Potstickers 101

I’ll just begin by saying: awesome.  A new favorite.

Today’s meal is Healthy Choice Asian Potstickers.  I am not all that familiar with potstickers myself.  I know I have eaten them before, but they’ve never been something I’ve deliberately selected from a menu.  That said, I may not be the best authority to assess this particular item; I certainly can’t compare against any other potstickers.  I can, however, respond to the fact that I found this meal incredibly yummy.

For anyone else unfamiliar, you should know that potstickers are essentially Chinese dumplings.  Unlike wontons (also often consider a Chinese dumpling), potstickers are not served in broth and they have a thicker, chewier skin.  In this meal, the potstickers are on a bed of rice with a sweet and spicy sauce.

These are vegetarian potstickers – though I’m surprised that the box doesn’t deliberately highlight this.  Instead of meat, there is tofu in the dumplings.  Even though I spent a couple years as a vegetarian, I never really embraced tofu and usually avoid it. But the tofu in this meal had the texture of chicken, not the spongy unpleasantness I’ve come to expect from tofu, so it was actually enjoyable.  Other ingredients inside the potstickers include rice, water chestnuts, green beans, onions, carrots, and soy sauce. The red peppers and carrots contained in the rice bed are like *actual* slices of red pepper and carrots – hearty, flavorful, and the same size as the picture on the box shows. 

At any rate, this one will be on my grocery list again because of taste alone.  Not too bad on the nutritional content either!

Details

Calories:  340
Fat:  4.5 g
Sodium:  560 mg
Notable good nutritional content: 30% Vitamin A / 20% Vitamin E / 25% Folic Acid / 50% Manganese
Notes on cooking:   2 minutes, rotate potstickers and cover with sauce, 1 ½ - 2 minutes
Notes on packaging:  black tray, recyclable 

Move Over, Lean Cuisine Paninis!

I stated in an earlier post that I’m not a giant fan of the Lean Cuisine Panini line. The bread just doesn’t cook particularly well in the microwave and I never feel like I’ve consumed enough of a meal.  But when it comes to taste, I think I’ve found an awesome alternative.


I recently enjoyed Stouffer’s Corner Bistro® Chicken Quesadilla Flatbread Melt.  And I should emphasize that I *really* enjoyed it.  The seasoned flatbread was excellent, and unlike the bread of the Lean Cuisine paninis, it was able to achieve the desired texture, moisture, and flavor in the cooking process.  While the ingredients are very similar to the Lean Cuisine ingredients – chicken, roasted red peppers, Poblano peppers and onions – I think there must be *more* here because I felt like I had consumed much more of a complete meal.


However, a glance at the nutritional content begins to explain my enjoyment:

• 370 calories here in contrast to 310 calories in Lean Cuisine
• 15 g of fat here in contrast to 9 g of fat in Lean Cuisine

But truthfully, I think the taste of this one is worth the 60 extra calories and the 15 g of fat (only 6 g saturated fat, by the way).  If you haven’t tried this product, or any of the Stouffer’s flatbread items, I highly recommend you give them a try. 

Details

Calories:  370
Fat:  15 g
Sodium:  640 mg
Notable good nutritional content:   Vitamin C 25% / Calcium 35%
Notes on cooking:   Single 2 ½ minute shot
Notes on packaging:  cardboard box and silver crisping tray; nothing recyclable

Confessions of a Dieter

Here’s a confession:  I went on an actual, follow-the-instructions diet a few weeks ago.  I’d never done this before because – frankly – I never had to.  Not so anymore.  The physical toll of pregnancy added to the fact that I’m not in my twenties anymore elevated the need for a diet – at least, if I wanted to fit into those pre-pregnancy t-shirts.  Also adding to my need for a diet was the fact that I was – and am – still only learning how to buy and prepare food for just one person. 

The diet I followed was the much-publicized, post-holiday Yoplait Two-Week Tune-Up.  The plan is centered - of course - on Yoplait yogurt, which I already eat quite a bit of.  The gist of the plan is to eat a yogurt cup, a serving of fruit, and a grain for both breakfast and lunch; two servings of vegetables as snacks throughout the day; and a sensible, lean-protein dinner, adding additional dairy servings as necessary to achieve the recommended daily allowance. 

I am well aware that dieting only works when it is part of a lifestyle change that also includes exercise.  I think I’m doing pretty well with that.  Never one to refuse fruits and vegetables, I have now made a deliberate choice to always eat these *first* in my food day.  And the exercise has been helped tremendously by my discovery of a couple of well-scheduled group exercise classes at my gym and some work colleagues who have been doing some group P90X workouts midday (thank our work at a university, which affords us some empty classrooms with projectors very near our offices). 

The result?  Well, in five weeks, I’ve lost half of the pounds I’d like to lose to get to that pre-pregnancy weight.  That seems like a good start to me.  More to come…

So all that said, I’ve had little opportunity to enjoy frozen meals, due to all the fresh fruits and veggies.  But I did have the opportunity recently to enjoy Marie Callender’s Penne Chicken Piccata.  As a Marie Callender steamer, it automatically starts with a gold star and after eating it, I’m comfortable leaving the gold star.  This one contained capers, which is a fun, welcomed flavor.  But there weren’t nearly enough of these flavorful gems.  I would have loved more.

This meal is in a white wine lemon butter sauce.  Call me crazy, but I swear that I could actually *feel* the alcohol a little bit.  Maybe the relaxation of a Friday evening caused me to feel this, but I just can’t be sure.  I do know that it was pleasantly flavorful.  The parmesan cheese also added positively to the flavor. 

Overall, I would have preferred more vegetables, but the flavor truly could not be beat. 

Details

Calories:  370
Fat:  14 g
Sodium:  860 mg
Notable good nutritional content:  15% Iron / 10% Calcium / Folic Acid 35%
Notes on cooking:   single shot, 3 ½ - 4 minutes
Notes on packaging:  clear plastic bowl and colander, reusable/recyclable 

I will buy this one again!

This meal, the Healthy Choice Ravioli Florentine Marinara, was delicious, starting with the delightful pillows of spinach-stuffed ravioli.  I have lamented in the past about ravioli not always cooking well in frozen meals.  Perhaps one of the reasons for this is the squared-off corners of most ravioli varieties, which have a tendency to become tough due to overcooking.  This product has rounded ravioli, and it cooked quite well. 

The marinara sauce has both visible spinach and onions in addition to tomatoes; it has a distinct, better-than-your-typical-frozen-meal flavor.  I was surprised to read that the meal only provides 15% of RDA Vitamin A and no other vitamin mentionables, and yet is said to provide 30% of your daily vegetables.  I sense some nutritional research is in my future in order to better understand the nutritional content of these meals and to better plan my daily diet to best include these meals. 

All in all, this was a great meal, and at only 230 calories, I will definitely be buying this one again. 

Details
Calories:  230
Fat:  4 g
Sodium:  540 mg
Notable good nutritional content:  20% Calcium / 50% Manganese / 30% Selenium (What *are* these two things?  I don’t have time to investigate right now!)
Notes on cooking:  2 minutes, stir, 1 ½ - 2 ½ minutes more
Notes on packaging:  black tray, recyclable

Introducing the addition of labels

As a result of a reader suggestion, I’m adding some labeling tags that will make these blog entries sortable in a way useful to all readers.  By selecting any of the labels listed to the right, you can pull up all reviews that have been labeled in a particular way; I've gone back and labeled previous entries.  As you have suggestions about improvement of this labeling, or additional labels that should be added, please let me know.  

Another Marie Callendar Steamer…yum!  

I think I’m in love with Marie Callendar’s Fresh Flavor Steamers.  So far, I think that if I could only have one line of frozen meals for the rest of my life, this would be the line I’d choose.  Of course, I base this gut reaction solely on flavor and overall experience with the meal.  In the final analysis, issues of nutrition and calories must be incorporated into the assessment of the product, and that’s when I get somewhat bummed about these meals.

I recently enjoyed the Fettuccini Chicken Balsamic for the first time. As with the previously reviewed Pasta al Dente Garlic Chicken, the cooking technology is impressive with satisfying, tasty results.  The balsamic taste is wonderful and offhand, I cannot think of another frozen product that boasts balsamic.  However, this product is somewhat lacking in vegetables, causing me to pay close attention to its nutritional labeling, suspecting that it might be lacking anything substantial in terms of vitamin and nutrient content.  Indeed, that proved to be correct.  The vegetables in this product are spinach and mushroom – a tasty combo, but not of enough volume to generate much nutritional content.  Fifteen percent of the RDA of iron and 10% of Vitamin E are the only nutritious elements it boasts.  

Despite my sadness at the lack of nutritional mentionables, there are other positives to this line of products, including this particular meal.  I love that the cooking takes place in one single 3 ½ - 4 ½ minute shot, not even requiring the puncture of the plastic wrap for venting, and the bowl and steaming colander are reusable and recyclable.  

Details

Calories:  440

Fat:  18 g / 0 g trans fat

Sodium:  990 mg

Notable good nutritional content:  15% Iron, 10% Vitamin E

Notes on cooking:  One 3 ½ - 4 ½ minute shot

Notes on packaging:  the bowl and steaming colander are reusable and recyclable

Fond Memories of TV Dinners

My mom cut this article out of PARADE magazine for me a couple weeks ago.  While it is about the TV dinners of old (heat in the oven in just 25 minutes – so simple and quick!) and the author’s childhood fondness of the TV dinner culture, one imagines that the sentiment could hold true for today’s frozen dinners, right?

Well, after I read the article and took a few moments to reflect fondly on my own childhood experiences with TV dinners, I considered the connection.  And there is definitely something lost in translation between the oven-cooked foil-packaged frozen TV dinners that became popular in the 1960s and the frozen meals of today.  In trying to put my finger on it, here’s what I’ve come up with:  it is generally not expected that you eat frozen meals *with* anyone.  Why is that?  Well, it seems as though oven-heated TV dinners could be cooked several at a time in the oven.  By contrast, most microwaves will only accommodate one frozen meal at a time and in the urgent, time-pressed world of 2010, most people simply don’t have time to cook two or more meals back-to-back in the microwave and wait for the second meal to finish cooking in order to enjoy the eating experience together.  Indeed, even when individuals at my office decide to eat lunch together, the experience that transpires is a constant rotation of microwave use and a standing and chatting while one person eats, generally finishing entirely before the other person’s meal has finished cooking. 

Is the missing collective enjoyment of frozen meals an indicator of greater ills in our society?  I certainly hope not, but only time will tell…if any of us have time to wait, that is. 

Do you have fond memories of TV dinners?  Please share them in your comments!

An old favorite of mine

I’ve been so busy trying new meals that I haven’t yet gone back to a favorite to write its review.  Today, though, my meal is an old favorite, Lean Cuisine’s Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Chicken.  Oh, how I love thee!  After pondering it for today’s writing, I believe I like it so much because of the following:

1)   Black olives.  Sure, there may not be many, but you can’t beat the magic of a bite of black olive.

2)   Tomato pesto sauce.  Frozen meals seem to do red sauce the best, but an endless parade of spaghetti-style tomato sauces is a bore.  This one has just enough of the sun-dried tomato flavor to make it interesting.

3)   Cavatappi pasta. There is something about this curly, hollow pasta that makes it a good size and shape for inclusion in a frozen meal – hearty, and never rubbery, in my experience.

4)   Just the right size. This is a lean meal that doesn’t leave me hungry an hour later. 

I have bought this meal again and again, and will continue to do so.  Here are some other details that might help you decide about whether it would be good for you:

Calories: 270

Fat: 9 grams

Notable good nutritional content:  Iron 15%, Vitamin C & A 10%

Notable bad nutritional content:  570 mg sodium

Notes about packaging: black tray, recyclable

Notes on cooking:  4 ½ minutes cooking with one stir after 3 minutes

Welcome to Frozen Culinary 101

Most of us have heard of Julie & Julia, the book-turned-film about a young woman cooking her way through Julia Child’s cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I. It’s a lovely idea, in theory. But as a working professional and a brand-new mom on her own, I have no time for such a thing.

However, a girl’s gotta eat. So I’ve got another idea. I am going to eat my way through the single-serving frozen meal section of my local grocery store and write about it here.

For some time, I’ve been known around the office to be a significant consumer of frozen meals, but until now I’ve stuck to only a few brands and – when considering the vast choices available – only a few meal choices. But at my most recent visit the grocery store I noticed all kinds of red tags in the frozen meal section; quite a number of brands were on sale. So I bought a much wider variety, and I bought *a lot* (hooray for the basement deep freeze).

On Thursday, while enjoying the first of the new-to-me meals, it dawned on me that I don’t have to look upon my consumption of frozen meals with culinary and nutritional shame. It isn’t 1985. A frozen meal isn’t necessarily a slab of turkey meat with separate compartments for some dried peas and even drier mashed potatoes. There are healthy, lean options and “cooking technology” that enables vegetables to taste exponentially better than rubber. It is my hope to identify the better options available and share my findings with anyone interested.

The meal that started it all

The meal I enjoyed on Thursday was Marie Callender’s Pasta Al Dente Penne Garlic Chicken. In addition to the pasta and chicken, the dish included spinach, Roma tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. I must say I was quite impressed by the presence of artichoke hearts – not exactly a staple ingredient of frozen meals – though it should be noted that there were only *two* in my meal.

The chicken was tender and bite-sized, and unlike the artichoke hearts, there was a decent amount of it in this single-serving meal. The penne pasta was of a good consistency, another memorable aspect of this particular meal. I believe the reason for the al dente consistency of the pasta was the fascinating cooking technology utilized in the package. The vegetables, pasta, and chicken were in a colander-like plastic bowl that was nested inside of the actual bowl, with some space between the bottom of the colander and the bowl. In that space was the meal’s sauce, and space for the sauce to steam up through the holes of the colander to appropriately steam the vegetables, pasta, and chicken. Unlike other microwave meal technology I have experienced, this process worked impressively well to create a tasty meal.

It should be noted that the sauce for this meal, while quite tasty, was indeed quite garlicky. Perhaps this makes it not the best choice meal for the afternoon of an important meeting, performance evaluation, or anything involving face-to-face contact.