The Only Life Cuisine Meal We Can Recommend

For decades (since ‘81!), people on low calorie diets have looked to Lean Cuisine for quick, easy frozen meals that don’t taste like total garbage. When you simply can’t justify consuming the 610 calories and 36 grams of fat in a Marie Callender’s pot pie when lunchtime rolls around, Lean Cuisine is there for you with comforting classics like Salisbury steak with mac and cheese and turkey medallions with mashed potatoes. Nowadays, diet culture goes way beyond simply cutting cals—and that’s where the frozen aisle spinoff Life Cuisine comes in. 

Life Cuisine meals cater to people on both high protein and low carb diets; there’s also a line of Veggie Lovers meals for people who are cutting out meat. This was a tricky taste test because a lot of the Life Cuisine meals were hard to find. Despite being a relatively fresh addition to the frozen aisle, it appears that Life Cuisine’s high protein meals are already being rebranded by Nestle under the moniker Vital Pursuit, while the low carb meals are keeping the Life Cuisine name. Another reason this taste test was tricky: A lot of these frozen meals just weren’t very good. We try pretty hard to only recommend things we’d actually buy again. Most of the Life Cuisine meals we tried were sort of okay, but simply not good enough to tell you to buy—with one exception. Yep, this is a very short ranking. But if you’re curious about Life Cuisine meals, here’s the one to buy.

The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.

Life Cuisine!

Life Cuisine Protein Lovers Cauliflower Crust Chicken Bacon Ranch Piada

Hy-Vee

If you’re not familiar (I wasn’t), a “piada” is basically an Italian flatbread sandwich. I gotta say, making a low-carb flatbread is a bold move, but this Life Cuisine meal actually pulls it off. I cooked this in the air fryer, and the cauliflower flatbread got crispy on the outside but stayed nice and tender on the inside. It kind of reminded me of a less-delicious version of a chalupa from Taco Bell. And the fillings actually have a lot of flavor. There’s a good amount of chicken, and while I couldn’t isolate any bits of bacon, there’s a discernible smoky flavor. The creamy sauce is good, too. I actually went ahead and ate this whole thing for lunch, which I couldn’t do with any of the other Life Cuisine meals we tried.

Note: It appears that this is one of the Life Cuisine meals that’s being rebranded as Vital Pursuit. Keep an eye out for this meal in a neon-green box.

Credit: Liv Averett / Hy-Vee

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Other Life Cuisine meals we tried: Life Cuisine Carb Wise Bacon & White Cheddar Egg Bites, Life Cuisine Veggie Lovers Pesto Cauliflower Gnocchi Bowl, Life Cuisine Carb Wise Cheese Lovers Pizza, Life Cuisine Carb Wise Chicken Mozzarella Flatbread Melt