Fat Whores, Do you still eat TV Dinners?

I eat "prepared meals" from the supermarket - 30% frozen, 70% fresh. These are just updates on Frozen TV dinners. So the answer is yes?

No, only Stouffer's lasagna!

Gross, no

MMMMMMMmmmmmmmm.... Stouffer's meatloaf and mashed taters, but no. Not anymore

They should call them iPad Dinners and reach a whole new audience.

Just for the hell of it, I tried the "Hungry Man Mexican Fiesta" about six months ago to see if it was anything like Ye Olde Swanson's version of yesteryear.

I could have done this video review of it. Larry (aka Canadian Studmuffin) is pretty funny. But unlike Larry, I didn't make it through more than one bite of each compartment. The whole "dinner" is shit. Literally.

Only eat those Healthy Choice bowls that steam. Or Amy’s.

Yes, I had one of those recently, adobo chicken. Not bad at all and cheaper than takeout.

If I’m hungry and lazy I get a healthy choice bowl usually chicken and broccoli Alfredo because it has the least sugar

Featureman, an older gentleman YouTuber, eats a lot of TV dinners, canned stew, and convenience foods. He was a Hollywood extra and I think he's had an interesting life. He's not in tip-top shape, but he seems OK, considering his age and diet.

No. Just TV Diners.

I'm not really fat and I'm not a whore.

Give me that much. Okay, pal?

I can't even imagine. Would anyone other than the Poors even think about this as real food?

Good heavens. That man in R10's post is like a PSA about the need for a Community Gas Explosion Management Board in Poetucker, Pennsylvania. If that fellow drops one lit cigar too many down his commode, it is going to be a conflagration with digestive lava meatballs going through roofs and alimentary-noodle-napalm smacking and striking kids in the schoolyard as they scream and stagger their ways into the gym. Stinking shitting students!! Shitting!!!

Some have changed and yes I do - 6'4"/185;bs of lean muscle.

Stouffer's Stuffed bell peppers.

That is the grossest thing I've seen in a long while. Wonder what the 'meat' content actually is.

I do and I’ve stopped thinking they’re awful because I subscribed to a meal delivery service that’s considerably worse.

Those steamers aren't so bad but you get very little for what you pay for. Plus, the sodium.

It's the sodium and price value you're worried about?!

That meat....

The Healthy Choice Steamer Baskets are the best. They really engineered those things well. A far superior method vs just nuking stuff while it sits in a weird sauce.

ew

[quote]The whole "dinner" is shit. Literally.

Someone literally doesn't know what "literally" means.

Nothing will equal the supreme majesty of Le Menu frozen dinners!

I had the “Large Size” personal Stouffer’s Lasagna last night.

It was excellent.

Mmmm

[quote]Banquet Spaghetti and Meatballs with Secret Dessert

The "secret" is .... IT'S PEOPLE!

[quote]The Healthy Choice Steamer Baskets are the best.

Do they come in "Cleveland?"

[quote]I do and I’ve stopped thinking they’re awful because I subscribed to a meal delivery service that’s considerably worse.

Which one? I've been using Tovala for a while and I've come to realize that it's basically airline food. Maybe a slight step up from a frozen dinner.

This is hands down, the grossest thread on here.

Do you rinse the Stouffer’s Lasagna?

Amy’s frozen dinners and Healthy Choice steamers. Although I read an article that Amy’s treats their employees like slaves so now I’m moving away from that brand.

No, only because most grocery stores carry fresh prepared entrees that are so much better than anything frozen

Of the Hungry Man kind I like the Classic Fried Chicken. I heat it in the oven because I like the chicken crispy.

You are literally eating.....

Banquet

I call them "appetizers."

Michael Angelo's. They're yummy!

I regularly rely on Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine and Stouffer's meals as I get older. Generally, they are light on calories, and I can eat two of them during one meal and I take in under 800 calories in some cases. I've stopped eating fried foods and fast food altogether.

I was a type 2 diabetic four years ago. Now my sugars stay in the average range for most people. That's progress.

As a kid my three go to TV dinners were:

Fish and Chips

Salisbury Steak

Turkey and Stuffing

[quote]What's your favorite? I had country fried steak and corn last night with a diet Cheerwine.

Greg is weeping quietly and fanning himself with the hem of his caftan.

I don't buy / eat the TV dinners, but I do eat the Red Baron pepperoni pizza singles. I also eat frozen (then cooked) gyoza / mandoo (dumplings).

My favorite was Stouffer's chicken parm, but I can't find it anymore.

Stouffer's isn't as good as it once was. I got their Mac & Cheese recently and I think the recipe has changed.

My guilty pleasure is still Stouffers' mac and cheese frozen dinner. Sometimes I'll add additional cheese, golden raisins, or chicken or tuna to it. Splash of olive oil. Not more than infrequently, with all the sodium and whatnot in there. But sooo good especially on a cold night.

I recently bought a frozen fried chicken tv dinner "Hungry Man". It wasn't bad, 3pcs chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and a brownie which I did not eat because it burned in the oven. I loved these when I was a kid. But it was very salty and it was $7.99.

R26

It's good for you, it' made with soy and it's green!

[quote]Sometimes I'll add additional cheese, golden raisins, or chicken or tuna to it. Splash of olive oil.

No prunes?

The Rao’s frozen Chicken Parmigiana with Spaghetti is actually really good, make it in the oven. As far as the classic TV dinner style I miss the Libby’s kids meals, omg I ate so many as a child.

Is this what you're talking about R45? I don't remember those.

I ate my share of TV dinners as a little kid in the 1960s, but not that often (even then we were aware they were junk food), and always with a green salad (my mom was a former student nurse and was big on nutrition as understood at that time.) We also ate a lot of Banquet frozen pot pies and frozen fish and chips (with cooked vegetable and salad.)

R49, yes! They had a mail away offer for a mug and I was obsessed with it. My mother hated the fact I wanted to eat them every single day. I was prohibited to just Friday dinners!

I tried a Healthy Choice Steamer once, but I objected to all the plastic waste they generate. But the Healthy Choice Power Bowls are good, have recognizable ingredient lists, and come in a compostable paper bowl that holds up just fine through the cooking and eating process. The Power Bowls are my go-to when eating frozen convenience food.

Of course, Conagra Foods has had to recall some of the bowls over undeclared allergens recently, and for possible contamination with small rocks a couple of years ago.

Aw, r51, you should go to eBay and get yourself a mug...

[quote]This is hands down, the grossest thread on here.

Apparently you don't read the Chris Watts threads.

R45, me too, although I didn't eat the brownie since I don't like them.

I will say, I don't know how they find such small chickens. My pieces were quail-sized.

I will never understand why anyone would buy and eat this sodium filled low quality mess?

How difficult is it to cook and freeze healthy food in bulk if you’re too lazy to cook or meal prep?

I was wondering how long it would take R56 to show up. 🙄🙄

Other than fruit and tea in the morning, I eat one meal a day. Although I do look at the sodium content, I really don't give a fuck.

The meatloaf one is good.

R56 doesn’t own a tv either.

Ruby Romaine on tv dinners.

R56, some people have health, professional, or age-related reasons for not cooking every meal themselves. I'm old (like most of Datalounge) and have a heart condition that severely limits the time I can spend on my feet prepping food and then cleaning up the mess, in addition to everything else I have to do to get through the day, without having to lay down for an hour to recover my cellular oxygen levels.

I do cook and freeze meals when I'm up to it, but frozen commercial convenience meals are an important part of the equation. And the Healthy Choice brand I use is sodium sensible.

You need to understand that no one else on the planet shares your personal experience.

OP types downmarket, fat and poor.

r58 I envy you so much.

They're really only properly served on...

So many delicious choices!

Sadly I combine them together in my quest to fatten even more for winter. Like combining separate individual TV dinner frozen rice and frozen chicken, hahaha it is a mild form of creativity.

Corn gives me the shites.

R62, the very idea of a comfortable work area is pre-industrial. If we cared about kitchen workers’ comfort, we’d provide lower work surfaces and comfier chairs.

Stouffer's Salisbury Steak and Mac & Cheese. But not that single portion bullshit. I buy the family size of both and mix them together.

I ask a friend to hold my earrings and I bunch my caftan up around my waist (or in the general vicinity of where it was)

when I get into an argument at work...

^ Greg reacts to OP's post

My mother always said, "If it says Banquet on the package, you may as well throw it straight into the garbage."

My supermarket once had Banquet TV dinners on sale for a ridiculously cheap price, less than a dollar each. I figured, "for pocket change, how bad could they be?" So I bought a few. When I heated one in the microwave, the entire house reeked of dog food. I couldn't even attempt to taste it. So, straight into the garbage. Bitch was right.

They were an expensive means of keeping a clean kitchen, but Marie Callandar was a safe high calorie meal of the day.

I cook everything in the oven, which makes for better taste. I only use my microwave for popcorn

I agree with you R75. The microwave is quick and easy, but the over provides a much better taste for these frozen entrees.

Stouffers Turkey Tetrazzini is my favorite. And yes, I mostly cook all my meals. But if I'm feeling a bit under the weather/low energy, that hits the spot for me every time.

In the early 70s my dad was getting a grad degree so he wasn’t home for dinner Wednesday nights. My sister and I got to pick out a Libby-Land “Where food is fun!” TV dinner once a week.

We. Were. In. Heaven. They die-cut boxes popped up into a cartoon holder to eat from, and were full of jokes, puzzles and riddles; and the food was kid-tasty. My mom is a good cook, but never enjoyed doing it - I’m sure she enjoyed the night off as much as we did.

The Hungry Man Mexican dinner at R6 was also my first introduction to Mexican food - which was very rare on the east coast back then - an Old El Paseo taco-kit dinner seemed quite exotic.

Those cheap ass meals promote diarrhea.

Why would you eat this crap?

Even the supposedly "healthy" ones like Lean Cuisine or Amy's.

Well, smell r80!

I serve them at gay Airbnb orgies after everyone has come on the mashed potatoes.

[quote]I cook everything in the oven, which makes for better taste. I only use my microwave for popcorn.

Popcorn made on top of the stove tastes so much better than microwave popcorn, but I must admit you can't beat the convenience of microwave popcorn.

I've only ever had one in my life. I BEGGED my mother for one when I was a kid in the 60s because they looked so good and had cool packaging. We were poor and she wouldn't spend the money on one.

You guys were so poor that you couldn't afford a TV Dinner?

[quote]You guys were so poor that you couldn't afford a TV Dinner?

Pretty much. My father died when I was seven. My mother was an immigrant with a third-grade education. My mother rarely spent money on things we didn't need and it was cheaper to make a good meal. She had minimum wage jobs cleaning in offices. We had a three-family home and we rented out the second and third floors, but they were only four room flats (2br, LR, Kitchen, 1B). In a poor neighborhood in a poor NE city. That provided some income but not enough. We didn't own a car. I was a latch-key kid for years.

Yes, there were a several (three I think) years where all I got for Christmas were clothes and shoes. I don't have fond memories of Christmas growing up.

Which is why I still spend too much on my adult sons for Christmas.

It was nice having a depression-era parent during Christmas. Jump up and down, give him a hug, and he was in a good mood for the evening.

Unfortunately, R87, my Depression-era father was chronically depressed, and not about the Depression. Good moods were a rarity for him, even at Christmas.

My mother didn't like to cook very much either.

She always left Chicken Pot Pies warming in the oven when she and dad were out for the evening.

Someone mentioned their family having been too poor to buy TV dinners. I remember my mother serving Swanson's pot pies (chicken, turkey, beef) as a weeknight dinner for us. (She would always cook real dinners on weekends.) As an eldergay, I also remember that there were five for a dollar at our local supermarket.

And I liked them! I liked them!

I think the hype and novelty over meal prepping stuff for the freezer is finally starting to die down already. Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisines are a great option from time to time imo. They are especially good at managing portion control and getting in a reasonable amount of vegetables, in addition to keeping the fat and sodium content in check.

If they're on some sort of special like 2 for $6 or 3 for $9, sure, I will snap up a few to keep on hand in my freezer. Just my humble opinion, but reheating leftovers from the freezer is usually a let down for me, as well as eating the same damn meal several days in a row, is maddeningly boring.

[quote] I think the hype and novelty over meal prepping stuff for the freezer is finally starting to die down already.

Batch cooking and then putting stuff in the freezer isn't a hype or a novelty activity. It's a basic strategy to keep yourself (and your family) fed. Some people like to eat food that they've cooked. Nobody says you have to eat it several days in a row.

It's fine if you want to buy / eat frozen "TV dinners," but that's not the norm for everybody.

[quote] Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisines are a great option from time to time imo. They are especially good at managing portion control and getting in a reasonable amount of vegetables, in addition to keeping the fat and sodium content in check.

There are 800mg of sodium in the linked Lean Cuisine below. (For comparison, there are 10 mg of sodium in a bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade)

That's not the end of the world if you have one every so often and don't have any medical need to watch salt intake.

Why would you eat this chemical crap? For the same money you can zap a bag of broccoli florets from Trader Joe's and combine it with one of their pre-cooked teriyaki chicken breasts-- 70 mg of sodium even with the teriyaki flavoring.

Eat as much non-processed food as possible.

Live longer

[quote]Eat as much non-processed food as possible. Live longer.

Just like Kirstie Alley!

[quote]Eat as much non-processed food as possible. Live longer.

Provided you don't suddenly get run over by a truck.

I like Marie Callender's TV dinners, regardless of fat content. I wish I could find a good Chicken Tikka Masala TV dinner, but I've tried about six or seven different kinds and none of them taste like they should.

I have never bought frozen meals. It’s just as easy to buy raw vegetables and eat them that way, or cook them. More nutritious, and flavourful.

Wow.

This really is a Fat Whores thread.

No hope then, R97.

Carry on lards and pass the Pringles.

R96 Make your own fucking chicken tikka masala. Jesus. It’s not that difficult.

[quote]I have never bought frozen meals. It’s just as easy to buy raw vegetables and eat them that way, or cook them. More nutritious, and flavourful.

Yes, because raw vegetables taste just as good as junk food.

[quote]Make your own fucking chicken tikka masala. Jesus. It’s not that difficult.

So predictable to have all the virtue signalers show up. It's a fun thread about TV dinners, for Christ's sake. No one here needs to be lectured about the virtues of healthy eating, even though it satisfies your ego to do so.

R12- I MOST certainly agree

That stuff is strictly for the POORS and the FAT WHORES.

Too many preservatives and too much sodium.

We all have busy lives. I don't think anyone is advocating eating like this every single day, but a TV Dinner every now and again isn't going to hurt anyone. And for you make it yourself queens, bless your hearts. I applaud that you have the time and energy to make every single meal, that's just not realistic or even desired by most people.

What R103 said...nom, nom, nom...

I had the Marie Callender's turkey and stuffing Meal to Share. It's actually good. No vegetables though, so I make some peas to go with. Only 630 calories.

r10, do you happen to know his real name? Is he on the IMDb? I'm not a fan of the TV dinners he eats but he seems like an interesting guy.

[quote]How difficult is it to cook and freeze healthy food in bulk if you’re too lazy to cook or meal prep?

Cooking and freezing in bulk IS meal prep. This sentence doesn't make any sense.

I don't know about anyone else, but my freezer is a bitch to get stuff in and out of. The layout of our kitchen forces us to get a side-by-side model and even with the current fridge, which has a slightly larger freezer than the old one as well as a door that opens a bit wider, we just can't keep both regular food AND a bunch of pre-cooked food in there. There's no room.

I don't care for leftover meat, anyway. It always tastes off and the texture is gross. Soups, stews, casseroles, sauces, those are all great in the freezer, and I even tried to buy a separate freezer this summer, but both times the order was delayed by months so I just cancelled and gave up trying.

For you, OP!

There are a lot more options for frozen meals these days that cater to many dietary needs and restrictions. They're not all garbage junk food. The portion control, and clearly labeled nutritional information are a big convenience.

It's impossible to buy untainted food in the USA unless you're vegan and you live next door to an organic farmer so eat whatever the hell you want.

Lately I’ve been batch cooking. On the weekends, I make two, sometimes three dishes, then I put them in freezer bags so I can reheat them during the week.

I used to eat a hungry man fried chicken dinner every once in a while, but too many times the meat tasted off. That is called warmed over flavor, and it is a known issue with cooked frozen poultry. It doesn't happen all the time with poultry, but it happened often enough with my chicken TV dinners that I decided not to buy them anymore.

Instead I keep a bag of chicken cutlets in the freezer. I buy fresh chicken breasts and slice them into three pieces, then wrap and freeze them. The smaller pieces are ideal for a quick meal since they thaw fast, and can be used as is or sliced or diced for a stir fry or a small casserole. In fact I make my homemade version of Rice-A-Roni using a seasoned diced chicken cutlet that I brown in a little butter. Remove it from the pan, then add about a third of a cup of raw rice and a couple tablespoons of fine egg noodles broken up. Saute those in the butter and chicken juices, then add two cups of homemade chicken stock and the cooked chicken, cover and simmer till done. It has so much more flavor than the boxed product, and adding a little meat makes it a meal for one.

Cooking and freezing meals sounds gross to me. You make a meal, you have one day of leftovers and that's it. Those are the rules.

Look. Before you reach for that shit check out the nutritional information. They are loaded with sodium and preservatives and chemicals. I'd rather buy hot cooked food which may not be much better but I feel like it is. I do not get why people don't just cook and freeze stuff. So much easier. A couple weeks ago, I made a pot of Lentil soup, I roasted four chicken breasts, two of them one way two another, and then I roasted a pot roast with carrots onions and potatoes. I already have some homemade pasta sauce in the freezer along with cheese tortellini. Everything is in serving sizes with a date on the container. It is so easy. And I'm not talking about labor intensive cooking. It takes five minutes to season your meat or poultry and stick it in the oven. When it's ready, let it cool then cut it into serving sized portions and freeze it. I use plastic freezer bags most of the time, because it saves space. FIne. I'm done preaching. But I just want to encourage you to try to be more healthy in your food choices.

[quote]I buy fresh chicken breasts and slice them into three pieces, then wrap and freeze them. The smaller pieces are ideal for a quick meal since they thaw fast

That's a really good idea. I've been using ground meat because it's easy to keep in the freezer without having to defrost it, but I'm going to try some thin-cut meats, too.

Do you guys also can too?

[quote]They are loaded with sodium and preservatives and chemicals.

We know, and the reason we know is because every single food thread on here -- including this one -- has multiple people saying "sodium! chemicals! fat whores!" repeatedly, and then they proceed to tell us their own personal food prep journeys and how it's easy and how it makes them better people.

You just think you antibiotic and dewormer-loaded food is healthier. It's not.

[quote] how it makes them better people.

Because it does R117

R117, I do not think I am a "better person." I am just trying to encourage people to make healthier choices. I'm motivated in part by my sister who is overweight, and working 14 -16 hours a day 6 days a week and is a stressed out wreck who either eats fast food, restaurant take out or these frozen "delicacies" from the supermarket. And R118, I don't eat chicken or anything else that has antibiotics.

Exactly r120. These silly little queens like r113 and r117 are certainly insecure if they can read all of that in someone’s posts about cooking meals ahead of time. I mean, what’s gross about preparing meals ahead of time and eating foods that aren’t loaded with junk? Either they’re pathetically insecure or they are just trolling and 💩 stirring. Grow up already.

So I guess WE ARE, BLANCHE! We ARE SUPERIOR! 🤪😜🤪😜😝🥳

[quote]Look. Before you reach for that shit check out the nutritional information. They are loaded with sodium and preservatives and chemicals.

OMG! None of us knew that before!

R106, his name is Tom Willett. Here's his IMDB bio.

[quote]Do you guys also can too?

No -- but we certainly can .... can-can!