The Good & The Bad Of The Prepared Meals That Have Graced Your Table (Or TV Tray)

[caseydog]

Personally, I find that artisanally made ready meals and ready sides are usually the best. Those are also where I can find the minimally processed stuff and the stuff that is made of food with few or no weird chemical additives. Yes, I do include the farm-made offerings to be artisanal.

HEB has a whole section of heat and eat meals. But, they are pricey, compared to making the same meals from scratch.

They also have a large selection of meal kits, similar to those mail-order meal kits. I may try one, to see if it's worth it.

CD

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

@Aunt Bea how was that Hormel Complete shelf-stable meal? I've seen those and was thinking of getting one to try.

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

WOW @caseydog , that's alot to choose from! I wish we had that large of a selection here in Cowboyville Arizona!
@caseydog have you tried any of those?

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

I found this recently while poking around at the local Kroger:

Not a bad price on sale for $7.99
I boiled up a quarter pound of Extra Wide Egg Noodles and dinner was served.
Cost for us two (we split the entire tray of Beef Tips between us) $4.21 + tax per diner = not bad!
I did add to the plate some frozen Green Beans for some color and it was filling enough.

Not horrible on the sodium, taking into consideration that we both consume very little through the day.

 

[caseydog]

Not horrible on the sodium, taking into consideration that we both consume very little through the day.

That's a lot of sodium when you consider they say there are 3.5 servings in that box. I imagine that box is good for two servings in the real world, which makes it 1,085 mg per real world serving. You would definitely need to watch your sodium the rest of the day.

CD

 

[Kathleen]

I agree with the comment about Marie Calendar pot pies having way too much crust.

 

[dragnlaw]

So if 3 and half people eat that meal, they each are getting 27% of their recommended intake of salt. If you add up 27% for each of the 3 and half people it only comes to 94 and half %.
Which one is true...
and now you know why I failed math.

 

[caseydog]

So if 3 and half people eat that meal, they each are getting 27% of their recommended intake of salt. If you add up 27% for each of the 3 and half people it only comes to 94 and half %.
Which one is true...
and now you know why I failed math.

I took the package amount of 620mg, multiplied it by 3.5 (the total sodium for the whole package), then divided that total by 2 to come up with the 1,085mg for one of two servings.

CD

 

[Aunt Bea]

@Aunt Bea how was that Hormel Complete shelf-stable meal? I've seen those and was thinking of getting one to try.

I only buy the chicken or beef with mashed potatoes.

They are nothing special, on a par with Dinty Moore canned beef stew.

The main attraction for me is a passable hot meal in 60 seconds.

 

[dragnlaw]

I took the package amount of 620mg, multiplied it by 3.5 (the total sodium for the whole package), then divided that total by 2 to come up with the 1,085mg for one of two servings.

CD

Yeah, I had done it both ways, which was why I asked.

But now the question is "How much are these Companies calculating the total intake of salt for an adult?" (I'm not getting into the details of male vs female vs teen vs child.)
If you google for the salt average recommended you sort of get two answers.
Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends adults limit sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg per day.
The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 mg a day and moving toward an ideal limit of no more than 1,500 mg per day for most adults.

I think we all agree that the 1,500 mg per day is ideal, but are those companies using that to calculate their "27%"? or the ambiguous "less than 2,300 mg per day.
Further I'm thinking that the items which claim "lower salt" are just using the 2,300 mg to 'lower' the salt to perhaps only the 1,500 mg? Next time I'm shopping I'll try to remember to check.
LOL - in either case for people who need to watch their intake they are indeed salt bombs.

 

[jennyema]

Im a sucker for Stouffers broccoli mac and cheese
I buy chicken pot pies from the Irish bakery down the street and freeze them
Also, Wegmans .... most of their prepared food is great

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

As I did say earlier, we two don't consume much sodium, most days, so ...

 

[blissful]

The FDA requires the nutrition label to use 2300 mg sodium as the standard at this time.
1 cup of egg noodles from boiled salted water, 264 mg sodium. Green beans no salt, 1 mg sodium.
1/2 package beef tips and gravy, 1240.
Total 1505 could work for one meal and under the 2300 mg/day.
We often have potatoes/green beans/gnocci/thanksgiving stuffing, all salt free, but it's the gravy (with soy sauce and sometimes miso) that has sodium in it.

 

[caseydog]

Due to kidney issues, I have to stay below 2,000mg per day, and usually try to be considerably lower. I've been doing that for long enough now, that when I go out for dinner, the food often tastes too salty for me.

CD

 

[taxlady]

I just tried out ready made confit chicken legs. That was pretty good. It doesn't hurt that it's where I get almost all of my chicken, 'cause it's tasty chicken and it's about 130 km away, so it counts as local. There are two legs in the bag. Next time I will put the bag in cool water and get it above fridge temp before I try to separate them. This was the first time I bought this. The meat came right off the drumstick and stayed in the bag. So, there was a bit of fighting with the food before I could even put it in the toaster oven to heat it. But, it tasted good. I wouldn't say it was anything particularly special. Just flavourful cooked chicken, ready in 10-15 minutes.

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[Cooking Goddess]

Have to agree with casey & Badjak, on the egg roll things. Although I've made a dinner of them usually because I just can't be bothered to think abut cooking.
I often do frozen appetizers for just that reason. None of them are to write home about.

There are two frozen prepared foods that I love.
View attachment 70626 It comes in a smaller size as well and I should probably buy that one as, although I always say I will only eat half.... gobble gobble gone. It is not frozen but has an incredibly long shelf life.

A frozen food I love is a Walmart product. Frozen Salt & Pepper Calamari rings. There are also baronets which I get as the rings are not always found. Also found that not all Walmart's carry them, guess it's a supply and demand thing. Haven't found them recently.

You might want to check your freezer if you have any on hand. There is a recall on some Reser mac and cheese products.

Macaroni and cheese recall update as FDA sets risk level

The products from Reser's Fine Foods are the latest in a series of recalls.

www.newsweek.com

 

[dragnlaw]

Thank You CG, thankfully as it happens, I don't have any on hand.
The States and Codes that they targeted are
-The products, which have the codes 71117.02009 and 71117.02123 on the bar code, are distributed in California, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

I also made a mistake in my earlier post. That product is not frozen but refrigerated shelf ready.
Another weird thing (or not) is when I went to their site, they do not show the particular one I get. The Main Street Bistro. I'll check next time to see where they are produced.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Re: Traditions meals. Not only are they not seasoned but the variety is totally lacking.

They are real big with the cinnamon flavoured sweet potatoes (that'll put lead in your pencil, eh!) and I have eaten so damn many Brussels sprouts that I qualify for Belgian citizenship! They are also under the misconception that carrots are a carbohydrate. Yes, they are high on the glycemic scale, but you would have to eat an entire bushel of carrots to spike your blood sugar level. Oh, and one more thing. They don't drain the spinach before they put it in the container, so after heating the meal in the microwave, you end up with spinach soup! And I love both carrots and spinach, even did so when I was a kid and wasn't supposed to.

 

[medtran49]

The Hormel products noted above were on sale at Publix. They were out of the beef tips but had pot roast and Italian braised beef. Craig chose the Italian braised beef so I'll report when we eat it.

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

@medtran49 I saw the Roast Beef and almost bought it -