Am I wrong, or was there an e-mail at some point about Dr Sears teaming up with someone to create frozen meals? I swear the e-mail said you could get them at Walmart and a few other places. Do they still make these?

Yes, Dr. Sears teamed up with Cedarlane Foods to create a special line of zoned frozen meals.

The availability of these meals is questionable. I used to find them at our Walmart, but they don't carry them anymore. I think they are still available in other areas of the country, but ???

Another option is to buy them and have them shipped out to you. You can probably find more information on the Cedarlane website. Sorry, I don't have a link to that.

Thanks for the infor though.... it's a lot more than I had.

I checked Cedarlane's website and they listed stores they said sold the frozen dinners in my area. I went to Whole Foods and they didn't have them. Wonder if anyone has them? Would be a great time saver. Especially at lunch. Are there any other frozen dinners that are comparable to the "zone" dinners?

I think when they list the stores it can be ANY of their meals, not just the Zone. I know for a fact the Walmart by me carries their regular frozen items, but I don't know if they carry the zone ones yet. I haven't had the chance to check.

You can study some of the nutrition labels of other frozen meals. I have found that WW puts out a "Smart Ones" frozen meal, specially marked as "truth about carbs". These are specifically made without using pasta or rice as one of the main ingredients, and are lower in carb (and usually more within zone guidelines with regard to protein).

But, with other frozen meals, you always have to be careful of what is in the sauces, because they generally will have unfavorable ingredients (otherwise they would be overflowing with veggies!)

I've seen the Zone meals in my grocery store in the past, but since I always seemed to be on a low fat diet in the past, I didn't pay much attention. I'll be giving them a second look this week. Here is the Cedar Lane link for anyone who wants to investigate further.

http://www.cedarlanefoods.com/

I am glad that this thread came up again. Since my last post, I have looked for those WW Smart Ones that are marked "truth about carbs" and I can't find them anywhere.

However, I have noticed that there are a few Lean Cuisine meals that fit the bill for the zone. You really have to go through a lot of boxes to find them, but I have found 2-3 meals that work well. I can't remember the names (sorry).

Wholefoods out here in California carries them. I saw an enchilada, a bean & cheese burrito, an omelette & a breakfast burrito.

I've decided to make my own. I started making zone frozen meals. Lasagne, Enchilada Pie, Stewp, Oatmeal. That is as far as I have gotten so far. I can be much more flexible and make them in whatever size blocks I want. A great lunch the other day was a 2 block piece of Lasagne & a 2 block bowl of stewp.

Good luck to all,

Matt

Sounds like a good plan!

Can you share your recipe for the enchilada pie?

Now that they converted my local Wild Oats to WholeFoods, I'll have to look for the Zone meals. Matt, please share the enchalada pie recipe. Sounds yummy!

I don't have time right now but will get back to you on a more precise recipe.

It is basically a zone lasagne with enchilada sauce & black beans with no ricotta.

I like to just experiment with meals so I don't have a written down recipe. I just make it up as I go and keep track of what was included on a dry erase board to calculate blocks.

Well, would love it if you have time! I do the same thing, when I creating, I have a big sheet of paper that I write down my ingredients and amounts, then I write blocks to keep track. Hopefully, if I liked my creation, I will rewrite my notes into a recipe!

Hey guys, I would really recommend not relying on frozen meals. I used to work in a food factory and just because the nutrition label says the facts, that is only for a perfect meal. I would bet only a quarter of the meals are measured exactly right with each ingredient. They have machines that have a have a numerical range to drop each ingredient and if the machines for what ever reason doesn't drop enough then they have people adding ingredients all through out the production process to make sure that the consumer is getting the correct total weight for the meal. I am not trying to convince you that frozen meals are not the way to go if you are in a pinch, but if you are trying to stay in the zone I would not go that route often. I really like the idea of frozen meals that you are talking about making at home, that is an excellent idea!

Good to know that, Jen! I have often been disappointed by frozen meals, myself!

I'm new here, just started the Zone a couple weeks ago. I really hate to cook, so I wonder if we can use the South Beach Diet frozen meals and still be in the Zone? Do you check the ration of carbs, fat, and protein by the calories, the grams, or how??

Hope somebody has some answers for this. thanks,

Slim

I have used some of the South beach meals, but I have had to add either protein, carbs, or fats to make them Zone meals. You need to look at the grams of each of those. For women, the limits should be 9 to 10 grams of fat, 20 to 21 grams of protein, and 27 to 30 grams of carbs. For example, if you buy a meal and in one serving there are 20 grams of protein, 14 grams of carbs, and 6 grams of fat. You would need to add 13 grams of carbs and 3 grams of fat. Also, when looking on the labels at carbs, you should always subtract the dietary fiber first to get the real amount of carbs in a meal.

Thanks for the recipe.
I have tried out the one at home.
And you know what ?
It was great.

Hello, Here's a link if you want to get some frozen Zone meals
http://www.cedarlanetogo.com/