frozen foods

Hey MFP people I have a question I wanted to know what brand would be the best frozen food meal. I Bought Amy's brand cheese lasagna thinking it was a good choice but when I added it to my diary : / I realized I didn't put enough attention to the nutrition facts. Is frozen food something that I should avoid altogether, or is their exceptions? HELP! :(

Replies

  • LoraF83
    LoraF83 Posts: 15,694 Member
    The only problem with frozen food is that it's typically high in sodium because salt makes things taste good.

    Sodium can cause water retention and water retention causes scale fluctuations. As long as you're not prone to freaking out about the scale jumping up a pound or two, then enjoy a frozen meal as needed/wanted. If you do freak out over the scale, you'd be better off making yourself a lower sodium meal and portioning it out into single servings that you can freeze or put in the fridge to grab for lunch every day.
  • 86_Ohms
    86_Ohms Posts: 253 Member
    Frozen fruits and vegetables might be "fresher" than what you see out for people to choose from in the bins. They take it straight from the source and freeze it then rather than the non frozen, which transports it in refrigerated trucks and has X days to ripen further.

    I can't recommend those "healthy diet" meals as they still have high carbs and high sodium for taste and preservatives. Plus, they're ridiculously expensive relative to their counterparts.
  • BeachIron
    BeachIron Posts: 6,490 Member
    I strongly recommend learning to cook and prepping some pre-prepared meals that you can freeze for when you're too busy. Usually, pre-prepared meals, particularly anything marked "low fat," "low sodium," etc., are marketing gimmicks and taste like death warmed over.
  • Beachlron- I never thought of doing that. I personally like the grab in go breakfast and Noticed that all the breakfast sandwiches are high in sodium and carbs : / So I opted to make some egg whites and green bell pepper scrambled eggs. I wonder If i could freeze that. hmm..
  • Would you recommend any frozen fruit and vegetables? I was going to go pick up some things at Trader Joe's I wonder if it's worth the price to buy everything there.
  • Gramps251
    Gramps251 Posts: 738 Member
    Many "prepared" foods, frozen or not have to be looked at for hidden sugar, fat and sodium.


    Freeze your own meals so you know what you're eating.
  • BeachIron
    BeachIron Posts: 6,490 Member
    I would think pre-freezing some breakfast sandwiches would be a good idea. I've never tried it myself but I might now.

    I eat quite a bit of frozen fruit, vegetables, chicken breasts and fish. All of it is fine and since the vegetables and fruit are frozen while ripe, it is arguable that they are actually better than fresh as the fresh have been sitting and degrading much longer. That said, the difference is minimal, but the frozen is often cheaper. It's also more convenient to just grab something out of the freezer.

    I'm also a big fan of canned tomatoes, clams, pasta sauces, olives, and artichokes, as well as jarred green peppers and roasted red peppers, as with all of this I can put together a pretty solid meal in about 30 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I love fresh vegetables, fruit and meats, and keep a pretty good supply available, but when you just don't feel like shopping or there's nothing else available on a busy day, it helps to have healthy options readily available in your pantry.

    As for carbs, I eat plenty of them. I did stop drinking beer for a couple of months when I lost the majority of my weight, but I eat pasta (mostly regular white these days), breads (both white and whole grain), and some sweets, and also drink beer and whiskey. The key is portion control.
  • 86_Ohms
    86_Ohms Posts: 253 Member
    Would you recommend any frozen fruit and vegetables? I was going to go pick up some things at Trader Joe's I wonder if it's worth the price to buy everything there.

    I'm a little picky on foods... so I'm biased towards those "california blend" bags that contain brocolli, carrots, cauliflower, etc.

    As for frozen fruits, I usually go for the berries: blackberries, blueberries, strawberries. I also buy them from a warehouse store (Sam's, Cosco, etc.) so I get them in bulk for a decent price depending on the season.

    If you do freeze your meal in the beginning of the week, or premake it and leave it in the fridge for later in the week, I recommend scooping a teaspoon of coconut oil before microwaving to get it back to life from dryness that may occur.
  • hdean1989
    hdean1989 Posts: 158 Member
    I really love those small pre-portioned froze dole fruit cups for yogurt. One thing to do if you are on a budget is to buy fruit and portion it out and freeze it. I also will make a big crockpot of soup and portion it out so that I can freeze it and grab and go later. There are many things that you can freeze, I am not sure how well freezing scrambled eggs would work though. cooking eggs is relatively quick. If I am in a rush I make some mashed avocado and turkey bacon breakfast sandwiches
  • zhvah18
    zhvah18 Posts: 158 Member
    I freeze cooked eggs all the time. They freeze fine, it's the warming them back up that you have to be careful. I find if I let them thaw first, then low and slow in the microwave, checking often. it's when you zap the crap out of them on reheat that they become rubbery.
  • hdean1989
    hdean1989 Posts: 158 Member
    I freeze cooked eggs all the time. They freeze fine, it's the warming them back up that you have to be careful. I find if I let them thaw first, then low and slow in the microwave, checking often. it's when you zap the crap out of them on reheat that they become rubbery.

    good to know! I dont like eggs very much but I try to get them in LOL
  • melindasuefritz
    melindasuefritz Posts: 3,509 Member
    proceesed foo d isnt good and has too much soduim
  • tararocks
    tararocks Posts: 287 Member
    Do I prefer fresh homemade food? Absolutely. Do I always have time to do that? No. Do I think that turning to premade or frozen foods on occasion is detrimental to my overall goals? Nope, I still eat fast food also. Yes, I know that the frozen meals have a TON of sodium in them, so yes I could go home and eat a turkey wrap etc...but my prepackaged turkey also has a TON of sodium in it, and I do not have time to cook a fresh turkey breast every week, yes I know I can spend all day Sunday prepping for the week...or I could go take my kids to the zoo, work in my yard, get in a long workout, visit with my parents, etc. Ok, off my soap box on that topic. Having said all that, i do very rarely eat frozen vegetables, i know that they are equally as good if not better for me than some fresh and/or canned vegetables, i jsut don't like them, I'd rather have fresh that are a week old with nutrients leaking out of them than eat a frozen one I don't like. Anyway having said that piece, i eat frozen meals from time to time, some weeks I may end up eating them three times in a week, when it was really cold out, that warm meal satisfied me and filled me up and made me warm, however I haven't had one in at least the last two weeks now, but there are about 10 in my freezer when I need them. I do not like any that have meat in them, I am very particular about my meat, beef, chicken, seafood, doesn't matter and even the best meals sometimes have sketchy meat IMO. I do enjoy the healthy choice steamers and the weight watchers smart ones, pretty much any of the vegetarian options are good in my opinion. You may need to do a little trial and error to determine your tastes, but I think frozen dinners have improved in quality, taste, and ingredients tenfold since my early college days of lean cuisine.....good luck
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    Would you recommend any frozen fruit and vegetables? I was going to go pick up some things at Trader Joe's I wonder if it's worth the price to buy everything there.

    Do a bit of comparison shopping. Here the Trader Joe's prices are pretty comparable to other places for the same things.

    But, in answer to the basic question about frozen foods, our freezer is mostly filled with fruits, veggies, homemade broth, and meats divided into single meal sizes. Sometimes homemade soups or stews are there, too. Rarely are there any "meal-in-a-bag" or "tv-dinners" in there because after awhile of eating only homemade food we are consistently disappointed in the flavors of even the prepared stuff we used to like, e.g. Stouffer's mac'n'cheese.

    Many things you make from scratch can be easily divided into meal-sized portions and frozen for later "nuking." I like to wait for things like chicken parts to go on sale and then buy a big amount of them which I cook all at once. I divide the meat into 2-serving baggies (there are two of us) and then put them in a gallon zipper bag in the freezer to grab one at a time for quick meals. I do the same thing with other meats. I save up the bones, skin, etc. and use that to make broth, which I also put in small containers in the freezer. Grab a baggie of cooked chicken, a container of stock, some frozen veg and run it in the microwave and you have instant chicken vegetable soup. Grab a baggie of chicken, thaw it out, chop some celery and add some dressing and you have chicken salad, etc.
  • MSam1205
    MSam1205 Posts: 439 Member
    check out pinterest for make ahead breakfast ideas. and Skinnytaste.com recently had a veggie egg breakfast in a muffin cup idea. make a batch, and eat for a week! There's lots of great ideas out there, just a matter of what you like to eat :drinker:
  • Armyantzzz
    Armyantzzz Posts: 214 Member
    Try Atkins... it's a well balanced frozen dinner . (Breakfast, lunch, dinners) . :smile: Works for me.!!
  • Armyantzzz
    Armyantzzz Posts: 214 Member
    More times than not... salt is used very little in frozen foods! The key to frozen foods (for the most part ) is that they are flash frozen to seal in the freshness and prevent spoilage. Canned foods are the ones to avoid because salt is needed to keep the foods from spoiling inside the can! If you have to eat canned veggies, try washing in plain water to rinse most of the salt residue away!! With frozen foods read the package for salt (sodium) content per serving, you'll find very little in most cases.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Beachlron- I never thought of doing that. I personally like the grab in go breakfast and Noticed that all the breakfast sandwiches are high in sodium and carbs : / So I opted to make some egg whites and green bell pepper scrambled eggs. I wonder If i could freeze that. hmm..

    You can definitely freeze them. Make your own breakfast burritos & heat in the AM. Bake a batch of eggs and cut into squares .... heat in the AM and add a high fiber English muffin.

    Frozen meals at lunch time are ideal ..... I like to throw in some extra veggies. Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice & Weight Watchers are some to look for. These portions are typically a little skimpy (thus extra veggies).

    I try to cook whenever I can ..... but there is a learning curve (also, not everyone in the family will eat "healthy stuff").