'm surprised that this was so good. I really was expecting something a little bit more bland with large amounts of soy. This is really tasty. It's good that the packages are portion controlled, because I would have eaten more of this.

Texture: 10/10- Finally! Eating this granola there was no texture problem. It stayed crispy in milk. I even let it sit for a few minutes at the end to see if it got soggy. Nope! The crunch stayed through to the very last bite!

Notes: I'm still using 1% milk and counting that as my milk and my dairy.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lunch:
Red Beans and Rice with Sauce 36/40 +++1/2

Looking at the box I'm reminded of Louisiana cooking, which makes me skeptical. The rich flavors of red beans and rice done right may be hard to do when of your target audience includes people do not like overly spicy food. I do like spicy food and I love Creole, so this should be an interesting entry.

Visual Appeal: 8/10- Once out of the packet, I must say it looks over all pretty good. The beans are large and intact, the rice looks well seasoned. My only reservation is that the sausage looks like something you would get for 2.95 at a gas station to eat as jerky. I wouldn't say it is off putting, but you would never see anything like this in a restaurant.

Smell: 10/10- The smell is good. It has the nice smoky scent associated with red beans and rice and I can get a whiff of the creole seasonings. I can tell from the smell though that they have pulled back on the seasonings...

Taste: 8/10- Yup definitely a tad bland for Creole. That does not mean that it is bad. I can find pre-packaged rice dishes at the grocery store whose spice level is comparable to this meal. I like a little more heat to my rice and beans. I solved it with a 1/4 teaspoon creole seasoning from the cupboard. With 0 calories it was an easy fix for this meal and zipped it up a bit. In eating the sausage, It's there for perhaps protien? Really it doesn't taste much like sausage and could have been ab sent from the dish and it would still be enjoyable.

Texture: 10/10-Texture is great. The rice is not over cooked, the beans are moist and not chewy at all. Even the sausage is very nice texture wise.

NOTE: Ok, so I dropped a half star on this dish. If I didn't know anything about Creole I probably would have ranked this dish 4 stars... If you are from anywhere that eats true Creole on a regular basis I think you will be unhappy with this dish mostly because of the spice issue and the sausage. I found it satisfying and will buy it again, keeping in mind that I'll have to use my spice cupboard on this one.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dinner:

Macaroni and Cheese with Beef 28/40 +++

Ok I'm nervous. It's a cup of noodles style dinner which historically I have hated. Again I'm dealing with the macaroni issue which has me back to Chef Boyardee but there are also beef chunks...dehydrated beef chunks. Granted if it turns out like the picture this should be pretty good. It looks like you have good sized noodles, and beef chunks swimming in a cheese sauce with bits of tomato or red pepper I can't really tell- something red mixed in with the sauce.

Visual Appeal: 9/10-
Once I got I got it out of the cup, one of the biggest factors is the portion size on this meal. It really is quite large. The cheese is a light orangish-yellow. That doesn't really bother me, and the noodles are quite a bit larger than what you get with Kraft. The meat chunks are fairly small about a centimeter each which explains how this meal can rehydrate after only ten minutes. The red chunks in the picture do not exist in the meal.

Smell: 7/10- The smell of this meal is not bad, but it is basically non-existant. Not like the rich aromas of the other meals. When I get close it reminds me of Kraft.

Taste: 6/10-The cheese sauce has a very mild taste. It reminds me of the Kraft microwavable mac and cheese cups. The noodles are just filler. They don't have much taste and I don't mind that. The meat bits are actually my favorite part of this. They do taste like hamburger and really make the meal taste good. Last but not least I have to talk about the after taste. There is one and it's pretty familiar. Think Kraft mac and cheese cups. All together it tastes fine. It's completely edible and not a bad eat at that. It's just something I would normally eat as a lunch rather than a dinner.

Texture: 6/10- This part got to me. The noodles are actually cooked pretty well. They aren't too mushy. I would suppose you could control that with the amount of water that you add to the cup. The beef bits are a bit chewy but not bad. The big thing is the sauce is grainy. It's the only word that really comes to mind. You can actually feel the powder from the mix on your toungue. It's pretty distracting.

NOTE: Not my favorite meal, but I did clean my plate and sop up the cheese sauce with my vegies. Will I reorder it again? Probably, but it won't be in large quantities.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dessert:
Pretzels 38/40 ++++

Looking at the packaging, the pretzels don't strike me as actual pretzels, which I wouldn't expect. It looks as if they are baked with sparse but still present salt. They don't look bad, but I wouldn't call pretzels a dessert. :)

Visual Appeal: 10/10- While they are flatter than a pretzel and they look baked, they still look good.

Smell: 10/10- No recognizable scent to the pretzels. I don't think there is supposed to be a smell, so I'm okay with that.

Taste: 8/10- I can't say they taste exactly like pretzels but they are good. They are crunchy and there is enough salt to handle a salty craving. I did get one or two that were on the burned side. Not enough to stop me from eating the whole bag though. There is no odd aftertaste. Lovely.

Texture: 10/10- They crunch like a pretzel- maybe more like a cracker, but they are still well made and good to eat.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Todays Water: 7 8oz glasses