This mainstay vegetarian brand began in 1979 in western Massachusetts, and continues to innovate. Now the trend is more towards vegan food. They recently sent me a few of their new frozen offerings to try.

Lightlife wild mushroom ravioli

Wild mushroom ravioli is a vegan pasta filled with portabella and porcini mushrooms. Strangely, it doesn’t come with sauce. But I usually have a jar in the fridge or cupboard, so I added some marinara. Or you could always use some vegan butter and herbs. The Lightlife pasta had a rich mushroom taste, and I couldn’t tell it had been frozen.

With sauce!

One serving is 390 calories and contains 4 grams of dietary fiber (18 percent) and 14 grams of protein. It only has 2 grams of sugar, but is high in sodium with 740 mg or 31 % of the recommended limit.

This is a quick dish. Once the water boils, your raviolis is ready in just three minutes.

Veggie fritters

The cooked fritters

This snack or appetizer is made with roasted zucchini, kale, shredded carrot and sweet corn, and lightly fried. In real life mine came out looking more like brown hockey pucks and less like the green-flecked golden disks on the box. But maybe that’s because I didn’t follow the cooking instructions. The box contains eight fritters, which are packaged in a microwaveable tray. But whether you’re cooking in a conventional oven or a microwave, the instructions are to cut a one-inch gash in the film. But I was leery of melting or outgassing plastic, so I dumped them in a baking pan. They tasted pretty good, if a bit tough. Nutritionally, these aren’t a bad snack. Three fritters contain 180 calories, six grams of protein and 60 % of your Vitamin A dose. Pretty salty, with 510 mg of sodium.