Coronary bistro?

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Nov, 2005

"Our chefs were inspired to create these tantalizing new recipes based on neighborhood restaurant favorites," explains the label on Stouffer's new line of six Corner Bistro frozen entrees.

Great. Restaurant food is high enough in calories, saturated fat, and sodium these days. Now Stouffer's wants us to bring the bistro home? Thanks a lot.

Take the Chicken Carbonara, an "herb-seasoned chicken breast served with linguine tossed in a creamy Parmesan sauce with bacon and peas." It packs 530 calories, close to a day's sodium (1,380 milligrams), and more than half a day's saturated fat (12 grams). You'd get roughly the same calories and sat fat in two Banquet Meat Loaf Meals.

Corner Bistro's Monterey Chicken isn't much better. Its 500 calories, 8 grams of sat fat, and 1,310 mg of sodium are in the same ballpark as a Stouffer's Salisbury Steak Dinner. The Grilled Rosemary Chicken and Seafood Scampi aren't quite as bad (5 grams of sat fat), and the Sesame Chicken and Garlic Pasta Chicken (roughly 2 grams of sat fat) would be quite good if they weren't so high in sodium.

"Bring the bistro home," says Stouffer's. Our advice: buy your chicken breasts fresh and season them with garlic and pepper or rosemary, thyme, and lemon juice ... and leave the bistro right where it is.

Stouffer's: (800) 225-1180.