So you are in the grocery store and you wander down the frozen food aisle and there it is...some sort of frozen food brand that is on sale for 10 for $10...you think ok..that's two weeks of lunch for $10. Hmmm....this could work and fit my budget, but the most important question is "but will it satisfy?". In my experience it typically leads to a big fat NO. The portions are ridiculously tiny and in most cases just don't taste very good. Sure, the lean cuisines only have 200 calories, but you need to eat 4 of them to equal a regular meal. Now TV dinners have come a long way from back in the day...but are they really worth it? I do admit, there are a number of frozen items that I am a sucker for like Marie Callendar's turkey broccoli mushroom pot pie, frozen cheeseburgers from Brown Street and Patio burritos. I will usually have something stashed in the freezer for the quick fix or when I am running late and need something fast to take to work. I just don't get how people survive on them day after day. I've noticed particulaly at the wrestling panda place that there are a number of people (typically women) who eat those Lean Cuisines EVERY day! All I can do is take pity upon them.
So what's your opinion on frozen entrees? Do you always have something in particular stashed away for emergencies? Have you found a certain type that actually satisfies AND tastes good?
And don't forget......WFL?!
Quick shout out to you Chicago peeps...stay warm in that 15 below weather over there! Brrrr!!
35 comments:
The Missus goes with frozen entrees for lunch each day so I occasionaly find myself eyeing a lean cuisine sandwich at 1 AM on a Saturday night.
Outside of these late night emergencies I rarely go the frozen meal route.
Today I am feeling like salad, so I will hit the bar at Soho.
What was that topping record?
I don't do frozen meals. For the most part, I'd rather go without food than eat a lean cuisine.
Exceptions to this rule: Stouffer's White Lasagna (though, I'm not aware that they make this in a size smaller than the giant family tray) and Marie Callendar's pot pies. And, since neither of these are even remotely healthy, I haven't purchased either in years. Other than that, I pretty much steer clear. From time to time, I'll pick something up at TJ's, but I'm almost always disappointed. To be honest, I mostly skip the entire frozen foods section when I go grocery shopping.
I will admit to a fondness for Safeway brand frozen hors d'oeuvres, with Bags of Gold being my absolute favorites. However, we don't have an oven at work, and they're not for the microwave, so it's not a lunch thing.
To clarify: (as I feel I implied that I only purchase healthy food) The unhealthy food that I buy now is generally not of the frozen sort. Therefore, not much in the way of Marie Callendar's and Stoufer's.
record is 28 Jo. Careful.
ahem, it's 6 above Lady A. This ain't no Minnesota yo!
I generally hate frozen dinners but will eat them without a sound or complaint (until much late that is). The Marie Calendar pot pies are pretty damn good. Actually we have 2 in our freezer. Maybe tonight?
yeah, the 10 for 10 usually suck. I think I have 20 in the freezer as i type. After I eat one, i usually want to cry. You can't even doctor that shit up. if you have a secret other than throwing a steak on top, please let me know.
Miso probably won't be posting today. She started her new job today at America's 3rd largest architectural firm (or something like that).
oh, and I finally figured new blogger out. I'm really not that dumb, i swear!!
Lunch today might be some beef Udonger soup.
I am a pretty big fan of the Salmon chunks with Dill cream sauce and capellini from Healthy choice.
I did a successful import to the new server last night. We need to decide when we want to flip flop and then I need people to volunteer to work on the new look of OWFL because I friggin give up on that.
oh today I will have a strawberry and cream slimfast optima (so cool sounding) and then go running... afterwards if I'm still pckish I'll drop down to the tunnels and grab a burrito.
"give up"?
speaking of frozen delights, i think i ate some bourbon chicken bites with Mr. Lady A over the holidays at say 2am. I think they were really good too.
I have no idea if this acutally happened.
Now I want a burger.
Jo, I give up trying to make a decision. The cool thing with Wordpress is that the little administrative interface lets you do a F$#@ Shyteload of stuff to the look of your site.
If you have some time off-blog I will show you.
Diz, if we pick a design we can always change it right?
Yes .. it is just a template. We can change anything we want,... the is the beauty of it.
I love fried icecream ... I think that is the only that is fried that you can't get in Texas.
Peep it's good to hear that it is a whopping 6 degrees there...I was afraid that you guys may be cold.
i'm pretty good with templates. i'd love to help.
I AM TYPO BOY!!!
Anyone wants to help they can. The only problem we are going to have is going to be 1) setting up some sort of netmeeting so people can watch over the "admin's" shoulder electronically to help him make decisions 2) Get people's login IDs to them 3) decide a roll-over date
I'm finally excited about this. The new site is so friggin fast compared to blogger.
Stouffer's lasagna is awesome. Perhaps even better (to me) than homemade. Other frozen entrees I eat b/c they are convenient, or b/c I am actually trying to limit myself to 200 calories, but I never choose them out of sheer enjoyment.
Lunch today was a sandwich from the caf, and now it's back to work for me. I'll be seeing a lot less of you all, b/c I just got figuratively kicked in the groin (punched in the ovaries?) by work yesterday and have to complete 2 months worth of work in one month. Fun times.
I am back amongst the living, but not eating much. For those of you who didn't know (which I believe is everyone) - I spent the morning after the Superbowl (and all sorts of wasted treats) in the ER having bags of saline pumped in for dehydration due to gastroenteritis. So my discomfort after eating czar treats & fried Lady A food wasn't so much the grease/sheer quantity as the virus beginning it's late-night attack on my intestines. Ugh. But I've slept most of the past 48 hours & am back at work today . . . for awhile at least. I hope I haven't ruined anyone's appetite. I can give more detail of my horrid crampy night if it is required.
Lunch today will likely be a few sips of chicken & rice soup that my mommy made me on Monday. Plus some saltines & a ginger ale.
oh yeah - frozen dinners are crap. i probably haven't had one since i was 23. frozen burritos are awesome, though.
welcome back LT...so sorry about your horrid past couple of days.
Maybe if there was one superbowl party instead of 2 this would not have happened.
I wish mommy and daddy were still together.
Wow - my appetite just came back. Someone's warming up pizza.
Thanks Peep!
And I thought Jo was the instigator around here. Wow PeeP.
LT that is terrible!! You just thought you'd had too much grease! Horrible. Let me know if I can bring you anything since I can literally see your house from my office window. (discovered that just yesterday)
ugh lt, that sounds horrible but i am glad to hear you are feeling better.
I was about to state that all frozen entrees are a waste of time but then i remembered frozen burritos and Stouffer’s mac and cheese (which i believe to be the true ambrosia of the gods.)
a while ago, a friend of mine was between jobs and every now and again i would buy her tons of lean cuisines (as otherwise she would eat only rice). Then between visits, she got a job and refused the four frozen delicacies that i had brought her. so i kept them and a couple nights later decided that i may as well eat one.
well, after the first one i was so unsatisfied that i heated up the remaining three and immediately consumed those.
still hungry
i ate something else.. prolly ramen and finally had enough energy to vow to never buy those things again.
oh and lunch was a chicken quesadilla with guac.
oh guac, i love you.
I'm sorry LT.
Glad you're feeling better.
I was anxious to discuss Bad Girls on the other blog with you.
While I wouldn't consider myself a dedicated consumer of frozenables, I am at least a casual user. I loves me a Swanson's Hungry Man frozen turkey dinner from time to time. I will fuck up a couple of their turkey pot pies (yeah, the little ones with crust on top and bottom) for lunch every once in a while, although I haven't done that for a good long time.
In fact, I'm thinking most of my frozen entree dining comes in the form of pot pies. Marie Callendar's are good. Six months or so ago, I bought the family-size Stouffer's lasagna and ate that for a week. There's something to be said for convenience, and I generally don't find myself utterly repulsed, assuming I don't try to subsist for a month on bottom-shelf frozen burritos.
That said, I myself was lured by the Lean Cuisine siren song in the last week or so. I had one for lunch, which was wholly unsatisfying. I had another one for dinner a few days later (some sort of salmon thing). It wasn't bad, and I was looking for a very light dinner. That's what I got, but I wouldn't push myself so far as to say I had salmon for dinner that night.
I don't know what I'm going to have for lunch today. I've been working too intently for that sort of thought. Maybe I'll splurge on a phatty sandwich from the fake NY deli across the street. Corned beef and swiss on sourdough anyone?
cheeseburger and salad for lunch from soho.
HT, I am so jealous of you. I wish I were within visual distance of my house! Thanks for the offer - my mom made me that big pot of chicken & rice soup & my big brother (!!!) brought over some chicken noodle soup, clam chowder, stuffed chicken breasts, and like a marinated roasted vegetable salad. While I appreciate the gesture . . . clam chowder? Bizarre choice . . . the rest of it's fine, though. I'll probably feel up to a creamy soup in a couple of days, so it'll be fine then.
Jo, I won't be able to make an appearance on the tv blog for a couple of days. I didn't watch 24 on Monday or anything but American Idol last night. I did watch Studio 60 yesterday afternoon, but I had a headache & knew that Jack would make it worse. His velvet voice could soothe away my aches & pains, but I knew this would not be a soothing-voice, but rather screamy-voiced episode. I will catch up! And I will reappear on TVLunch! But not tonight - Lost is back & the Duke-UNC game is on. I'm torn.
Steak and cheese sub from the mediocre joint downstairs. Pretzel sticks. Water to drink.
Not terrible.
Coffee pot soup day...and it was pretty good! Along with the loaf of bread that I consumed...full and sleepy.
I'm pretty sure I'm skipping lunch today. It's too cold out, and I don't really know what I would want to order. Nothing sounds good. Hmmm..
soup! HT .. you must do soup.
Why are weddings so farggin expensive?
Sorry, Diz but there is no soup delivery service to my knowledge. However, I'd be willing to call water Hydrogen and Oxygen Soup and drink the hell out of some of that if it'll make you feel like you made an impact on my lunching.
coffee pot soup?
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