Worried about that Lean Cuisine recall? Here are some alternatives

That Lean Cuisine Spaghetti With Meatball recall may seem alarming – bits of red plastic have reportedly been found in a few of the ready-made meals -- but no one appears to have been hurt by the inadvertent ingredient. So let’s simply consider this a teachable moment in eating well.

Also in the prepackaged food is 30-plus ingredients that include tapioca dextrin, modified cornstarch, palm oil, corn maltodextrin, citric acid, arabic gum and potassium chloride.

So maybe you should try making the dish the old-fashioned way with about 15 fresh ingredients. Check out this Food Network recipe.

If the 413 calories in the recipe give you pause, compared with Lean Cuisine’s 270-calorie version, consider this recipe from simpleorsenational.com. It has just 291 calories per serving.

And of course there’s this collection of 250-calorie main dishes from Cooking Light. Give it a shot.

As for that recall notice, it was issued Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and affects about 10,260 pounds of frozen spaghetti and meatballs. Food maker Nestle, in its statement, says the affected packages were produced in October. So much for that fresh taste.