Frozen Dinners Club

So, that's right. I have now become an official member of the "Frozen Dinners Club." You might not have heard of it, but you can spot its members scourging the frozen food isle of your local grocery store for entrees that all boast less than 400 calories. What are they looking for? Well, as I discovered the other day in my local Shaws (which I never shop at unless desperate, and people with broken feet are indeed desperate) they look for sales. Then they look for dinners that tempt their appetites (and in my case, minimal amounts of processed meat). This particular day, last Sunday, Shaws was offering 5 Lean Cuisine entrees for $10, and 3 Kashi entrees for $10. Not bad, said I, and with a desire to continue the minimization of dealing with hot pans and crutches simultaneously, I swung open the glass door and felt the cool air of the freezer.

I was struck by all the choices. So many brands, and so many options even within one brand (I was trying to limit myself to Lean Cuisine and Kashi). These are not the T.V. dinners I heard about as a kid. When I heard "T.V. dinner" as a child, I pictured a meal void of creativity, like meat loaf and mashed potatoes. "T.V. dinners" were also colorless, or all one color. So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw the abundance of color and variety of the frozen entrees. Here are some of the dinners I chose:

Butternut Squash Ravioli (in a creamy sauce with walnuts, snap peas and carrots)

Mayan Harvest Bake

Classic Five Cheese Lasagna

Black Bean Mango

Tuscan Veggie Bake

And the truth is, they are pretty good. The Mayan Kashi meal was pretty tasty even though it didn't look so hot when I first pulled off the film. I must say, though, my chicken in tonight's chicken alfredo with broccoli was definitely processed, and they could have left the "broccoli" off the label because there wasn't much to speak of. I won't be buying that again. But the ravioli just might get a second chance.

Three things left to say. One, I wonder if I am going to get cancer from all this microwaving plastic dishes (sometimes 8 minutes!). Two, I feel slightly embarrassed that there are now two black plastic bowls waiting to go into recycling, and more on the way. Sort of like I have abandoned the natural way of eating, and the evidence stares me in the face whenever I open the refrigerator. Ugh! Three, I now understand better, sympathize with, and don't feel as sorry for all those single guys out there who live off of these meals. You guys have it pretty good, and with sales like 5 for $10, it's almost not worth the hassle of fresh ingredients.

My stomach is making funny hunger noises, almost if my 320 calorie meal wasn't enough... imagine that!