It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago I subsisted on a diet rich in processed foods and Olive Garden takeout.  As a new college graduate, I found cooking dinner during the workweek especially challenging.  By the time I got home from the office and pulled a meal together, I’d be close to passing out from hunger.  And the reward for all my hard work?  Eating  the leftovers for dinner e-v-e-r-y night for the rest of the week.  Oh, the joys of cooking for one.

Back then, I had a few quick standbys–deli turkey sandwiches, blue box mac and cheese, and rotisserie chicken quesadillas, to name a few–but, my specialty was cheese ravioli, steamed broccoli, and Texas toast.  From the depths of the freezer to depths of my belly in 5 minutes flat.  When I was especially tight on time, I’d often turn to prepackaged freezer meals to fill the void.  Somedays, I’d have a Lean cuisine for lunch and another for dinner.  I was partial to the pastas, pizzas, and paninis, though it wasn’t the taste that made me opt for the frozen entrée route–it was the low price and the low-calorie counts displayed on the packages.