Frozen entrees: yes or no?

I absolutely love cooking and cook most of my meals at home from scratch, but I don't personally see anything wrong with frozen meals. I eat them sometimes when I'm having a particularly hectic week/month and I don't have even 30 minutes to put something together, or if I forgot my lunch at home. Buying a frozen meal from the convenience shop is cheaper than buying from the cafe at my workplace, and the shop has really good options (Amy's, Saffron Road, etc). You can shop around to see which frozen meals are healthiest.

I don't tend to like very many of them - they don't taste as good to me as what I cook, and they are often very high in sodium (and I am very sensitive to salt). I often keep a Newman's Own LoMein on hand because I do think they are tasty, but I bulk it up with added chopped broccoli or some extra roast chicken.

Are they helping you meet your macro and calorie goals? If yes, then go for it.

Nothing against them as a concept, and if they fit the goals then.. why not. However, I personally find them quite bland. I prefer my veggies mostly raw, and basically just cook meat (which takes little to no time). Second option is pre-packaged freshly cooked food from the supermarket (including meals and rotisserie chicken / sausages). And then on the third place in the preferences contest comes the frozen food.

amandastardust89 wrote: »

In a busy world of kids, work, socializing...we could all use a little convenience; especially for those who are working extra hard to remain fit.

What are your views on microwavable meals?

I use them as a good base for my weight loss strategy since they are pre-packaged, single-serving, and provide all nutritional information right on the package. However, they are high in sodium and preservatives!

Fresh food is ideal. It's all of your basic needs that can be cooked, seasoned, and constructed to your specific taste. It tastes better, too; but, cooking all your own food can be time consuming. Also, it's hard to track every serving of every ingredient of said meal.

Thoughts?

Yes, it's great because you don't have a lot to do for prep. But you continue eating that way for life, then consider if you have children, that will likely be the way they eat also. And vice versa if you actually cook from scratch. So really, you just have to decide what's more important to you..............not what's just convenient.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Frozen meals are perfectly ok.

Right now my crew are happy with Michelina's Beef and Pepper or Swanson's Meatloaf.

Healthy choice steamer bowls are amazing!! Perfect for my work schedule for lunch. Most of these entrées have less than 300 calories and are very filling.

No problem I sometimes buy the evol brand.

Omnimous69 wrote: »

Simple answer for me is a hard no.
It is more time consuming and work to do it the right way, but you will need to learn that it is a part of your life now if you want to really adopt the lifestyle. Microwave meals to me say "Good enough, right?" I understand we all have kids and lives, but no one said life would be easy. Be cautious. Meal plan, batch cook on weekends and then portion that up into microwavable meals...THAT I can get behind. Our rule is if the "food" comes in a box, we mostly avoid it.
Good luck!

In a pinch I might eat a frozen entree. I would usually seek out a healthier one, such as healthy choice meals.

But I prefer just sticking to simple food items in the food groups. Meat, dairy, healthy oils and nuts, veggies, fruits and complex carbs.

I usually only cook for myself so doing this is easier for me to eat what I need for my swimming workouts.

I go on meal prepping spurts and then I get tired of it all. You will gain some time and will take some thinking out of your meal planning, so why not?

Tonight was home made. Frozen chicken cacciatore from a month ago, reheated in my new casserole dish with cheese on top. The meal was practically “free”.

The vast majority of what I eat isn’t frozen or canned.. however I LOVE lots of frozen foods and see no harm eating them. Even if I ate them all the time I would still lose so I don’t see it as being “bad”. I love my Mac and cheese and frozen pizzas

I love frozen meals. Work gets hectic and being able to pop something into the microwave is ideal. There are usually a couple frozen trader joes meals in my house at all times (I love the chicken tikka masala). I don't worry about salt or preservatives because frozen food isn't the bulk of what I'm eating (mostly for money reasons and I do enjoy cooking when I have the time).

I buy frozen foods that I wouldn't want to go through the trouble of making from scratch. Burritos are easy enough for me to throw together- beans, rice, salsa, tortilla plus any leftover meat/veg in my fridge. Assemble and freeze and I've got easy homemade convenience food where the only real cooking I did was flip on the rice maker and locate the can opener for beans. I also have some freezable reusable meal prep containers that I will fill with leftovers because I dislike eating the same thing too many days in a row. I only cook for myself or my roommate though so it's much easier to plan and execute meals.

If I had to use recipes for every meal I made instead of cooking improv I would likely use more frozen and convenience food. As it is, weighing food is taking some getting used to from my old 'throw stuff in the pot until it tastes good' approach to the kitchen. Luckily spices have few calories so I think I can get away with tossing in unknown amounts...

It's too much sodium in those meals for me. I no longer keep that stuff in my freezer. I meal prep on sundays for every meal for the next five days so I don't have to resort to tv dinners.