A TV dinner that's really good (?!)

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arbilab

arbilab

Well-known member
Joined
May 1, 2011
Messages
5,253
Location
Ft Worth TX (Ridglea)
Title sounds like a contradiction doesn't it?  Unknown how many here buy µwave food or would admit if they did.  I can cook pritdang well but don't always want to be bothered, especially cleaning up.  This is something would take me months (if not years) of disappointing results to make well from scratch.

 

A little background:  I'm not the most astute taster in the world but this IS Texas and we DO eat barbeque so I'm comparing this to $15 restaurant dinners and it comes up adequate-plus.  That's something for a microwave TV-type dinner.

 

It's Boston Market (brand) "Carver's Cuts Pulled Pork".  First, it's not ConAgra, which at least gives it a chance to be good.  What you get for $3-4 is 10oz, 480 cal, 29g protein, and "only"a gram of sodium.  The platter includes lean, tender pulled pork in BBQ sauce, parmesan-garlic corn, and a wedge of cornbread. 

 

The sauce is 'good'.  The corn is only garlicked so it tastes like something in contrast to the stronger sauce.  [Too much garlic stings my swallerpipe.]  The cornbread is a nice mouth filler to go with the rest.  All around, as the Brazilans might say, "voce nao vai querer eu chegue no final".  You won't like when it ends.  It's filling enough to call a meal.  I want more but 2 of them would be a bit much.  No problemo, justifies dessert (coconut cake for me).  In Amazon review terms, "will buy again".

 

Now, µwaving is an art and science.  All the more complicated that my 1982 GE is only 600W and everything today expects 1100W with turntable.  I don't like what 600W on 10/high does to the parts that get hot first, so really hoping the GE lasts the SECOND half of my life (already lasted the middle half).  I seldom go over Power 6 except for boiling coffee water.  So for this meal I double all the cooking times @6, rotating at 1/4th intervals, and it comes out the specified 165F and uniform throughout.  Your ovenage may vary, you'd know best.
 
 
My MD some months ago advised I should eat a Lean Cuisine-type frozen selection for each meal for 10 days ... they're ~300 calories and portion control is also a goal.  A review article I ran across somewhere claimed the Salisbury Steak - Mac & Cheese offering is a near-perfect mix of protein & carbs.  Anyway, that regimen lasted for maybe a week and I could feel a difference in belly girth & belt snugness.  I continue to have them maybe 1/3 of the time.
 
TV dinners with the hard aluminum tray

Before plastic and before foil, there was the hard aluminum tray. We saved those, not that they were ever reused that I can remember, but maybe for the next scrap metal drive. I guess that eventually they were disposed of but, at the time, they seemed too substantial to go in the garbage and we did not have recycling back in the 50s. I remember the first dinners with tater tots and setting the timer to turn back the foil over that section so that they could crisp. I liked meat loaf and Salisbury steak. During the week, my brother and I would eat those on TV trays while watching something like the Huckleberry Hound Show or Rocky & Bullwinkle. Life sucked back then.

 

Hope your health is improving, Glenn.
 
I can remember when the first Swansons TV Dinners came out. At first the only choices were Fried Chicken and Roast Beef, soon they added Baked Ham and Meatloaf. There was no dessert only three sections,meat, vegetables and potatoes, the Roast Beef had three new potatoes in the meat and gravy section with a section for corn and another for peas, and this was my favorite.

We got to have TV Dinners on the nights that my parents went out and left us with a babysitter, or on Wednesdays, which were my Dad’s Native Sons of the Golden West meeting nights, he was a long standing member and always attended. So Wednesdays were either Drive In take out (fast food in the 50’s) from Foster Freeze, Doggie Diner, Caspers Hot Dogs or Flip’s Drive In on Road 20 or Mom would pick up Mexican food from the Hacienda Mexican restaurant on San Pablo Ave in Richmond, or Chinese food from Violets New Chinese Tea Garden in downtown Richmond.

Us kids loved Wednesdays, it was always a treat.

And to top it off, Mom usually made us Banana Splits for dessert on Wednesday. She had been a soda jerk when she was a teenager and she made excellent Banana Splits.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 10/3/2019-12:24]
 
Tim,

how could I have forgotten about the Turkey TV Dinners! They were great! The Salisbury Steak was good too. And I agree, today , I have no use for any of these frozen dinners.

A few years ago David had a craving for a frozen Chicken Pot Pie, so thinking the Marie Callender’s would be the best I bought a couple for dinner. ECK! They were wretched! The crust was soggy, the chicken was sparse and tough and the gravy flavorless, what a waste of money. The old Swanson’s Pot Pies were way better. Now, if we want Chicken Pie, I make it from scratch, its’ not difficult at all, and a whole lot better.

Eddie
 
We did not have frozen dinners when I was a kid.  They were deemed to be "too expensive", and it's likely that my dad wouldn't eat them as well.  My dad grew up in the country and expected simple, but hearty meals; which required mother to cook.  Mom did not work outside of the home so having a hot meal at least once a day was one of her primary chores.

 

As an adult I've given up cooking.  Just too much work for one person, so I've eaten my share of frozen meals, all flavors.  A few years back my bad cholesterol number went up and my doctor advised that I concentrate on "low fat" meals/foods, which I've done.  The problem with all of those really yummy frozen dinners for me is the saturated fat number.  It's my understanding that to qualify as "low fat" the saturated fat number should be 3.5 or less.  Try finding anything really yummy with that number!  I eat a fair amount of Healthy Choice and/or Lean Cuisine if I eat at home.

 

lawrence
 
Growing up, frozen dinners were only a "sometimes" thing. And I think usually it was a lunch time thing.

Although even my family succumbed in the end to frozen dinners. The last year or so of my mother's life, there were plenty of times when dinner was frozen. Something was on sale, and it could be convenient.

Living alone, I have to admit I've had periods of having frozen dinners pretty regularly.

In recent history, I've avoided the regular frozen aisle, preferring the offerings in the organic/health food section. While these are different--sometimes quite a bit different from "normal" dinners, at least they are made with ingredients I can recognize the names of! Although I'm not getting these very much these days, due to cost, which is considerably more than Banquet.
 
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">How well I remember how good those Fried Chicken TV Dinners tasted. They were "gourmet" for the day. On a weekend when my dad was away on a fishing or hunting trip, Mom would ask my brothers and I if TV dinners were OK. We never said no. She was a terrific cook. Here is a very old newspaper clipping of her from during WWII. I assume she had a tasty recipe for rabbit. I guess this is a little out of place, sorry.</span>

twintubdexter-2019100319350008055_1.jpg
 
Ahh, Swanson.  I think they used real turkey back then instead of pink slime like now.  There was one I really wish was still around,  Beans 'n' Franks with cornbread side.  NOT vienna sausage, but 3 small wieners, and the cornbread was even good.  Nothing even approaching it today.

 

I kept the aluminum trays and made my own fried chicken TVDs with peas and corn, through most of college.  Not about to make that colossal mess for one meal, bnt well made sense to cook once and eat 4 times.  And of course, homemade fried chicken, as good as it gets.

 

Yes, I still throw a couple Banquet chicken PPs in now and then.  Marie's are worse, take longer and cost like double.  These are <span style="text-decoration: underline;">NOT</span> low-fat but I'm in the [enviable?] position of needing all the calories I can stomach, fat or otherwise.

 

Sodium is another thing.  Who DOESN'T get too much of that?  Prepared foods are crawling with it.
 
EatingWell Frozen Entrees

I saw these several months ago and gave them a try. The "French Inspired Chicken" is really very good. "Cherry Port Pork" and "Steak Carne Asda" were nice as well. They are packaged in a see through window that is vacuum sealed. They also were reasonable in price and portion.

michaelman2-2019100322315406058_1.jpg

michaelman2-2019100322315406058_2.jpg
 
Trader Joe has a pretty good chicken pot pie, although I would not be tempted until colder weather comes. Right now I don't want to turn on the oven at all. Franks and beans are pretty easy to make without buying a frozen dinner, aren't they?

Speaking of Joe, nice to see you back, twintubdexter!
 
 

 

Swanson. My staple growing up. I rarely ate what my mom cooked, so I basically lived off TV dinners. Swanson roast beef and veal parmigiana were among my favorites. Banquet, Mortons and Libbyland were big favorites back then too. And the quality was so superior to what they make today. Anyone remember Banquets Boil-in-a Bag? When my folks bought our first microwave in 1980, I remember taking TV dinners out of the aluminum tray before cooking. Shortly thereafter TV dinners started to switch over to  microwavable plates/trays. There was a brand, which I can't remember at the moment, that came in small plastic plates to be used in the microwave. The plates were reusable and we had quite a few.

 

As for today, I have yet to find a a frozen entree that comes close to scratch made in taste. Stouffer's remains fairly good. I've been disappointed so far with Boston Market, but to be fair, I keep comparing it to their restaurant prepared meals. Banquet went the cheap route years ago. Aldi and Lidl have fairly decent store brand offerings, particularly in the Indian food categories . Costco Signature and BJ's Wellsley Farms are often good. And a fairly new brand, Devour is quite good. I am fond of their macaroni and cheese.
 
I too remember the Swanson TV dinners.  The fried chicken with the apple desert was one we had often.  I recall beef and turkey and I think lasagna.  I also remember big boxes of Banquet Fried Chicken.  We'd pop a few pieces in the oven and have a semi home made dinner with home cooked sides.
 
<blockquote>
Franks and beans are pretty easy to make without buying a frozen dinner, aren't they?

</blockquote>
We'd both think so, but no combination of commercial offerings comes close.  I've tried.  The bean sauce and the franks themselves are always too spicy/salty.  ConAgra, the food version of WCI, bought VanCamps and ruined Beanie Weenie.

 

<blockquote>
I've been disappointed so far with Boston Market, but to be fair, I keep comparing it to their restaurant prepared meals.

</blockquote>
The restaurant rents the name to the supermkt company.  I'm also fairly unimpressed with their other offerings, specially at the premium price. 

 

As I started out, not the most discerning palate.  I liked airline food back when there was such thing.  American had a bitchen breakfast; omelet with potatoes, and strawberry blintzes with sausage.  I'd charm the stewardess out of both, back when that's what they were called. 

 

But back at discernment, I DO like what I like and I can tell when it's right or wrong.


 
 

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