Amy's Light & Lean Sweet & Sour Asian Noodle

When it comes to frozen vegetarian meals, Amy's absolutely dominates the market. They even have a product line called Light & Lean, for entrees that are lower calorie and less fat than some FDA legal standard. This gives the impression that it should be healthier than other, similar products, right? How does this sweet & sour noodle dish actually compare? Read on to find out!

Buying. Amy's has such a wide range of products, and most stores will only carry a fraction of what they offer. I found this particular entree at Target for $3.79, priced the same as the other Amy's frozen entrees, even though it's a smaller portion (8 oz vs 9.5-10 oz).

If you're desperate enough to find this, you can get a case on Amazon.

Nutrition. Already an easy way to see how they've cut calories for this meal is by giving you a smaller amount of food to begin with. It's a mere 250 calories for this whole meal, which barely makes it a meal in my opinion.

This tiny meal is also very high in sodium and sugar, I guess to try to compensate for the relatively low fat content. It does have a decent amount of protein and fiber, however.

The ingredients can be simplified as: Rice pasta, veggies, tofu, salt, sugar, oil, and seasonings. Overall, it's a little too processed for a meal that is supposed to be "healthy". Just because it's low fat and low calorie does not make it healthy at all, the vegetables almost feel like an afterthought and don't outweigh all the unhealthy attributes.

The unboxed meal. The veggies are just casually tossed on top, never to touch
the sauce underneath. 

Packaging & Prep. Cardboard box, including picture that does not realistically display actual portion size. Food in cardboard bowl with plastic outer wrap.

The box gives 2 real options for heating, microwave or oven. I was not gonna wait an hour for this, so in the microwave it went! It cooked well in the recommended time on the box, it heated all the way through without burning.

The noodles and sauce came together to form one entity.

Tasting. I'm not familiar with sweet & sour as a noodle dish, so I wasn't really sure what to make of it or what to compare it to. It kinda made me think of teriyaki, but not quite. Long story short, it was pretty awful whatever it was supposed to be.

The noodles absorbed most of the overly sweet sauce and congealed together into one sticky clump, leaving the veggies and tofu pretty dry and bland on their own. As much as I tried stirring the vegetables into the noodles, it was not happening. The vegetables weren't terrible though, except for maybe the green beans which were a little rubbery as sometimes happens with frozen green beans. The tofu had a good texture, it just felt like there wasn't enough of it. Heck, the whole portion of this "meal" just wasn't enough.

Bottom Line. So you pay the same price for a smaller amount of food that cuts corners flavor-wise by going overboard with sugar and salt just to save on a bit of fat. Thanks but no thanks, I will never buy this again. I'm gonna say this isn't even really worth trying for anyone, Amy's makes so many better meals than this, and I'm pretty sure I've had other meals from the Light & Lean line that tasted better than this as well. Seriously, do yourself a favor and give this one a miss.

Amy's website.