What are Your Favorite Grocery Store Frozen Meals?

flyinglentris

flyinglentris

Disabled and Retired Veteran
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Frozen meals have evolved from TV dinners and pot pies to a huge variety of quickly microwavable, oven baked or cooked up prepared frozen meals..

While it is true that I like to cook up my own meals from scratch, sometimes, I like a quick fix, often, something that can be microwaved or heated in a pot.

I do like Marie Calendar's, but here in the USA, there are a variety of other choices. I like the Bertolli bagged frozen meals too.

Amy's
Banquet
Bertolli
Birds Eye
Healthy Choice
Hungry Man
Lean Cuisine
Stoufer's
Walmart Great Value

And there are many others. From any one of the available vendors of frozen meals, there might be a specif meal you often crave. What might those be?
 
Here are two more vendors of frozen food meals, I forgot about, but like.

Boston Market
Trader Joe's
 
The only frozen meal-type items I eat are the occasional frozen pizza and every so often, some frozen ravioli or tortellini.

I did, for many years, eat plenty of those microwave meals as part of my office lunch, like Budget Gourmet and there was some other brand, Mama Something-Or-Other, but I ate so many that I grew sick of them, and now even the smell of one in the microwave puts me off.

Not an issue now that I'm home, of course.
 
I'll add that as a kid, a frozen pot pie from the supermarket was a real treat, and they cost next to nothing, so my mom would get me one occasionally, and I thought they were just about the greatest thing in the world. Chicken was my favorite, followed by turkey, then beef.

Same thing with TV dinners. You may laugh, but boy oh boy, one of those Salisbury steak TV dinners, in the aluminum foil tray, with the foil over top, that little compartment of fake mashed potatoes with the fake butter puddle, and the cherry crisp dessert - I loved those, and in my youthful naïveté, I assumed that's what really well-off people ate, because Mom would rarely buy me one for myself.

I even asked for one for my birthday one year, and she did buy it for me, but I had to eat it for lunch before my dad got home, so we both wouldn't get in to trouble! High livin', huh?
 
One more memory - when I got a little older (12-13 or so) and was allowed to spend some of my own money, I used to like to buy those little miniature cheese pizzas, in packs of nine little pizzas, each one about three inches across.

I used to wait until my parents (mainly my dad) went to bed, then I'd sneak back up and make them, at something like 11:30PM, stuff my face, then go back to bed.
 
As TR mentioned, back in my office working days, I would buy alot of Michelina's frozen meals. They were only something like 90¢, small, plenty for me for lunch and quick in the micro.

Fast forward to my retirement days and the only frozen-prepared-foods that I buy are

Cedar Lane Sweet Corn Tamales (delicious)
RealGood Food Co. Bacon wrapped Stuffed Chicken (way delicious)
Trader Joe's Hatch Chile Mac `N Cheese (needs more Chiles)
Trader Joe's Mini Cheese Pizza bites (Spizzicio di Pizza) makes a great quick lunch with a salad
Costco Marie Callender's Chicken Pot Pies, when they have a sale, they take up alot of room in the freezer, there's 8 of `em!

Oh wait, and some frozen appies to take to Neighborhood Gals Card afternoons, pigs in a blanket, that sort, but not often.

That's it.
I'm not a huge fan of the "frozen meals" like Swanson's or Banquet, WAAAAAYYYYYY too much sodium for me!
I don't buy those frozen ravs or tortellini or stuffed Shells, I make my own and plenty of them for the deep freeze.
 
I can not say that I ever "crave" any frozen meals. Right now (as is usual), there is not a single one in my freezer.

I do buy frozen french fries, and then double fry them in the deep fryer. Stouffer's mac and cheese in the single serving cups makes a quick snack, but I'd much rather eat mac and cheese from scratch.

CD
 
Stouffer's lasagna. While it's not as good as my homemade, it's a great quick and easy meal that's pretty good. Oh and yeah, the occasional "Jack's" pizza. I do "doctor" them up slightly.

Marie Callender's pot pies done in the oven (never in the microwave).
 
TastyReuben said:
One more memory - when I got a little older (12-13 or so) and was allowed to spend some of my own money, I used to like to buy those little miniature cheese pizzas, in packs of nine little pizzas, each one about three inches across.

I used to wait until my parents (mainly my dad) went to bed, then I'd sneak back up and make them, at something like 11:30PM, stuff my face, then go back to bed.
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Our granddaughter at 12 does the same now, she was telling us about her midnight raids. Lollies/sweets in her pantry raids. We aren't allowed to tell, and we wont, part of growing up.
I never did it, nothing to raid!!

Russ
 
I think I can state quite honestly that I NEVER buy frozen meals. That might come as a shock to some of you, but there are basically three reasons.
Firstly, frozen meals are few and far between in Venezuela, and most of them are appalling.
Secondly, I wouldn´t dream of buying something I could easily make myself.
Thirdly, my family are pasta lovers in extremis. There´s always a tomato sauce and some pesto in the fridge,and pasta only takes 15 minutes to make - about the time it would take me to heat up a ready meal.
 
I loved frozen pizza, from the cheapest to the more expensive brands. Now that I've grown up, I learned something about frozen high class food. There are some interesting meals, worth to try out.
 
karadekoolaid said:
I think I can state quite honestly that I NEVER buy frozen meals. That might come as a shock to some of you, but there are basically three reasons.
Firstly, frozen meals are few and far between in Venezuela, and most of them are appalling.
Secondly, I wouldn´t dream of buying something I could easily make myself.
Thirdly, my family are pasta lovers in extremis. There´s always a tomato sauce and some pesto in the fridge,and pasta only takes 15 minutes to make - about the time it would take me to heat up a ready meal.
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The frozen meals I used to buy were when I was working long hours, sometimes 10-14 hours a day for 6 days, even 7 a week. The last thing I wanted to do when I came home at 8-9 pm was cook (although sometimes I did anyway), and hubby, well...he just doesn't do it. So I will buy those Stouffer's lasagnas, couple of frozen pizzas when they are on sale, or a few pot pies--about 3-4 times a year. During isolation there is no need to eat those, of course, except last week when we were both dizzy, tired, and sick with covid. I still managed to cook most days, but we had frozen pizza one night and lasagna another. And then went right back to bed.
 
TastyReuben said:
Today, I did buy some frozen ravioli, pet of tonight's meal.
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I don't think of frozen ingredients as frozen meals. I use frozen peas and frozen corn out of season. Frozen French fries fall into that category, too.

Unless you have the kitchen gear to make raviolis (and kitchen space), you kinda' have to go frozen, or at least store bought. Now, if they are frozen in a sauce, and all you do is nuke them, that would be a frozen meal.

CD
 
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