Sounds promising, especially the italian sausage part. I’ll have to try it out.
Wow. I’d say 1/2 of our meals are frozen entrees. No wonder I have “issues”.
What do you do when you don’t want to cook (or are too tired)?
Thanks Rimbo - It was Claim Jumper. Their chicken fried steak with gravy is awesome.
Never seen Boston Market frozen dinners in our supermarket. I’ll have to look around.
Sammiches.
Back in the foil-tray day, mine was the “hungry man’s” meatloaf I believe. Came with green beans, tots and the brownie. I remember always eating the beans first simply to get them out of the way; the rest was sheer heaven.
Nowadays, when I load up on the frozen tv-dinner type fare it is mostly ‘pot pie’ (nod to Marie Calendar’s) or ‘hot pockets’; neither of which really qualify I guess.
We go out, or order pizza.
I have a wife and live-in nanny, so I pretty much get fresh home-cooked Chinese food every day. The cooking part rarely takes longer than 10 minutes; it’s the chopping part that takes time.
Hungry Man 3-piece Chicken Dinner, pre-shift to boneless chicken forms. You just can’t go wrong. Mashed potatoes, corn, some sort of berry-ish cobbler and 3 chunks of meat and bones ready for full on gnawin’.
Boston Market makes the best frozen pot pie in my opinion. I cannot abide the Marie Callender’s, since they use kind of an onion cream sauce instead of gravy inside. Haven’t really gotten around to trying their other offerings.
Another really great frozen dinner is the Target store brand Asian bowl dinners, no shit. I think they’re endorsed by some semi-famous chef named Ming Tsai. They have stuff like basil leaves and whole pea pods and flavor and texture in them. My favorites are the Orange Beef and the Soy Lime Chicken.
Also, I don’t think I saw anyone mention Amy’s, which is a line of organic vegetarian frozen foods. Their cheese enchiladas and bean burritos are excellent. They also make pretty cool pizzas and pasta bowls.
For worst I definitely have to give the nod to Banquet. One of my friends once bought a Country Fried Pork Banquet meal, and he declared that the entree was in fact Porky Salt Sludge. I can choke down their pot pies (which are like 25 cents each) but everything else is well below my threshold of actual food.
I just discovered a pretty decent frozen meal is Kashi’s Lemon Rosemary Chicken. Its “healthy” and it tastes pretty good too. I tried a different one from the Kashi frozen range and didn’t like it as much, it might have been the shrimp one.
Non-frozen quick dinners - soup with toast, sandwiches and some of the ready made pastas and sauces you can buy in the supermarket.
Freschetta Brick Oven Classic Supreme (pizza). Not too pricey, cooks quickly, and tastes sooooo goood.
Oh, yeah–the brownies were good, too. I forgot about those.
I don’t think I’ve eaten a TV dinner in 20 years. But they were a childhood staple, so I have fond memories of them. Real TV dinners come in foil trays and bake in the oven, though. None of that plastic/cardboard wrapped crap that they have today qualifies.
Amy’s stuff is great, but godawful expensive. Might as well hit up one of the “not really fast” fast-food type places (i.e. the upscale whatevers for your favorite type of cuisine).
There’s a coconut lime chicken (I believe) that’s also pretty good. Kashi’s stuff is also pretty healthy, which is a plus.
Oh yeah, not at all healthy, but Bertolli [sp?] has a quick-to-prepare frozen pasta+sauce product line that’s pretty good. You can supposedly microwave it, but it’s come out badly when I tried it, so I just use a saucepan. I like their gnocchi with sauce. Admittedly, buying gnocchi separately, boiling, and dumping on some heated sauce from a jar would not be all that much more work, but every second counts…
Awww yeah Freschetta. I got a little tired of em, so I haven’t had one in a couple years, but I went through a phase where I got them instead of delivery because they tasted as good and cost less. More fond of the rising crust ones though, and ESPECIALLY the sauce-stuffed crust. Don’t know if they even make those anymore, I haven’t seen one in a while.
Freschetta is pretty good; they make a super-thin twinpack now which is not bad.
For individuals I also get Wolfgang Puck’s every once in awhile just for variety, which tastes like a good, organic, fresh pizza. Locally (for Texas) I think at some frozen food isles you can get Mangia, which is based in Austin and they make great stuffed pizzas.
The new Hot Pockets line of Calzones isn’t bad.
Kashi also has frozen pizzas as well.
— Alan
I have to admit I don’t understand frozen pizza. Is there anyone left in the country who isn’t in delivery (or quick driving) range of a pizzeria that makes superior pizza to frozen? I mean, even in my benighted region where all the pizzerias are owned by Greeks and not Neapolitans and they don’t twirl the dough at all, it’s still better than frozen.
Actually, a little embarrassed to say so, I think the local Papa Ginos makes the best pizza in the region.
Anyhow, if I was in California, it might well require considerable force of will not to eat Round Table almost every day, despite their ridiculous prices…
Just expensive and takes awhile, that’s all. I’d rather have fresh, but the taste of frozen pizza has overall improved much over the years.
— Alan
At that point why not buy the fresh stuff over in the refrigerated section? I used to occasionally (once a month or two) get some fresh cheese tortellini and the alfredo sauce. Godawful health profile, but very very yummy.
A lot of us only get the chains. If my choice is $10-$15 for papa john’s or $5 for a digiorno… well the quality difference, if there at all, isn’t worth the price premium. There are some more premium pizza places around but they’re either out of delivery range or even more expensive. If I want a nice pizza sure; if I just want a meal that’s reasonable I’ll take the DiGiorno $5 supreme (or, these days, wheat crust thin supreme or rising wheat crust veggie) rather than pay $22 with tax and tip for one to come to me.
Best for me: http://www.michaelangelos.com/products/signatureline.php
Worst: oh god, pretty much all the standard “TV Dinners” taste like cardboard.
M&M Meats has some pretty awesome frozen dinners. Their scallop and prawn pasta is better than most things I make myself.