Review of my First Week of Shape Lovers Meal Delivery

Okay, so I've had most of my first week of one meal a day deliveries. My thoughts on this week's menu of Shape Lovers in South Florida?

The soups have been very, very good except for the tomato. Didn't like it. It didn't have a burst of tomatoey-ness, was quite watery, and had some oiliness in the taste. I'm a tomato-soup freak, so I was disappointed.

The other soups rocked! The orzo with meatballs was lovely. The Garbanzo Toledo soup was so good I was licking the bowl. No kidding. I could eat that every day! Yummy pea soup. Thumbs up on the soupies!

I don't do well with reheated poultry, so I've had some trouble with the chicken and, especially, the turkey. This is some sort of genetic weirdness that I share with my middle sister (and only found that out a couple years ago) and not with my other siblings. Middle sis and I gag at reheated poultry. Sometimes, with fresh poultry. It's an oddity.

Most of the time, I can eat chicken or turkey breast fine (not the dark meat, ugh). But occasionally, the funny taste makes me gag.

I had that problem with the turkey fricasse. Hubby did not. He enjoyed it. I did have the potatoes and carrots from the fricasse, and they were lovely--including the light version of Cuban fricasse sauce. But I couldn't eat the turkey.

The chicken napolitana only had the mild weirdness on reheating (I tried to only heat it to sufficient heat so as not to dry out or encourage that funky thing that bugs me). The stuffing was delicious! The curry sauce was nice, if a little skimpy. A couple more tablespoons of the sauce would have been perfect. But I was wild about the lite, veggie-cheese stuffing! Mmm.

The fajita chicken that substituted for the turkey loaf (I requested a substitution) had a nice flavoring (the spices/onion/pepper), but again, I have issues with chicken that's reheated.

The side dishes have been variable: the rice dishes have been adequate. Nothing wrong, but not outstanding. The platanitos dulces (Tuesday's side dish) was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Another bowl licker. I would have that any time. Ripe plantains pureed with some pineapple--sweet and perfect. Sadly, I didn't get the vianditas con almendra (the Wed side), I got sauteed veggies with garlic. They were fine, but the vianditas sounded much better. I guess subbing out of the turkey loaf meant I got a different veggie.

Desserts: Across the board fun! The mamey flan was really tasty and very light. The mousses are simple (really, they taste like a lite Cool Whip with flavorings/fruit). Which is fine. I like creamy. But I've enjoyed the small sweet end to the meals, every one of them was a treat, though I'd give the highest rating this week to the mamey flan.

I haven't had Friday's offerings yet, but I'll chime in again about next week's offerings, which includes a substitution for me on Monday of stuffed pork, as well as their Ropa Vieja on Wednesday (one of my fave Cuban dishes, a shredded beef thingie in tomatoey sauce with peppers and onions). I also have a Spanish Omelette as a sub for next week's turkey on Thursday. So, more variety, protein-wise.

Today, I'm due for a pasta dish and the soup is a light version of the national soup of Cuba--the ajiaco. Can't wait!

The result: I'm down nearly two pounds since Sunday. I would have done better had I not had a pizza feast yesterday. Yeah, I binged a bit. I get one meal delivered, and I make myself two out of my three daily meals, which means my choices can range from very good to crap, depending.

I still have some poundage to go to get back to where I was on the scale back when I went AWOL from this blog, but I'm getting there. One of the things that's a plus about Shape Lovers is that each morning delivery--the knock, the "Good morning to you" and the passing of the bag of goodies-- is a reminder: You're supposed to watch what you eat. Here's something to help you.

It's like a little heads up every day to pay attention. Some days, it works better than others, but considering I'd been on the way up and up and up in the last three months, it's nice to be going the other way: down.

Thanks to those of you fatfighters blogging with consistency and success. You gals and guys are my inspiration!