|
Jule's
guide to TV dinners
a.k.a. Microwave Meals. If you can't toast it, nuke it! |
Frozen
foods found their way to market in the mid-1900s when Clarence Birdseye envisioned
a way to flash-freeze food while he was on a chilly trip to the Arctic. A
savvy businessman, Birdseye found a market for housewives who sought healthy
vegetables for their family meals during the winter months. As the 60s gave
rise to double-income families and
less time for meals, complete frozen dinners became a staple for some who
were terrible cooks and didn't have the time or inclination to learn the skills
needed to take them out of cooking-for-one woes. Frozen food even became something
of a fad when astronauts, upon return from landing on the moon, ate prepared
frozen entrees and side dishes.
Fortunately,
the freezing process has been perfected and recipes revised to the point where
alot of these "TV dinners" are not only nutritious, but pretty tasty
too! Since I'm such a connoisseur of frozen food these days, I thought I'd
share my findings with you. Bon Appetite!
Fun
Fact: First National Frozen Food Industry Convention & Exposition is held
in San Francisco with 7,000 in attendance.
Microwave
Meals
Grilled
Glazed Pork Patty
This
is one of my favorites from Healthy Choice. The pork patty, like the meat
in most of the reduced-fat dinners, is processed. But it still tastes OK,
and the sauce is always somewhat tasty and keeps the meat from drying out.
Healthy choice separates its food into different compartments, so everything
doesn't run together. I like that. This dish comes with some wild rice,
which is tender and filling, and cooked apple. The apple isn't very sweet,
but tastes more natural--like applesauce with chunky slices of apple.
Marie
Callender's
I
haven't had any luck with this brand at all. Let me know if you've found one
you like! I've still put some reviews below....
Tuna
casserole
At
960 calories, 320 from fat this is not a recommended dish. Not only is it
high in fat, but it's super salty too! That aside, if you like really buttery,
salty tuna casserole, the dish cooks up nice. The crispy part stays crisp,
and the noodles stay moist (except for a couple near the top.)
Honey
smoked ham steak with macaroni & cheese, green beans, and carrots
This
one was a mere 490 calories. The packaging promised me something I didn't
get. The ham steak was way smaller than the picture, making the dish mostly
macaroni & cheese. Marie Callender gives you dinners in one, non-segmented
tray, so everything runs together. The pinnapple sauce for the ham made
the macaroni way too sweet and the vegetables really mooshy. The ham was
very grisly. I didn't like this one very much. But it was better than the
tuna casserole.
Swenson's
Turkey
with mostly white meat
Let's
see, I need to review this one. But for now, here is a link to The University
of Washington Daily's review "Turkey
TV dinner probe yields hands down winner."
Egg,
ham, and cheese on english muffin breakfast sandwich
I recommend
this one. I bought the reduced fat version. The ham is salty, but then,
that's ham for you. The eggs are NOT rubbery, and the cheeze is yummy. The
muffin was a little limp due to the microwave, but certainly not as soggy
as it could have been. On the other hand, I do NOT recommend the fat version.
It didn't cook as well, for some reason. Maybe my microwave was having a
bad hair day, though, so you might want to comprare the two for yourself.
Hmm. Now that I look at it, the "ham" may actually be called Canadian
Style Bacon. If there's an actual ham version, maybe that's why they taste
different.
Sausage,
Egg and Cheese on a Biscuit
Bleah.
This one is not as good as the version above. The biscuit doesn't fare well
in the microwave at all. The sausage was all rubbery too. I would skip this
one, unless you want to experiment with your cooking by not following the
directions on the box. Maybe if you cook the sausage first, then melt the
cheese and cook the egg on top, then warm up the biscuit by wrapping it
well in a paper towel. It just might make for a less rubbery meal.
Yay
gardenburger! My favorite is the mushroom. It has a bit of something that
looks like cheese in it. I buy wheat buns to go with them, and get Green
Giant frozen corn ears to go with. Microwave the corn for about 5 minutes
-- it works best if you wrap a wet paper towel (2-ply doubled up) around
the corn to keep in the steam. Plastic wrap doesn't work as well. The gardernburger
needs a mere 30 seconds on each side -- place it on a paper towel, but don't
wrap the towel around it. I toast my buns in the toaster over and add some
mustard relish. My favorite microwave meal!
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