Frozen Goodness?

During my weekend window shopping trip, I definitely noticed a much wider variety of healthy frozen entrees. Many of the new products I scoped out were made with whole grains, lots of veggies, lean proteins, and fresh herbs and spices – nice! I wouldn’t necessarily advocate eating frozen meals every night, but they can make a great alternative to the drive through when you’re in a time crunch (or a good emergency back-up when you’re too exhausted to even slap together a sandwich).

To pass my nutrition test, frozen meals have to meet the following criteria:
-400 calories or less
-Under 5 g of saturated fat
-0 grams of trans fat
-Made with whole grains
-5 or more grams of fiber
-Has an ingredient list you can actually pronounce!

Based on the above, here are 3 that scored an A:

Seeds of Change - Moroccan Lentil Tagine
Calories - 320
Saturated fat - 1 gram
Trans fat - 0 grams
Fiber - 8 grams
First 5 ingredients: Cooked linguini (semolina wheat flour, water), roasted tomatoes (roasted tomatoes, tomato juice, kosher sea salt, citric acid), cooked lentils, roasted onions, water…

Amy's - Brown Rice, Black-Eyed Peas & Veggies Bowl
Calories - 290
Saturated fat - 1.5 gram
Trans fat - 0 grams
Fiber - 8 grams
First 5 ingredients: Organic brown rice, filtered water, organic black-eyed peas, organic broccoli, organic mushrooms…

Kashi - Lime Cilantro Shrimp
Calories - 250
Saturated fat - 2 gram
Trans fat - 0 grams
Fiber - 6 grams
First 5 ingredients: Cooked Kashi® Pilaf (water, whole: oats, long grain brown rice, rye, hard red winter wheat, triticale, buckwheat, barley, sesame seeds), water, shrimp, carrots, red bell peppers…

What’s your opinion of frozen dinners? Do you use them? Please share your thoughts.

photo courtesy of Geek Philosopher

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