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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsMichelina's TV Dinners *rant*
I've been on the run all week, and knew I would be so I bought a few of these dinners.
There isn't enough in them to feed a fly!
Cheese manicotti - that I swear to GOD don't ever buy - with the diameter of a piece of string cheese, and only two, at that. Who in the hell does that? Tasty, but damn, they should have just shot some macaroni full and called it a day.
*end rant*
Their macaroni and cheese tastes okay but the portion is eensy.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)but damn, that's the skimpiest portion of food I've ever seen. "Let Mama feed you". If you want "Mama" to freaking starve you to death.
easychoice
(1,043 posts)CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)I understand the need for convenience in a busy world but uuughh. Factory food is disgusting.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)Last edited Fri Jul 25, 2014, 07:19 PM - Edit history (1)
but I knew I would be horrifically busy this week so I bought them for lunch. It's either that or fast food, and while I can handle Taco Bell, I prefer something a bit healthier. It said broccoli on the package of the chicken alfredo and I said "Okay". I didn't realize that there would be one sprig of broccoli the size of my fingernail, about twelve noodles and some alfredo sauce. Oh, I think there might have been poultry in there, but if so, it was from a hummingbird. They probably made 4 dinners out of a single hummingbird.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)They are totally tasteless as are most TV dinners.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)But, of course, when you are hungry and there is just enough in there to tease you, it's hard to form much of an opinion.
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)if you define "Family" as "Me". My wife and kid can get their own damn family.
But the white cheddar mac and cheese is pretty darn good. I'm not sharing.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)Processed food, even the frozen stuff, usually has huge amounts of salt.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)I don't know if there was enough room for 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)because there was so little food in there, a mouse could starve.
Response to Aerows (Reply #12)
Jenoch This message was self-deleted by its author.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)an empty box.
alarimer
(16,245 posts)For that reason and because they never turned out well. They certainly never look like the picture on the package.
I found a website called Budget Bytes. http://www.budgetbytes.com/
A lot of the stuff on there is really easy and fast. I love the dragon noodles.
Plus I make one of her pasta dishes and it feeds me for literally days. I only cook once or twice a week that way.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)I do like to cook, but I get busy and when I know I'm going to get overwhelmed I don't want to resort to fast food. I'll try that, thanks for the link.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)I think is the tip-off that the actual product won't look anything like the photo.
MissB
(15,805 posts)tried from her website is excellent. And I just found her website last week!!
I'm planning on making the dragon noodles this weekend, just don't have any lo mein noodles on hand.
Love her blanco burritos (as does my teenager), chicken taco bowls, naan, tandoori chicken, quick curried chickpeas, and lemon blueberry cornbread.
chknltl
(10,558 posts)Thanks to your link I'll be doing their Pesto Ricotta pasta salad tomorrow!
as a thank you, let me share an old family recipe that may work for you, it is easy to make, quite cheap, has a refrigerated shelf life of a few days and is super yummy: Creamed Eggs on Toast. You can find many variation of this on line, Google it and try one you like. Here is our family's basic recipe:
Ingredients:
Cube of butter
Two cans of condensed milk, (unsweetened, I like Carnation but any brand should do)
flour
12-18 Hard Boiled Eggs
Toasted bread or muffins, (I prefer plain old toasted white bread)
Salt n Pepper to your taste
(add any spice you like to suit your taste too, also check out the various suggestions online for Creamed Eggs on Toast where there are a surprising variety of ways to 'jazz up' this easy dish)
Boil n peel the Eggs first.
Read the rest of this before you actually do it.
Melt the butter on low heat in a large sauté pan that has a lid, (the lid is for later when you put what you don't eat in the refrigerator, this recipe should be good for at least two to three meals if prepared for one person).
When the butter is melted add flour to make a rue. Keep the heat on low and stir in flour with a fork, DO NOT LET FLOUR/BUTTER mixture stick to bottom of pan. (As to how much flour to add: you don't want it clumpy, nor do you want it runny, it took me a while to get it right but if the end product tastes too flour-y for your taste add a bit less next time, too butter-y add a little more flour next time. This whole recipe is meant to suit your tastes and you should have it dialed in by the second time and be improving on it after that!)
As soon as you have incorporated your flour with the melted stick of butter into a rue, start stirring in your first can of Condensed Milk- you can pour the entire can in if you like. Turn the heat up to medium but keep stirring with a fork to keep things from settling and scorching on the bottom of the pan. This 'sauce' will thicken over the next five or so minutes and as it does you need to add that second can of Condensed Milk.
As you stir in the Condensed Milk, take small breaks and slice in an egg or two being sure to crumble up the yolks as much as possible. I have a system where I slice in two eggs, stir, add more Condensed Milk to thin it out, stir some more, slice up two more of the eggs and repeat till all the ingredients are in the pan. As I do this I try to make sure that the egg yolks are as incorporated with the sauce as possible, when I stir I sometimes squish the larger fragments up with my fork on the side of the pan, imo, the yolks create a nice velvety texture to the sauce when blended in.
Now stick some bread in the toaster. I bought a toaster that can give me four standard slices just for this particular meal. Turn the stove off, stir a bit more to ensure nothing has stuck to the bottom of the pan. When the toast pops, stick one slice on the plate, almost cover it with your creamed eggs, stack a second slice on top of this and add more creamed eggs on that. Season with salt n pepper and put the lid on your pot of Creamed Eggs to keep it warm while you go try a very yummy meal. Refrigerate whatever you don't eat. Whenever you wish to recook this, it will be very thick, add just a little milk and slowly mix it while heating it back up on medium-low heat.
For my personal tastes I like to mix the salt in while cooking and I add fresh cracked black pepper to the top of each serving. My sister does her recipe the same way but she adds a little Johnnies Seasoning salt while it is cooking, my brother doesn't do the Seasoning Salt but instead adds a cube of chicken bouillon while it is cooking. The final product should look like this but in my version the yolks are incorporated with the sauce:
Here is a wiki link for more inspiration: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creamed_eggs_on_toast, there are tons more links too.
A yummy dish that will feed one for two or three days in a row that costs under 15$. Conversely a yummy cheap dish recipe that can be expanded to feed many people, and a quick n easy emergency meal for the line cook providing crew meals, (My Father could and often did with a little help whip up a large enough batch to serve over a hundred hungry mouths in short order).
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)Who one earth expects anybody to be filled on that!?
discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,479 posts)My comment on Michelina's and most of the diet dinners is that they're like minimum wage jobs, if you have 2 or 3 you're eating okay.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)Seriously, I was shocked. There is practically nothing in them. Tasty, what is there, but hell, not enough for anybody to know they actually ate something.
Brother Buzz
(36,416 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)I'm cooking and freezing leftovers.
DebJ
(7,699 posts)I'm constantly having to leave the state the last few years to help with various family matters.
Getting ready to leave is a huge ordeal taking me two full days to get ready because my hubby
has kidney disease, and all his stuff HAS to be made from scratch, weighed or counted or measured,
every bite, and it's six meals a day. By the time I finish HIS stuff just so I can leave town for 4 days,
(that's 24 meals all portioned out) I don't want to even THINK about what I need to bring with me to eat. I can't eat the same diet he does; the potassium restrictions needed to save his life would end mine. So I have a separate diet. I'm always having to cook for one and it's a pain in the butt. I used to manage restaurants so
this was a challenge; I'm inclined to cook for anywhere from 10 to 100.
So, once a month I have a cook-for-me day.
Meats:
I take a pound of hamburger, cook four burgers, and freeze them for easy nuking later. I use a new product Ziploc portion bags to store them individually, then since these are cheaper, flimsier bags I put all the burgers in a heavy duty freezer Ziploc .(Make the fat not flat and they are much better when nuked.)
I'll use another pound of burger to make Manwiches, which gives me five meals worth.
I buy a large size pasta sauce and then use snack size portion bags to portion it, then put the portion
bags in a heavy duty freezer zip bag.
I also do tacos and make five portions. Both the tacos and manwiches are good over the rice; I throw in some frozen peas or brocolli, too, when I reheat.
Every other month or so I buy a large pack of chicken breasts (when on sale for 1.99/lb), and I bake them all in the oven with about 1/2 inch of non-fat milk in the bottom of the baking dish (milk helps them stay moist). After they cool, I cut them up in 3 oz portions and bag with the cheapo bags inside a heavy one. Then I can make a quick chicken salad, or heat the chicken and use a variety of sauces for it, or throw it on some lettuce with tomato and cukes and some dressing and just have bread on the side. Or I can add it to the pasta or rice.
Starches:
Once a month I make enough rice for the month for both of us (whole grain brown rice which takes longer to cook), and freeze it in 1/2 cup portions.
I do the same with pasta. I cook it, then place it on a cookie sheet to dry some more (when there's been a lot of water in it I actually used my hair dryer to blow some of it off LOL), then freeze large size portions and smaller size portions. It thaws overnight or else I can nuke it 30 seconds and it will thaw in another 15 minutes or so and still be cold enough for pasta salad.
I love only washing the rice and pasta pots once a month!
I premake mashed potatoes also and freeze individual portions. I also have a simple recipe from Facebook where you dip thick cut potato slices in olive oil, put shredded Parmesan on them (shredded, not grated) or some sharp cheddar is better, bake on a cookie sheet. Then I freeze these portions too (I usually reheat them in the oven not the micro for better quality). That takes care of all my starches.
Since I have everything packed separately, I can mix and match the meats and the starches and then just add a vegetable and/or fruit. Everything is easily nuked; no pots or pans to worry with and little clean up.
Other quickie meals with stuff on hand: I buy a few of the huge baking potatoes and keep them on hand; nuke them and add good quality cheddar cheese and brocolli or another vegetable.
Cottage cheese and fruit and some nice whole grain crackers does well in hot weather for me.
I travel so much I need to add to my list of premades; it's getting boring. But it works.
Seeing how my husband's salt addiction destroyed his blood pressure and his kidneys, I never want to eat out at a restaurant or do premade food. I've been on a lower salt diet for so many years most potato chips burn my tongue now....I take five of them and I'm done.
Do I need to add this is much cheaper than frozen dinners?
Mr.Bill
(24,282 posts)They only cost a buck, eat two or three.