I have a Schwan's man! What's good?

[AuntiePam]

If you haven't heard of Schwan's, it's frozen food, delivered. It's pricey compared to the grocery store but reasonable compared to eating in a restaurant.

I see their trucks everywhere but haven't tried their food. Today a rep showed up with a new route that includes my town. I'm tempted but I don't know what's good.

With just two of us, convenience food sometimes makes sense.

Recommendations and warnings appreciated!

[Hampshire]

I liked their frozen pizzas, ice cream, and frozen vegetables.
Pricey but high quality.
I couldn't afford to have them dropping by so often so I quit using them.

[Omniscient]

The frozen Cajun Turkey Breasts are pretty damned good. Will feed a family with leftovers and it's tasty.

Also I love a bunch of their dessert options. There was a frozen Lemon and Strawberry Ice thing that kicked ass and was fairly low-cal.

[AuntiePam]

Thanks, Hampshire. I didn't ask the guy how often he'd come by. I wouldn't want to see him every week -- once a month would be fine.

Apparently they take orders on-line too. Maybe I'll save some gas money.

[MadTheSwine]

Pineapple sherbet!

[Siege]

When I had a Schwan's man, their frozen chicken breasts were one of my stock items. They come individually packaged, so you can thaw as many as you like. Their ice cream's good -- I think it was their original product -- and I've heard their brocolli cheese soup is good.

[Argent Towers]

Their barbecued ribs are pretty damn good, if you ask me.

[Icerigger]

Banana Icecream Sunday Cones. :D

[Queen Tonya]

I don't have a Schwan's man, but the rest of my family does and I get to eat their food, does that count?

The ice cream, and these little school milk carton sized boxes of fruity drink concentrate are popular choices. The cream cheese wontons are good, and I like their breakfasty hot pocket thingies too.

[AuntiePam]

Wow. So far, no warnings. That's good.

My husband says he heard that their corn on the cob was good, but I'm skeptical, especially if it's been frozen.

How about the fish? Any experience with the fish? The salmon? Also, it might be kid food, but I have fond memories of fish sticks and haven't been able to find any good ones at the store. I've tried Gorton's and Mrs. Paul's. Even the "not shredded" ones are awful.

[gonzomax]

Both the beef and chicken pot pies are excellent.
The ice cream is very good.

[Suse]

I used to buy chicken fries for my kids and they loved them. Also was a big fan of the broccoli, chicken, cheese dinner and the prime rib slices. I wish Schwan's wasn't so expensive, I'd love to have more of that prime rib!

[Moirai]

How about the fish? Any experience with the fish? The salmon? Also, it might be kid food, but I have fond memories of fish sticks and haven't been able to find any good ones at the store. I've tried Gorton's and Mrs. Paul's. Even the "not shredded" ones are awful.

Costco carries a great brand of fish sticks, and they've just come back in. I think they are from Trident Seafoods, I will check when I get home.

ETA- just for kicks, I just opened a new tab and got on the Schwan's website- they deliver to my zip code! I am so doing this!!! :D

And does a "schwanz" joke jump out at anybody else? Nope, just me? ;)

[xanthous]

I remember their biscuits very, very fondly.

[Harmonious Discord]

Having a Schwan's man used to mean you could consider yourself to be a farmer. The ice cream has always been good. The meat is ok if you want frozen individually wrapped portions. My ex neighbor is a shut in, so this kept her in food when the daughter wouldn't take her shopping for another week. The stuff is expensive though.

[gonzomax]

If you haven't heard of Schwan's, it's frozen food, delivered. It's pricey compared to the grocery store but reasonable compared to eating in a restaurant.

I see their trucks everywhere but haven't tried their food. Today a rep showed up with a new route that includes my town. I'm tempted but I don't know what's good.

With just two of us, convenience food sometimes makes sense.

Recommendations and warnings appreciated!

Yeah, I've been using Schwans for about 15 years. (off & on)
Yeah, food is pricey. I've used numerous products. Chicken Pot pies are delish.
All kinds of chocolate ice cream. OK, all their ice cream is good. Coney dogs, Mexican dishes are good. They have pizza which is great. Small & large sizes. Flat & Deep dish. However I would be remissed if I did'nt tell you to go to the grocery store for any Red Baron pizzas cause I'M REAL SURE THERE 1 IN THE SAME. Check the back of the pizza box to see the Schwans Co. name there.

Now, if you want to step it up they have another company call ImpromptGourmet.
Owned by the same company. It's very upscale. You can go to web site for more info.

[Lamar Mundane]

Wow. So far, no warnings. That's good.

My husband says he heard that their corn on the cob was good, but I'm skeptical, especially if it's been frozen.

How about the fish? Any experience with the fish? The salmon? Also, it might be kid food, but I have fond memories of fish sticks and haven't been able to find any good ones at the store. I've tried Gorton's and Mrs. Paul's. Even the "not shredded" ones are awful.
Please tell me you are not going to buy frozen corn in Iowa. You can wait until August.

[Onomatopoeia]

Okay, since nobody else said it, and on the very possible chance I'll be thought very little of, locally, schwans (perhaps spelled schwanz) is a colloquialism for the male reproductive organ...I kid you not. So, imagine my surprise to see a thread by AuntiePam entitled "I have a Schwans Man!" Naturally, I just HAD to know what the heck it was about...color me relieved.

Me <-- Someone who has a schwans, man, but has never heard of a Schwans man.

[Yorikke]

Never had their food, but I salivate while reading their catalog. The prices simply terrify me, though...

Joe

[Yorikke]

Okay, since nobody else said it, and on the very possible chance I'll be thought very little of, locally, schwans (perhaps spelled schwanz) is a colloquialism for the male reproductive organ...I kid you not. So, imagine my surprise to see a thread by AuntiePam entitled "I have a Schwans Man!" Naturally, I just HAD to know what the heck it was about...color me relieved.

Me <-- Someone who has a schwans, man, but has never heard of a Schwans man.

From Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=schwanz&r=f)

Joe

[AuntiePam]

Please tell me you are not going to buy frozen corn in Iowa. You can wait until August.

Good point. But the fresh corn we froze last summer is all gone.

Onomatopoeia, we learn something new every day around here. :D

[NightRabbit]

oh man, they have these cheese-filled pretzel thingies... SO GOOD! Also, the single serve, deep dish pizzas used to be a favorite around here. We stopped getting them when we began to cut grocery costs, but I still think of the pretzel bites with a lot of love...

[lieu]

Wow. So far, no warnings. That's good.Not a warning, just an observation as it certainly isn't endemic to Schwan's. A neighbor family orders a lot of their fried and processed stuff and over just a couple of months we've seen them suddenly become... how do I put this delicately... shockingly heavy. Scared for the kids heavy. I'm sure Schwan's has some healthier options. Go there.

Now, the good. Awhile back some kids covered a car we'd left out with paint remover. A brand new car. Paper tags still. A couple of days later the Schwan's guy made a surprise stop at our house. Came up, told me his name, that he'd seen the car and wanted to know if he could give us some ice cream. He was just one hell of a nice guy. I thanked him, told him my wife's favorite flavor and he spent several minutes digging through all his stash just to find that one flavor. People like that, a company that looks for people like that, I never forget. For the rest of my life I'll always think very, very well of them. I hope, AuntiePam, you really enjoy their service and be sure and let us know what we need to order.

We use them for ice cream now. Can you blame us?

[Moirai]

Okay, since nobody else said it, and on the very possible chance I'll be thought very little of, locally, schwans (perhaps spelled schwanz) is a colloquialism for the male reproductive organ...I kid you not. So, imagine my surprise to see a thread by AuntiePam entitled "I have a Schwans Man!" Naturally, I just HAD to know what the heck it was about...color me relieved.

Me <-- Someone who has a schwans, man, but has never heard of a Schwans man.

Psssst... post #13...

:D

[MissGypsy]

Costco carries a great brand of fish sticks, and they've just come back in. I think they are from Trident Seafoods, I will check when I get home.

You are correct, it's Trident. Those are the best fish sticks ever, and I never thought I could say such a thing.

[Onomatopoeia]

Psssst... post #13...

:DHah! Missed it! :)

[AuntiePam]

Costco carries a great brand of fish sticks, and they've just come back in. I think they are from Trident Seafoods, I will check when I get home.


That'd be awesome. There's a Costco around here somewhere.

lieu, that's good advice. My husband's diabetic and overweight, so I think we'll probably go (mostly) for the "LiveSmart" choices. (I'll hide the crab cakes.)

That's such a nice story about your Schwan's man. (I keep wanting to put a comma between Schwan's and man, now that I got the joke.) This guy seemed nice too -- not pushy at all, and kinda cute.

On edit: Trident -- gotcha!

[MissTake]

French Toast Sticks.

nom nom nom

[Onomatopoeia]

:) Okay, I know this is irredeemably childish, but I've been laughing uncontrollably for the last hour or so in this thread, and am compelled to share.

A simple movement of a comma or two in some of the posts gives them completely new meanings. A few examples:

Post 6: "When I had a Schwan's, man, their frozen chicken breasts were one of my stock items"

Post 9: "I don't have a Schwan's, man, but the rest of my family does and I get to eat their food, does that count?" ...uhhhh

Post 15: "Having a Schwan's, man, used to mean you could consider yourself to be a farmer." ...I guess that'd make all men farmers :D

Post 16: "Yeah, I've been using Schwans for about 15 years. (off & on)" Perhaps that would be schwanses :)

...and of course Post 27: "That's such a nice story about your Schwan's, man."

Okay, okay. I'll leave now. :D

[Paul in Qatar]

I was a Schwan's man for a day! Sort of a job-interview thing. They will come by as rarely as you like customers have notations like "Every other month" or whatever. Oddly, the company is privately held >The truck are all propane (Natural gas?) powered and have no refrigerator on board. It is all done with cold plates.

Ask them to stop by. They will give you a quart of free vanilla ice cream.


==edited for glaring typos==

[Tamex]

However I would be remissed if I did'nt tell you to go to the grocery store for any Red Baron pizzas cause I'M REAL SURE THERE 1 IN THE SAME. Check the back of the pizza box to see the Schwans Co. name there.

Schwan's makes several brands of grocery store frozen pizza. In Blaine, MN, there is the Schwan's Super Rink (a very large hockey/ice skating facility), which has ads inside for Red Baron, Tony's and Freschetta.

When I was a kid, our neighbors bought from Schwan's, and I loved those "push-up" ice cream pops.

[congodwarf]

When my ex-boyfriend's brother first got his CDL license, he had a really hard time finding a job. So, he got a job with Schwann's. It was wonderful for the whole family. We got to use his employee discount, which is the only way I'll ever be able to afford their food.

We tried most of their catalog at least once. Everything was delicious. My favorite was the frozen root beer float cups. I dropped him off at work one day and he gave me a pack as a thank you. I took them to work with me then forgot to put them in the freezer. About 3 hours later, they were about half thawed and oh so delicious. I tried them completely frozen and completely thawed. Half is so much better.

[FriarTed]

I think they are called Barquitos- frozen mini-pizzas with a corn-based shell. Fantastic!

[Solfy]

We had a Schwans man when we were newlywed and living in a townhouse complex.
I remember liking the ice cream, chicken nuggets, mini corndogs, and assorted frozen fruits. But the prices kept us from ordering a whole lot or very frequently (our guy came twice a month, as I recall). Then he got pissy with us and told us if we weren't going to order more, then it wasn't worth his time to stop by.
So we said good riddance and I can't say that we missed him. We weren't getting anything we couldn't get from the local supermarket.

[Trunk]

Wow. So far, no warnings. That's good.
Same thing I'd warn about any processed, pre-packaged food.

I think that it's about the worst stuff out there for anyone to eat.

Tons of added sodium. Usually a lot of added sugar, sometimes high-fructose corn syrup. Preservatives, and weird ingredients that I might eat once but that I wouldn't make a regular part of my diet no matter what the FDA says. There's nothing magical that Schwans is doing that Stouffer's isn't.

I imagine that their frozen vegetables are coming from the same places that Jolly Green Giant and Bird's Eye are coming from.

I usually prefer frozen fish (since "fresh" usually means frozen and then thawed), so I'd have to try theirs to see how I like it.

Here's some nutritional information. . .

http://www.schwans.com/customerService/NutritionGuideCategory.aspx?tb=6&C2=4780

I like the 1630 mg of sodium in the "chip beef". Imagine making that yourself, and then adding 3/4 tsp of table salt to a 1 cup serving.

[Max Torque]

Ice cream, definitely. Schwann's Chocolate Marshmallow Ripple is my favorite flavor of all time; it's smooth and not overwhelming. Great ice cream sandwiches, too.

Their seafood is pretty darn good. They used to have an "ocean scrod" that I loved, but it looks like they don't sell it anymore. Hard to go wrong, though.

[pravnik]

I practically lived on the eggrolls until age 19 or so.

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

Their pot stickers aren't bad. The beef sirloin tips make a good foundation for a lot of quick stews. The ready-made meatballs are handy for tossing into sauces and other dishes. The pierogies are tasty. The pork chops are good, and chop up easily for making fried rice or hot & sour soup. The chicken breasts are convenient for turning into a wide variety of chicken dishes, from cacciatore to wiener backhun.

Basically it's higher-end 'convenience food', which means watch the fat, carbs and salt, because it has more than you think. As Trunk noted.

But lots of their stuff gets used by us in the process of making other dishes, where I take care to add no salt at all!

[Dr. Rieux]

[Teri Garr]
He would have to have an enormous Schwan's Stucker!
[/TG]
:D

[samm]

The Schwan's man hit and killed our dog in our driveway when I was a kid and we stopped getting deliveries from them after that. Ever since, I have despised Schwan's... There's your warning!

[papergirl]

I love Schwanmanstuff. My Schwan's men don't come to my house anymore (I think the dogs scare them away, or maybe it's the neighborhood) so I have to catch them in odd places or wait until I spot one parked at a gas station.
Anyway Schwan's has great tortellini. I don't know why it's so much better than any other brand, but I've tried a lot of different types, and Schwan's is the best.
Ice cream is good, especially a lemony type they only carry in the summer here.
Everything else I've tried has been really good, but I'm very, very cheap, so I haven't tried any of the meats or prepared meals.
But the tortellini is worth chasing down the Schwanman anyday.
Best,
karol

[DSYoungEsq]

Pot Stickers
Ice Cream
Pizzas

The meat selections are overpriced, IMHO.

[Student Driver]

A Schwan's delivery man played a crucial role in a multiple-murder trial for which I sat on a jury. So, go Schwan's guys. Great company, and their delivery logs can help with the occasional crime trial.

Anyway. As Tamex mentioned, Schwan's has a heavy presence in the (premium) frozen foods sections of grocery stores-- they own Red Baron, Freschetta, and more. They make good product, but it pays to check the grocer's freezers before commiting to more expensive home delivery.

That said, does anyone with a current delivery service know if they still carry the... I don't know the real name... the, uh, pizza dipping ring thing? A ring of pizza dough filled with cheese, with a cup of tomato sauce at the center. A number of companies introduced similar items a few years ago, but only the Schwan's brand was edible. And edible it was-- damn delicious, and worth signing up for Schwan's door-to-door service alone. (Is this one of those things which would be obvious if I knew what search terms to use?)

[Cheez_Whia]

The cheese rings are not in the current catalog, but IIRC, they bring them back seasonally around Christmas.

We like their bacon. The last two times I've tried bacon from the grocery store, I've broken my dental appliance. I'd rather pay for the bacon than the broken appliance, especially since I talk funny when I'm not wearing it.

The Mahi-Mahi is excellent, especially since it goes from the freezer directly to our BBQ grill, with just EVOO, salt, and pepper. Yum!

The frozen veggies are excellent, also. Try the Sugar Snap Peas. The broccoli is all crowns and no stems. And the asparagus, while spendy, is very convenient to use, since you don't have to peel and wash it.

[AuntiePam]

You're supposed to peel asparagus?

[lawoot]

I've always wondered - do you have to sign up, or can you do the spur-of-the-moment thing, flag down a truck and just see what he has and buy that way?

[AuntiePam]

bodypoet says you don't have to sign up -- catch them where they're parked or wave them over and they'll open the store.

[gonzomax]

The Schwan's man hit and killed our dog in our driveway when I was a kid and we stopped getting deliveries from them after that. Ever since, I have despised Schwan's... There's your warning!
Its ok I am sure they now have another source for meat by now.

[MissGypsy]

A Schwan's delivery man played a crucial role in a multiple-murder trial for which I sat on a jury. So, go Schwan's guys. Great company, and their delivery logs can help with the occasional crime trial.

That sounds like a great TV crime show episode... can we get more details? How did the Schwan's delivery guy nail (or exonerate, whichever he did) the accused?

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

Mrs. Mercotan loves their fire-roasted veggies.

Of course, she opts for fresh when they're in season locally, but during the rest of the year, she finds them tastily convenient.

Their potato wedges are not bad.

Their curly fries suck tho. But then so do all curly fries.

[Fionn]

My dad worked for Schwan's, so my family tried all sorts of products. I adored their chicken nuggets and large bags of ready-cooked bacon. My family loved the apple pies and egg rolls, but I never tried them so I can't personally attest to them.

[Student Driver]

That sounds like a great TV crime show episode... can we get more details? How did the Schwan's delivery guy nail (or exonerate, whichever he did) the accused?

The Schwan delivery guy established the presence of the accused at his home during a time frame that the defense was claiming he was away. There was a lot of weirdness about establishing his presence or lack thereof (they lived in a part of Indiana that followed daylight savings time at a time when the state as a whole didn't, which threw a wrench into the prosecution's plan to establish that he had been at home by using cell-phone records), and the Schwan's man testimony kept the case from derailing over the issue; didn't nail or exonerate the guy-- we had a month of testimony after that point-- but it kept the prosecution from throwing in the towel. (It also allowed the defense to try to put a seed of doubt out there, as the order the accused made with the Schwan's guy was for food preferred by his family, who he was accused of killing shortly thereafter.)

I still need to read the true-crime novel based on the case; I'd be surprised if the Schwan's guy made it in, though, since the trial was controversial for many other things...

[Cheez_Whia]

You're supposed to peel asparagus?

Yep; the lower stems, if you don't want to snap 'em off, are very stringy and can be peeled for less waste. More asparagus is always a good thing!

[Moirai]

I always snap them off about halfway down.

[AuntiePam]

Yeah, I don't usually mess with the woody stuff, but if peeling them might help, I'll try it. I usually feel along the stalk -- you can tell when you're getting to the really fibrous part.

Neighbors keep us well supplied with asparagus, and our own patch should be ready this season -- it's the third year in the ground for the plants. We had a few that looked pickable last spring, but the experts said leave them be.

Asparagus, sweet corn, and tomatoes almost make up for our godawful winters.