I have started to occasionally make Rice A Roni once in a while. I hadn't eaten it in decades up until about a year ago, and had forgotten that they were pretty good. They're really not that bad, especially if you add some fresh meat and fresh or frozen vegetables to them to give them more substance. In addition, one small box makes a really large pan of finished product - I have to use the largest frying pan that I have to make it, and it nearly fills up the whole pan. I usually get the chicken one, then add some cut up chicken tenders that I've sauteed already in the same pan, along with some frozen mixed veggies or frozen broccoli and carrots towards the end for some color and nutrition. Then I top it off with a big sprinkle of parmesan or romano cheese. They're very filling.
The other thing is you can make many of these boxed meals with simple pantry ingredients that you already have. For example, you can make a simple creamy chicken sauce to go over pasta with just some cream cheese, chicken broth, butter and parmesan cheese all simmered together in a pan until everything incorporates and thickens into a rich sauce. Alfredo is just heavy cream, butter and parmesan. Even if you simply keep some chicken and or beef bullion on hand, a few sprinkles of that along with some butter and a little water plus maybe some corn starch is all you need to make the "sauce" that many of these skillet box recipes create.
Initially I thought this thread was about those frozen skillet meals that come in bags at your grocery store. My folks love them, but I can't get past the fact that they are basically just frozen TV dinners re-packaged in bags instead of serving trays. One of those bagged meals is just basically the equivalent of two TV dinners in a bag.