Curried red lentil soup with Brie

What to buy: Curried lentil soup from Pacific Natural Foods, Brie cheese
Where to buy: Vons
Why we approve: One serving has around 140 calories and you can easily double that for a general serving. The ingredients are great for a boxed product and the fat comes from coconut (yey!). One serving has about 5 grams of fiber and it's really really filling!

Cooking lentils can be a tiresome and long process, but luckily there are some brands on the market that offer really good tasting lentil soup. It's simple and easy: you take the box home and you enjoy 2 to 4 small or generous servings of soup.

Preparation:
I enjoyed this soup cold, pouring 1 1/2 cups in a bowl and then adding 1.5 oz of Brie cheese to it. It was refreshing, filling and delicious and the cheese and curry combine beautifully! This amount of ingredients will give you about 17 grams of protein, so if you want more, just add a bit more cheese!

Variations:
Because it's high in fiber, this meal is extremely satisfying and can be a great midday lunch, if you are in a hurry. You could even take a couple of different boxes of soup to work and make a bowl of soup every day. Given the many flavors available on the market, and all the types of cheese or meat that you could top soup with, it's a great option! You can serve the soup with extra roasted or steamed vegetables, cut different types of cheese on top, or even hard boiled eggs or add ready to eat meats such as pork, beef or lamb.

When looking for a soup make sure you go for organic, possibly low sodium and read the label carefully to make sure there are no hydrogenated oils.

Pros: delicious, convenient, high in fiber and quality fats
Cons: you still need to add protein to it and it may be a bit sweet for some people