Frozen Dinners?

I usually eat the Weight Watchers or Healthy Choice frozen dinners.
I never gave it a 2nd thought b/c they should be healthy for you.

Which ones are you having?

I do a lot of the Lean Cuisines, I think they are pretty healthy as well as tasty. I do agree, especially for dinner they are on the small side. I always have intentions of pairing them with a nice tossed salad and low fat dressing, but then I'm not much of a salad person(I wish I was). When it gets a little cooler out I think I'm going to pair them with a nice lower cal soup. That's one idea anyway.

Pre Diet days, I was horrified to learn that the Marie Calendar chicken pot pi had about 40 (YES, FORTY) grams of fat and TONS and TONS of calories. Her recipes are not figure friendly!

Frozen dinners tend to be high in sodium and preservatives. I used to eat Lean Cruisine, etc. everyday - but have switched to Amy's Organic frozen dinners...I can't eat the other stuff anymore! I also try to make sure all of my food (frozen or not) has fewer additives (so I don't drink diet soda, etc. very often.) This has helped to "re-train" my taste buds.

Frozen meals are quick and easy. But I feel if I eat them too often I don't get full enough and I over eat. I try to only eat frozen meals in case of emergencies....I rather eat chicken breast and a side of veggies for dinner and lunch a sandwich or wrap. Plus I think we need to get back to eating "real" food cutting back on over processed packaged meals. It's not always easy but with some planning..... do-able.

A good luch idea is a salad wrap with some hummus. It's filling and yummy. Pretty easy to throw together as well. I chop up some salad (lettuce, tomato, cukes, scallions and avacado) to last me a few days so I can just scoop out a hand full and plop in right into my wrap

agreeing with the "real foods" comment above, I like to make a huge batch of soup and freeze it in single serve containers. That way, it easily thaws and heats in the microwave, and you know exactly what you're eating. If you have a crock pot, this is super low-maintenance after the chopping veggie prep.

I have Healthy choice frozen meals for dinner some nights, they are tasty, and they fill me up, low calories (between 210 and 300) which is great, they dont have high carbs or fat.

I am not sure whether south beach diet meals are high in sodium or not, never paid much attention

i used to eat lean cuisines a lot because like you said, it's just easy to know how many calories you're intaking... but then i was always feeling too bloated because of the high sodium intake that they have in them. i eat them once in awhile, like when i'm in a rush or i'm the only one eating... however, i would prefer to just eat fish, vegetables and a baked potato, and it's lower calories than a lean cuisine.

=o)

I like most of the Lean Cuisine frozen dinners, but most of the other brands of diet frozen meals I've tried have tasted so bad that I've thrown them out and had a sandwich or something instead. If you'd rather not have frozen food there are lots of easy ways to have a low cal lunch that is a lot healthier than any frozen meal by preparing ahead of time. My favorite is to sautee yellow squash, zuchinni, and onions in a little bit of olive oil with salt, pepper, and herbes de provence, then put it into a ziploc bag after it cools. I will put that, some lettuce, hummus, and a pita pocket into tupperware container before I go to bed, and then it will be all ready to throw together as a sandwich the next day at lunch time. It's so yummy, and you can sautee a whole week's worth of vegetables all at once!

If you want to go even easier, do the same thing, but with the ingredients for a tuna salad, chicken, or turkey pita sandwich. I like to substitute deli mustard for mayonaisse - it has fewer calories and it tastes better anyway.

Another quick, easy, and healthy meal that I like is soup - red pepper and tomato soup with a few wheat crackers makes a delicious lunch, and now that they have created "to go" soups, you can heat it up in the microwave at work.

Oooohhh... I totally agree about the Kashi frozen meals. The Pesto pasta primavera is proably the best frozen meal I've ever had. It is pretty healthy too.

Amy's Organic frozen meals are also very good. Black bean enchilada w/ rice & beans is VERY good as well as the pesto ravioli...

Try and get these on sale if you can cuz otherwise at least $4 each. Both brands are in the "healthy" section of the grocer. When I find them on sale (like 2 for $5 or something) I buy as many as my freezer will hold.

I really rely on frozen dinners ( lean cuisine rules!), I don't have the time to cook and it's so easy to just take one to work with me. The portion size doesn't really bother me (anymore), and the sodium isn't really an issue as long as I drink plenty of water throughout the day ,I'm always below my sodium limit by more than half by the end of the day anyway. I used to eat tv dinners before I started losing weight too, except back then I would buy two dinners instead of one, and would eat them both in one sitting:noway: . I guess if sodium is an issue for you, avoid them but if not they are great!

Sassy, those are beautiful pomeranians! I love poms!

To everyone else... here are a few other healthy frozen dinners worth trying:

Amy's Organics - most are 400 and under
Kashi
South Beach

I find these more filling and nutritious than most Lean Cuisine. The ones from Amy's don't have any meat. To me, that's a good thing, since it means I don't have to worry about the low quality meat that is typically found in these frozen meals. As far as I know, Amy's has never had to recall any product.

I do a Healthy Choice/Lean Cuisine for dinner at work probably 4 times per week. We (bf and I) sometimes cook on the weekends, but ironically we probably have less time to do anything on the weekends than during the week. Even more ironic, he works at a restaurant and we still never cook LOL. At least I get Tuesday and Thursday nights off, but then it's homework and cleaning time. I can't wait to have a Mon-Fri job. :frown: