Unfortunately, the gods decided to make me allergic to peanut butter.
I still would like a Patio Mexican TV Dinner. Nothing all that fantastic but it was the closest thing to Mexican food I would have as a kid. I ate plenty of those Salisbury Steak meals growing up, sometimes there were fried chicken TV Dinners that weren’t awful, and sometimes they were. And of course there was the archetype TV Dinner, the Swanson Turkey Dinner. Something made me like those as a kid but I grew out of it.
Because of this thread, I am going to try the Stouffer’s stuffed peppers, and maybe the lasagna too.
I don’t think you’ll be sorry.
I don’t remember eating out of those; what I remember is my parents repurposing them to melt crayon nibs in and creating big, multicolored, trapezoidal crayons.
Every single art thing from about 3rd to 8th grade involved metal tv dinner trays.
There are some days that I would love to have a Hungry Man Turkey Dinner, as it tasted (to me) in 1986. This picture is almost making me drool.
I used to really like Stouffer’s Spinach Souffle when I was a kid. Tried it again a few years ago and couldn’t finish it due to being so salty. I remember liking the stuffed peppers as well. My mother was such an uninspired cook that these were considered exotic.
The things I most remember about Swanson TV dinners is:
- They all seemed to have the same apple-esque dessert, but with different names: Apple Crisp, Apple Brown Betty, etc. These remained at about 300 degrees no matter how long you waited to eat them.
- There seemed to be many with the same meat entree, also with different names: Salisbury Steak, Swiss Steak, etc.
Hungry man selects tend to be pretty good in my experience.
Agreed banquet aren’t good, but they are $2.25 now? I thought they were still ~$1. Marie Callender and Hungry man are closer to $3 each (they go on sale for $2 though).
Stouffers TV dinners are higher quality but smaller.
There are a variety of smaller brands that look good, but they’re more expensive and I could get better food for those prices anyway
Part of the cost is convenience.
Part of my “armageddon stash” are freeze-dried complete dinners. Having used the same company’s products while backpacking, oh, 40 years ago now I know they’re reasonably edible, in emergency/high activity situations even tasty. They are also one of the more expensive options but I’m paying for ease of preparation (boiling water and wait a few minutes) and extended shelf life (at least 30 years, as proven by the company).
Likewise, part of the cost of frozen meals is 1) convenience and 2) taste quality. Yes, the better tasting ones are more expensive because they use better ingredients and possibly better techniques for converting it into a microwaveable package.
Cheap frozen meals are… well… cheap. The mac’n’cheese (sometimes literally) of food. They are inexpensive and filling, even if not great nutritionally.
I ate quite a few TV dinners (mostly the old Swanson ones, I think) in high school and college (back when they were still in the aluminum foil trays). They weren’t bad, though it was always frustrating that the rest of the meal would be hot after the designated cooking time, but the mashed potatoes would still, amazingly, be ice cold.
I also used to buy En-Cor frozen entrees, when my wife was out of town. I could get two or three solo meals out of those.
Also, this thread really needs to include this classic music video:
I think you mean On-Cor. I get their frozen heat-and-eat lasannya (rhymes with Trannnya) from time to time. Not bad.
https://on-cor.s3.amazonaws.com/Product%20Packages/2019/LasagnaMeatSauce-2019.png
ETA: Does go well with Tranya, BTW.
Yup, you’re right. The brand with the long-running series of commercials with Al from Happy Days inviting himself over for dinner.
As an 11 y.o., my first encounter with Swanson’s salisbury stake ushered me into the world of realising that the “i” isn’t pronounced in “salisbury”.
Tasted ok.
Ate those things for years when they were available, the grocery stores seemed to phase in and out the Stouffers frozen stuff. The quality did go down over time, much more thickener turned it into a kind of spinach jello,
Let me give my recommendation for Healthy Choice Chicken Margherita. It’s excellent.
I eat a lot of frozen dinners by Amy’s. I’m hoping they’re more nutritious
than some of the other brands.
There’s a brand I eat a lot called Gourmet Dining. It’s not really like the other frozen heat-and-eat dinners discussed here. It consists of a bag with several smaller bags inside, with different ingredients: One bag with either pasta or rice and some frozen vegs, one bag with cut-up pre-cooked chicken white pieces, one little bag with sauce mix. You mix them all together in a pot or bowl and heat.
These seem reasonably healthful. The ingredient list is simple: Some vegs, some rice or pasta, some chicken meat. No long list of unpronounceable additives. (Although the sauce mix has all that.)
don’t have “strong” opinion about 'em … they serve a purpose … ice-box to oven. the last few selections i chose were indian-based (one being vindaloo). portions were small … course, didn’t taste fresh … but, served it’s purpose — [a $5 meal-in-a-box]. didn’t feel like driving 25+ miles … paying $15+tip … go figure.
TV dinner by the pool,
I’m so glad I finished school… -F. Zappa
As a kid growing up, TV dinners were a treat, especially because there was only a tiny portion of veggies we had to eat. The dinners with a mini-apple pie were our favorites of course. These days I get frozen entrees every so often, but most of them have a certain taste that puts me off.
Stouffer’s lasagna was a staple office lunch when I was still going in to the office. Almost always drew a “[sniff] Whatcha makin’?” from somebody when I was microwaving it.
Banquet is definitely the bargain bin stuff, but I have a soft spot for their Salisbury steak.
There’s an Indian supermarket that recently opened nearby and I’ve been buying frozen meals from them. Not being Indian, I don’t know what are or are not good brands, but my wife and I have been enjoying entrees from companies called “Deep,” “Haldiram,” and “Udupi.” They’ve all been pretty good. Impressive variety of dishes.