Stoopid gods!
I’m a big fan of Amy’s. They’re kind of expensive, but I haven’t had a bad one yet. The Indian and Mexican ones I’ve tried have been wonderful.
Instead of a microwave or conventional oven consider getting a toaster oven. These cook better than a microwave but faster than a regular oven and also dont heat up the house so much.
Stouffer’s is generally a cut above ordinary TV dinners, depending on the particular item. I admit to having a few Stouffer’s and even Swanson dinners on hand in the freezer, but mostly for emergency quick meals. Home-frozen good quality dinners, either made at home or freshly prepared at a decent store, are always a better option anyway.
But as far as Stouffer’s goes, the turkey dinner offers a good example of the contrast with cheaper stuff like Swanson. The Swanson turkey dinner consists of “turkey” that is some kind of compressed reconstituted crap resembling cardboard, with “stuffing” that is basically unidentifiable goop. The Stouffer’s turkey dinner contains slices of real turkey breast and a stuffing and gravy that is pretty decent, at least by the standards of frozen food. Sadly, the mashed potatoes aren’t any better than any other frozen ones and not anything like proper mashed, but still tolerable.
To the extent that I like convenience, my preference is freshly made dinners at either of two stores that make exceptionally good stuff. Properly reheated (which often means ignoring the instructions) it can be a good approximation of labour-intensive homemade. Last night, for instance, I had a lovely stuffed chicken breast with linguini alfredo and broccoli. The instructions say to bung the aluminum tray into an oven for ten minutes. No. The only way to do it is to remove the pasta and vegetable and put into a covered casserole dish, and put the chicken alone into the oven until slightly browned, then microwave the pasta and broccoli.
On a lark me and mother tried the On-Cor frozen lasagna a few weeks ago and we both thought it was horrible–especially compared to the Stouffers and Marie Callender lasagnas.
We still enjoy making the On-Cor Salisbury Steak with Brown Gravy tray and serve it with either noodles or rice.
How do you handle a hungry man? Why. with two Patio Mexican TV dinners!
I was about to ask if anyone else had ZZ Top playing in their head while reading this thread!
I loved the old style TV dinners as a kid. I hate mashed potatoes so one of my sisters would get those. I liked to make a sandwich with the meat on Wonder bread with mustard.
We always have some frozen meals on hand. My husband likes the Stouffers Swedish meatballs for lunch. We both like the PF Chang’s bag meals and mini egg rolls. I think my favorite for lunch is Saffron Road chicken pad Thai, I like to add a sprinkling of peanuts and a squirt of sriracha. Very good.
You haven’t really eaten TV dinners unless you have a fond memory of brownies with a touch of tomato sauce and a green bean or two instead of chocolate chips.
I’ve never seen a TV dinner in real life, the type with mash on one part, a veg on another part, and something proteiny on the third.
Ready meals like the lasagne posted above I’m familiar with and eat fairly often. They’ve been a godsend for enabling my daughter to eat cooked meals without me cooking them (she’s autistic). When I make them I like to add things, like some peas or tinned tomatoes on the side.
Plus they’re not all equally good or bad, and it depends what else you eat.
It should be pointed out (if it hasn’t been already) that "TV Dinner"™ or maybe (R) was originally a trade-marked brand name. From Wikipedia:
And of course, you set them out on a TV tray table to eat them while you watch TV.
https://foter.com/folding-metal-tv-trays
I really like the variety of frozen meals Trader Joe’s sells, especially their Indian and Asian varieties. Other than that I’ll get some Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice when they go on sale for 2 for $6 or 2 for $5.
I’ve never actually had any of these for dinner though, always just as lunch.
I miss those. the chicken wasnt bad at all.
Amy’s has a vegan pizza that is phenomenal.
Why do you miss those? They’re still out there. Are they much different now than they were then?
No, the fried chicken dinner is gone, .
I saw at least three different versions of Hungry Man Fried Chicken dinners at the grocery store not 15 minutes ago. Regular, Spicy(?) and Boneless. A quick check of the link above shows my store doesn’t carry the Mexican-spiced version.
It is. Per Wikipedia, the parent company uses “Hungry-Man” rather than “Swanson” for TV dinners now.
Hmmeen I have not seen that at my stores.
I rarely see them at my stores, but occasionally, so I think they fly off the shelves and are almost always out-of-stock.