Your favorite frozen meal

[ShepherdBGoode]

Just finished a Stouffer's Mac & Beef, while reading "What do you mean by fine dining?" That's way up there on my list. I'd rather eat the entrees than the full meals, then have some fresh veg, grilled asparagus or something.

So how do you roll, when you're nukin' it from the freezer?

[tazia]

Most vegetarian things from Trader Joe's. For a grad student who loves food, sometime microwavable lunches are as intensive as I can get. I like that I can actually identify the ingredients in the TJ's frozen food. My favorites:

-Paneer Masala (already mentioned, soooo good)
-Vegan Pad Thai
-Cheese or roasted veggie or black bean/corn enchiladas
-Pesto tortellini
-Spinach lasagna

[Sarah]

What -- no Eggos waffle mention? The incomparable cardboardness of it -- got so used to it that I had to post on CH to see where I could get a real waffle... 4 stars for Stouffer's bread pizzas, California Kitchen pizza (silicilian) and Pepperidge Farms fruit turnovers.

[onceadaylily]

I'm still a sucker for Stouffer's French bread pizzas, though they seem to have a parsimonious hand with the toppings these past few years. And they got rid of the 'vegetarian' . . . boo.

And I like Totino's pizzas rolls, every great once in a while. I never think I want them, then they go on sale, the boyfriend puts them in the shopping cart, and then I begrudgingly heat them up, and then I find myself counting them as I plate them. So that he doesn't get more than me. I like the taco flavor, but if he happens to pick out pepperoni while I sneer, I still eat exactly half. Did you know I have gotten a bag of pizza rolls that had an even amount inside? It says forty-two on the package, but it is only ever forty-one or forty-three.

[Will Owen]

Trader Joe's new(ish) frozen mac'n'cheese, their green chile & cheese tamales, their eggplant parmigiana. Stouffer's almost anything. Late & lamented: Van de Kamp's Enchiladas Suizas, every bit as good as the ones I slave over from scratch, they came and went in a flash...

[vafarmwife]

Remember the old TV dinners? I loved the meatloaf dinner. I would mix the mashed potatoes and mixed veg in with the metaloaf and tomato gravy. That was my Saturday lunch in the 70's. I ate it in front of the TV watching cartoons. The closest thing to it now is Lean Cuisine's meatloaf dinner, but it doesn't have the same tangy gravy or the mixed veg.

[grouchomarx]

the old tv dinners were the best! so funny to think they had to be put in the oven and baked seemingly forever.....a person could have cooked a 3 course meal in that time! the little dessert portion was my favorite and I would always eat it first.

[Caroline1]

Boy, was your mom a pushover! I had to eat my vegetables first or I got smacked!

[FrankD]

Here in Canada, the No Name line produces a frozen turkey dinner - turkey/stuffing/gravy, mashed potato, peas, and cranberry/apple "dessert" (I put it on the turkey). Nothing special, but for $1.99, and 5:30 in the nuker, it's a decent stop-gap when I don't feel like cooking. They also make a fried chicken (chicken is terrible - rubbery, not crisp), salisbury steak (not very good) and roast beef (actually, not bad if you add a good dollop of horseradish). I always have a couple in the freezer for those "not gonna cook tonight" evenings.

[Chemicalkinetics]

Stouffer's makes some nice frozen dinner, but I am too poor to afford them.

[coll]

Stouffers has sales in the winter after the holidays, everything for a dollar or so, my husband loves their mac and cheese and I like to skip the starches, so I load up for the year. But everything is up for grabs. I have tried some of their dinners just because they're so cheap, and they make a nice snack.

[Chemicalkinetics]

A dollar? Wow, good to know. I have tried the stuff green pepper, lasagna and a few dinner packages. Never tried the mac and cheese, French bread pizza, easy express, and any of the sandwiches:

http://www.stouffers.com/Products/Ind...

I think Stouffer's make tastier frozen foods than most other brands.

[coll]

I think so too, even as I avoid them myself. I've bought meals that had shrimp and various meats in them, maybe like teriyaki, and they were darn good.

[mymomisthebestcook]

Smart Ones Lasagna Florintine
Smart Ones Beans & Rice

[tcamp]

I've taken to Costco's frozen salmon burgers. I cook them in a frying pan, top with a little sriracha mayo and some sauteed veggies or salad and dinner is ready in 15 minutes.

Frozen potstickers are a staple at my house too and my kids love frozen taquitos.

[cookingasshole]

Those salmon burgers are excellent!

[grouchomarx]

Tower Isle Jamaican beef patties. Mmmm. Although they need to go in the oven, so patience is a must!

[Caroline1]

Ask me next week and I may have a very different answer, but for now my favorite frozen foods are all Asian! For a couple of years Ajinomoto's frozen pot stickers have been a staple in my freezer. So easy! So good! And now, sharing the plate right next to them are frozen buns from the brand new Ranch 99 Market that just opened here in Plano, Texas. It's a California chain, and boy, am I glad to see them! They carry a freezer full of exotic Chinese dim sum for incredibly cheap! Today we had Kimbo brand "Steam Twist" rolls (basically just bread but delicious), Ban Bao Cai spinach buns, and Ban Bao Cai Chua shredded mustard buns. Fantastic stuff made in Hong Kong. It's the first time I've been able to get 6 for a dollar dimsum since I was five years old!

[ChinoWayne]

Besides the frozen stuff, 99 Ranch is well known for their fresh, reasonably priced sea food, so you might want to check that out.

[Caroline1]

I passed because even though it's a brand new store, the fish department smelled VERY fishy! Sad... They had silver fish on sale, and I thought, "Mmmmm... Fried anchovies!" Not for now. Hopefully that will improve. A lot! '-)

[James Cristinian]

Yes Caroline1, I went to the one in Houston last week to buy some live blue crabs, which they were out of, and it was smelly. I figure with live seafood it is fresh, as long as it is still moving. Right down the street is Super H Mart, maybe not as smelly, but with filthy fish and lobster tanks.

[ipsedixit]

Don't let the fishy smell turn you off. Some of the best fish and fish bargains can be had at Ranch 99.

[James Cristinian]

On the ice cream sandwich subject, I love ice cream sandwiches, liking them slightly melted. As for 99 Ranch and Super H, they don't seem to sell local Gulf of Mexico seafood. I see snapper, but it is not Gulf snapper, plus the last time I was at 99 Ranch Market the shrimp were all farm raised, I assume by the looks, terrible, as they don't display the origin of the seafood as most other places do.. ipsedixit, it seems you are in Southern California and maybe you are geting different and fresher fish than us. What are some of your favorite fishes from there?

[ipsedixit]

Salmon head and collar, sea bass, rock cod, snapper, but it'll vary depending on what they have on hand.

I'm sure each geographic location will vary in the variety and types of seafood.

[Emme]

not healthy, but that wasn't the question... the Michael Angelo line is tasty. the manicotti, the eggplant parm, the chicken parm, the shrimp scampi...

[eddie59]

Does anyone remember frozen mexican dinners that came in round trays? Some of the best frozen food I have ever ate.

[boogiebaby]

Trader Joe's Paneer Masala frozen entree. Comes with spinach basmati rice. Tastes exactly like the paneer I enjoyed in India and similar to a local indian restaurant we cater from.

[mamachef]

Love the Paneer Masala from TJ's, and the chicken version is also excellent. Even the basmati's texture is outstanding. Otherwise, I roll with a Callender's Chicken-broccoli potpie or something from Amy's Organics line.

[ipsedixit]

Ice cream sandwich.

[James Cristinian]

Haven't had one in a zillion years but, Eskimo Pie!

[link_930]

Frozen dumplings. Also used to be addicted to Trader Joe's Tarte D'Alsace.

[RealMenJulienne]

Totino's frozen pizza. There is no other texture in the food world like their crumbly "sausage" topping. They are pretty solidly over $1 now, but in college they used to regularly go on sale for 68 cents apiece. In those halcyon days our freezer would be jam-packed with red-and-yellow boxes until the door had to be duct-taped shut.

[gmm]

Old post, but I have to comment that I love that "sausage" on their Party Pizzas. I wish I could find the sausage pizzas, but I've only ever seen cheese, pepperoni, and combo in my part of the country.

[iluvcookies]

I keep a package of Stouffers Mac and Cheese in my freezer. Just in case.

[aurora50]

Stouffers Creamed Chipped Beef, Welsh Rarebit, and French Bread Pizzas.
Comfort food, when you need it.

[shanagain]

Yes, yes and yes. There's crack in their creamed chipped beef, I just know it.

I was just remembering being in that first generation of "latch key kids" in the late 70's/early 80's and loving Stouffer's beef teriyaki and some shrimp and scallop over rice dish. Because you know, you just boiled some water and put the bags in! Then we got a microwave and I was pretty sure I'd never eat anything anything but Stouffer's, Pepperidge Farms microwave blueberry muffins and steamed artichokes for the rest of my life. (I do wish they still made that shrimp and scallops in a cream sauce - it was killer.)

Seriously, I think Stouffer's taught me to be a foodie. I wanted to try everything.

[coll]

In case you don't know, there is a website where you can get free movie tickets and other prizes for entering the codes hidden inside each Stouffer package. Or you can donate it to Habitat for Humanity. Go to www.stouffers.com and go into the Dinner Club section.

[enbell]

A local company in Salt Lake City (Rio Foods I think) makes the absolute best line of pre-made fair. Their vegan tamales are to die for!

[small h]

Celentano stuffed shells. They are, objectively, not very good. But sometimes they are exactly what I want. Eggplant parmigiana to place, and lasagne to show.