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Is There A Healthy and Delicious Frozen Meal Out There?

April 13, 2015   31 Comments

When I go to the supermarket, I am always checking out what people have in their carts.

Diet Frozen Meal Review

I wear sunglasses inside for this purpose. If you see the 44 year old mother of two in the supermarket wearing shades – that is me.

Frozen meals – sometimes stacks of them – are popular. Obviously, we all try to cook but when we can’t many of us lean on frozen meals to help us out.

Some of these meals are catering to those of us trying to lose weight such as Smart Ones, Lean Cuisine, and Healthy Choice. I decided to try one turkey meal from all three brands to see if I could make a recommendation.

I have received a number of e-mails complaining that I am not writing my posts when I do a video. I do hear you so I am going to summarize my videos from now on.

All three brands are way too high in sodium to say that they fit the healthy bill. The worst was Smart Ones Slow Roasted Turkey breast with 700mg of sodium. I found this meal to be tasteless, strangely textured, and simply inedible.

The best meal was Healthy Choice Slow Roasted Turkey Bake – nutrition facts: 180 calories, 6 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 18 g carbohydrates, 3 g sugar, 14 g protein, 3 g fiber, 520 mg sodium, 4 Points+

This meal surprised me because they packed it with green beans and butternut squash. If they knocked 200 mg of sodium off of it – I could recommend this meal. Pair with an apple or a banana, this meal makes an easy lunch.

The Lean Cuisine Glazed Turkey Tenderloins BLEW MY MIND with a whopping 19 grams of sugar. What? I believe some of it was due to the natural sugar in the sweet potato but they also added sugar. This meal was edible – tasted sweet (duh) – but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Which is your go-to frozen meal and why?

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31 Comments:

I like the convenience of having frozen meals in my freezer to take for lunch at work or as a busy night dinner. I just never found any we liked, so I started packing dinner leftovers in meal sized portions and putting them in the freezer right away.

I like Amy's- several different meals and EVOL walking tacos - black bean.

How about Kashi frozen meals? Can you please rate those? Thank you!

Most frozen meals taste like hospital food to me.I do, however, like to keep a few around just in case. I avoid SmartOnes at all costs. I wouldn't feed them to my dog. Lean Cuisine is my favorite but only a few varieties. No pasta,no fish,no Asian selections. My favorite is Santa Fe rib and beans.I also like the flat breads and Pizzas.

I like the Smart Ones Angel Hair with Marinara. It doesn't have meat in it, but it does have squash and zucchini. Alot of times I buy a squash and a zucchini and steam them and add to the meal because I find there is not enough food to satisfy me, so I bulk it up with veggies. Like most of the frozen meals, I am sure the sodium is high. I don't eat it very often.

Lots of us are super busy looking for convenience. While I appreciate your review of 3 frozen meals, how about a suggestion of ANY other frozen meal recommendations? Kashi? Amy's? Atkins? We appreciate your researched advice, as I know many women who take frozen meals for lunch daily. Thank you!

I so very much wish someone would come out with a truly healthy frozen meal. It would be nice to be able to keep a couple on hand. I like the idea of the Amy's and EVOL foods, but my fiance has to be on a low sodium diet to prevent kidney stones, and both of these brands - though healthier than others - are still WAY too high in sodium for him to eat. We can't even eat canned soup anymore....pitiful how these companies add so much salt and sugar to everything!

I find it at whole foods,and have asked marianos to order it .

Although I totally understand the issue with the high sodium and additives etc, the frozen dinners are not supposed to be a meal but a meal replacement. If you are looking for healthy there is no alternative to making your own an freezing it in smaller portions for lunches and such as a previous post stated. The taste and healthfulness can not be beat when it is home cooked. I am all about saving time so I cook huge stock pots of soups and spaghetti sauces on the weekends and freeze smaller portions for lunches and quick meals.

I think some organic meals are healthier, and Amy's makes lower sodium meals. The problem, I think, isn't in eating an occasional meal with too much salt - the problem is that none of these meals TASTE good. From rubbery fajitas to mushy vegetables to gelatinous sauces, they just aren't good. On top of that, if you don't make sure to eat several pieces of fruit or a salad with one, you're guaranteed to be starving around 2pm, at which point you will eat half the pound cake some woman in the office set out on the counter. I really wish someone would make a really good line of frozen meals, but I'm starting to wonder if it's impossible to do, since even Amy's hasn't succeeded.

I like Amy's. I eat an Amy's burrito a few times a week and pair it with some fruit or some yogurt. I think they are rated a B+ or an A- in the world of frozen food so are a good organic choice (without being a sodium bomb).

Love Amy's but most of them are loaded with salt so I stopped buying them. Check out the label.

I love Amy's organic - regular or light varities - and, in my opinion, they ARE tasty. They don't seem to have that preservative taste that so many frozen foods end up having. I typically pick them up at Target because they have the best prices from what I've seen.

I agree that a steady diet of frozen dinners would give us an excessive amount of salt, but an occasional meal for extra convenience isn't going to hurt most of us. I like the new Lean Cuisine Mushroom Mezzaluna Ravioli. And I second those who suggest EVOL! Everything in moderation is my motto!

I treat frozen meals like a special treat (Lean Cuisine Pizza). I tried using them for lunch when I started my journey but they just didn't keep me filled up. My quick lunch go to now is a tortilla with chicken or turkey and veg.

We like Amy's frozen meals if we have to have something quick like that. I like the gluten free vegetable lasagne. There is a dairy free lasagne too. My husband likes the Pad Thai and the vegan enchiladas. Dr. Praegers burgers are good too.

We echo some of the other commenters - we'd love to see another review of some of the frozen options in the natural / organic grocery space! If you need help finding options you can always browse our free app! :)

Most frozen foods will have a fairly high sodium content .. Amy's (as mentioned by others) probably has the lowest. I think frozen meals are ok once in a while. When I'm super hungry with no time to prep a meal - frozen meals are a life saver :-)

Monica.

Never buy 'em. When I make a recipe, pretty much no matter what it is, I divvy it up into individual serving containers. I end up freezing the ones it seems like I won't get to in an appropriate amount of time. This week I decided to live off what I've got in the freezer; I pulled out 6 containers of Tuesday Taco Chicken (Snack-Girl) and some chili/soup or another. Still plenty left in the freezer, but I'm making a dent in my supply and freeing up some freezer space!

I don't eat frozen meals very often--most of the time I take leftovers or a sandwich to work, but I like having a frozen meal or two in the freezer at my office for one of those "just in case" times. I really like Trader Joe's Greens, Beans and Grains--it has less than 300 calories, 8 grams of fat, less than 400 grams of sodium and only 4 grams of sugar! And...it tastes good! Slightly spicy though, which I like but some others do not. I also like TJ's Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Shells. I pair either of these entrees with a salad, or some veggies or fruit for a complete meal. Yum!

Thank you for including text with your video! I'm one of the ones who can't always grab headphones in order to SNEAK a peek at your videos, so many thanks!!!

Oh! I forgot to add the most important part in my post above. You can actually pronounce all of the ingredients in the Trader Joe's meals I mentioned! I quit eating Smart Ones, Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice because of all the icky ingredients I couldn't recognize and sometimes pronounce.

Take a look at the new Luvo line of frozen meals; they seem to be better quality than the others!

I have to echo Jill & Lori: Make extra dinners or use leftovers and freeze your own healthful lunches. For times when you forget to bring lunch keep meal components in your office desk drawer, like PB, crackers, bouillon, pouches of tuna or salmon, sandwich baggies of rolled oats& cinnamon, other favorite cereals, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, oil& vinegar, S/P, teabags, inst hot cocoa, utensils and if allowed, an electric kettle. I always kept all this in my desk for over 30yrs and it was a life-saver. But I loved last night's dinner or home-frozen dinners best! It's not that hard once you develop this habit and surprisingly eating this way makes one so much less likely to indulge in all the free bagels, donuts, and a second slice of birthday cake! :) I'm retired now but I'm still in the habit of doing this.

I just tried Trader Joe's frozen Mahi Mahi Burgers.

Actually good - seems pretty healthy too - high in protein 15 g, low in fat 5 g, 110 calories, and 320 mg sodium, and 0 sugar!

I prefer Amys, Kashi and Healthy Choice

Frozen meals? Bleh! I used to be stuck eating the occasional one when I lived with my folks, but these days I make my own. Doesn't take a lot of time, just some clever planning. You buy all the ingredients you want in the dish, get some of those disposable food containers (tin or waxed paper), par or fully cook the meal, assemble and freeze. No more hit and miss flavours, no more over the top sugar or sodium, no more odd pairings. And the cost comes out to less than those pre-packaged things.

I am staying outside from my home and take my dinner and lunch at outside. Sometimes I feel that it make some negative impact on my health and also make a cause for my body fat. So Now a days I am getting scared to take my meal at outside.

Snackgirl, If we do not want to make a comment, is there any way we can just see the other comments for the information? I tried and I got "Comment is required". Thank you

Please don't stop doing videos....I love them.....why would anyone complain you are doing your post when you do videos????? This is free, do what you want, and if they don't want to watch, watch something else.....that is what I do.... I love the comparison you do also....occasionally I buy a frozen dinner too and glad to know which one is the most healthy if you have to eat one....please continue to do this....

Has anyone tried any of Amy's Lite frozen dinners?

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