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Frozen Food Reviews

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Sep 1st 2009 @ 4:38PM

Slashfood stalwarts road-tested a month's worth of lunches so you won't waste another cent on sub-par frozen fare.

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Frozen Food Reviews

by Kat Kinsman
A recent AOL Food survey revealed that 85% of respondents are toting their lunch to work these days. We've certainly noticed an uptick in waiting time at our break room's microwaves -- as well as co-workers scrounging for snacks after their lunch failed to fill them up. Our editors road-tested a month's' worth of lunches so you won't waste another cent on sub-par frozen fare.

Rachel Been

Getty Images North America

Frozen Food Reviews

Rachel Been

Monday
Amy's Organic Ravioli Bowl

Buy it again: Without a doubt
Fills you up: Yes
Texture: Perfectly cooked pasta
Taste: If we got it in a restaurant, we'd be happy. The sauce was gorgeously seasoned, the generously, fluffily filled ravioli neither limp nor leaden and heck -- it's even organic.
Calories: 380
Total Fat: 12 g
Sodium: 680 mg

Casey Kelbaugh

Tuesday
Banquet Selects Classic Fried Chicken

Buy it again: No way
Fills you up: No
Texture: Like deep-fried particle board
Taste: The batter's seasoning wasn't so bad, but gnawing through it nearly undid years of orthodontia -- and for very little reward. The few shreds of meat within were stringy, gamey and overcooked, and the pool of grease in which the whole mess swam hardly added to the meal's appeal. The potatoes and corn are best left unmentioned -- and uneaten.
Calories: 440
Total Fat: 26 g
Sodium: 1140 mg

Casey Kelbaugh

Wednesday
Lean Pocket Applewood Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Breakfast Pocket

Buy it again: No
Fills you up: Yes
Texture: Gummy
Taste: We bit into what we thought was a potato cube, then checked the ingredient list. No potatoes. It would seem that the chewy, white blob was in fact the much-touted applewood bacon. It just got worse from there, with a creepy, over-processed filling.
Calories: 290
Total Fat: 8 g
Sodium: 480 mg

Casey Kelbaugh

Thursday
Southwest Style Grilled Chicken

Buy it again: Just the potatoes
Fills you up: Yes
Texture: Misleadingly good
Taste: If they'd just stuck with the taters, we'd be telling a different tale. Those spuds are fluffy, creamy and memorably savory. The chicken, however, was slathered in an inexplicably sweet and fruity goo that somehow lost direction on the way to the Southwest.
Calories: 430
Total Fat: 15 g
Sodium: 1510 mg

Casey Kelbaugh

Friday
Lean Pockets Whole Grain Turkey, Broccoli & Cheese Pocket

Buy it again: Only on sale
Fills you up: Yes
Texture: A bit doughy
Taste: It would hardly be our first choice, but in a serious pinch, we wouldn't turn up our noses at it. Let's get one thing clear, though -- while the whole-grain wrapper is a cute little stab at nutrition, you're still chomping down processed cheese and nuked broccoli. Health food, this is not.
Calories: 260
Total Fat: 7 g
Sodium: 390 mg

Casey Kelbaugh

Monday
Claim Jumper Chicken & Penne a la Vodka

Buy it again: Maybe
Fills you up: Yes
Texture: A bit soggy
Taste: We weren't immediately convinced and kept grabbing just one more forkful to figure out why. Wouldn't you know, we polished off the whole darned thing. It's not the most assertive sauce straight out of the box, but woke up with a dash of black pepper. Note -- while the prep notes call for a tablespoon of water on the broccoli, half that might have been a better idea to to avoid veggie sog.
Calories: 500
Total Fat: 20 g
Sodium: 1350 mg

Casey Kelbaugh

Tuesday
Kashi Lemon Rosemary Chicken

Buy it again: Happily
Fills you up: Yes
Texture: Fresh
Taste: If someone tried to pass this off as take-out from the health food place down the street, we'd take their word for it. Flavors popped, veggies crunched, chicken stayed moist, and our tastebuds rejoiced.
Calories: 330
Total Fat: 9 g
Sodium: 640 mg

Casey Kelbaugh

Wednesday
Stouffer's Pepperoni & Provolone Stromboli

Buy it again: Sure
Fills you up: Yes
Texture: Better that we'd expected
Taste: Holy stromboli! This is slightly dumbed-down pizza shop fare, but it's still a really solid surprise. While we'll nitpick that the bread could be a little better, the fillings proved hearty, meaty and overall pleasing. Keep a couple of 'em stashed in the freezer for lazy weeknight meals.
Calories: 430
Total Fat: 17 g
Sodium: 1110 mg

Casey Kelbaugh

Thursday
Lean Cuisine Cheddar Potatoes with Broccoli

Buy it again: No
Fills you up: We can't imagine trying to eat the whole thing
Texture: Mushy
Taste: It doesn't bode well for a dish when the tasters are having a hard time distinguishing potatoes from broccoli florets. The whole bowl was gummed together by a soggy, flavor-free mess that was advertised as cheddar sauce, but could just as easily have been wheat paste. Sure, this cuisine is lean, but it's 'cause no one can bear to eat more than a few bites.
Calories: 230
Total Fat: 5 g
Sodium: 640 mg

Casey Kelbaugh

Filed under: Taste Test

The 'Joy of Cooking' Heads to the World of Reheating

COMMENTS 8

by Monika Bartyzel, Posted Jan 7th 2009 @ 5:00PM

Some things are just plain wrong. Tight-rolled jeans. Ketchup on eggs. The cat lady. And now: The Joy of Cooking frozen foods.

Even if you disagree about the ketchup, you've got to agree that one of the most brand-diluting stunts in eons is word that "The Joy of Cooking" is now being used to sell new frozen foods. "The Joy of Cooking cookbook has brought dinnertime joy to kitchens since 1931. Today its classic recipes serve as the inspiration for the new line of family-style frozen products." Baked taters. Chicken Florentine. Multi-Grain and Cheddar Ciabatta Rolls. Vegetable Lo Mein.

Pardon my French, but this is f**king ridiculous. What a way to taint a good name. Joy of Cooking is one of the big classics -- the book that inspires new cooks and gets people making things from scratch. It should not be a gateway to dinner laziness and selling foods that you don't cook yourself. There's a reason that Joy of Reheating isn't a book. It doesn't have the same ring, the same magic, the same respectability.

Is there anyone out there who can whip up some magic mojo and bring Irma Rombauer back to life so she can kick the crap out of these people? I'm embarrassed for her.

Filed under: New Products

Sometimes 'quick' dinners just means lazy dinners

COMMENTS 7

by Monika Bartyzel, Posted May 1st 2008 @ 5:00PM

It wasn't until I started cooking meals from scratch on a regular basis that I discovered just how much of a fallacy this whole pre-made foods business is. I'm not talking about one of those tasty, pre-roasted chickens or fresh meals you can buy at the supermarket, but rather canned and frozen foods. They are great in a pinch, but they are not a big time saver, and they're certainly not a decent substitute for fresh foods.

So, reading Astin Cubed's post on "Simple Food" today was like reading a rant of my own, without the obsession with snap peas. How can so many of us have forgotten the simplicity of fresh? Or heck, even balancing the two? If you have zero time to make dinner, throw the fish sticks in the oven, boil/microwave/shred and fry some potatoes, or maybe throw some Caesar dressing on some romaine. If you have enough time to go out, wait to be served, eat, wait to pay, and come home, you certainly have enough time to cook up some pasta, fry up some chicken, make a salad, steak, or even stir-fry. Or, even take a day with some free time, make up a lasagna, and eat it during the week, month, or year.

My favorite frozen food: Using those Thanksgiving leftovers to make REAL roasted, carved turkey meals that I can eat all year.

My favorite "fast" food: Leftover fried potatoes with a fried egg on a toasted baguette.

What's yours?

Filed under: Fast Food, Methods

National Frozen Food Month: Frozen Waffles

COMMENTS 0

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Mar 31st 2008 @ 10:03AM

In the world of frozen food, the one frozen meal that has always perplexed me is the frozen breakfast. Why? Why do we make breakfast from the freezer?! Of all the meals in a day, breakfast is quite possibly the easiest one to make "from scratch." Heck, how hard is it to pop two slices of bread into the toaster? And yet the frozen food aisle has an entire section dedicated to frozen eggs with bacon, frozen breakfast sandwiches, frozen oatmeal. What is so difficult about making oatmeal that we have to turn to the frozen stuff?!

However, there is one frozen breakfast item that gets an excuse: the frozen waffle.

Waffles, you see, are not all that convenient to make. They're not difficult, but they do require the preparation of a batter as well as their very own, uni-jobber piece of equipment, a waffle-maker. A frozen waffle, if you find the right one, will not be anywhere close to as good as homemade, but are probably the least lame of the frozen breakfast foods. (About frozen pancakes, we are a little less forgiving because you don't need a special gadget or tool to make pancakes.)

Filed under: Ingredients

What's in your freezer?

COMMENTS 39

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Dec 3rd 2007 @ 10:11AM

Last night I had some people over for dinner. Despite the fact that I got a late start on the main dishes, everything turned out perfectly and a good time was had by all. The only slightly-embarrassing moment in the entire evening came when, before I could stop him, my friend's husband opened my freezer in pursuit of ice for his drink (I had forgotten to put any out).

The door open, he stood and gaped for a moment and said, " Who eats all this food?" I quickly tried to explain that I like to keep a fairly stocked freezer so that I can pull meals together easily. I also tend to have three or four varieties of nuts, some summer fruit and homemade chicken broth stashed away as well. He shrugged and said, "Often when you open our freezer, all you see in there is a bottle of Skyy Vodka."

The picture above is my very own freezer, complete with half a bag of Trader Joe's string beans, a pound of chicken legs from Whole Foods and more frozen chicken broth than you can shake a stick at. In return, I want to know, what do the rest of you have in your freezer? Please share the mundane the quirks as inquiring minds want to know (and be assured that they aren't all that strange).

Filed under: Real Kitchens