MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Frozen food that's actually good

Frozen food that's actually good

posted 5 years ago by Catbookss (13664)
119 replies | jump to latest

Or at least decent. A lot of it's terrible.

Marie Callender's chicken pot pies. A bit too much crust for me, but the gravy/sauce is creamy and tasty, the chicken isn't spongy and weird, and the veggies are good for frozen. I've tried many of their others, didn't like them except turkey's okay.

Stouffer's Mac and cheese, done in the oven so the top gets a nice golden brown crust. I don't buy it often but I love it.

Stouffer's chicken ala king with rice. I like it for most of the reasons I like MC's chicken pot pies.

Most all frozen pizzas. The only exceptions are those awful Celeste individual pizzas and Stouffer's French bread pizza. Some are better than others but almost all are at least decent.

Tonight I had a pizza with cauliflower crust, which I wasn't at all sure about getting. It had uncured pepperoni on top and I doctored it up with fresh garlic, fresh basil, fresh zucchini, and (don't everyone groan at once) anchovies. It was good! The crust was slightly strange but if I didn't know, I'd have never guessed it was cauliflower.

[–] Eric56 (4580) 5 years ago

All frozen good that comes in a package or in a box is garbage. Not worth it.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

Thanks for playing. Do you cook?

[–] Quasimodo (16388) 5 years ago

That is not true. I live on frozen vegetables ( among other things ) for example and they are good.

[–] zephyr_cape (2979) 5 years ago

I haven't had anything frozen in a few years so I can't comment on that, but I do want to back you up on the anchovies. Anchovies, jalapenos and pineapple are my go-to pizza toppings. Also someone made a whole thread a bit ago about cauliflower crust and how it's bullshit, but it sounds good to me. I bet a fresh gourmet cauli crust done just right could be unchained af.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

Looks like a lot of people either cook, have someone to cook for them, eat a lot of take-out, or primarily dine in restaurants.

Amazing, another anchovy fan! We're an endangered species, you know. Do you combine those 3 toppings? I'm having trouble wrapping my taste buds around anchovies with pineapple 😊

Missed the cauliflower crust thread. I was worried it might be awful, but the texture was pretty good! And it browned nicely. If a frozen one is this decent, a good fresh one is probably excellent.

[–] zephyr_cape (2979) 5 years ago

Yup! The trifecta of salty-spicy-sweet! The transgressive slice. It’s so good, and horrifies most people. If you are someone who appreciates the beauty of wrongness I recommend it.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 5 years ago

Frozen salmon

[–] somesunnyday (2078) 5 years ago

Frozen pizza is generally terrible. Mac and Cheese is the only thing I can think of that is palatable

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

I haven't had many frozen pizzas I could fairly call terrible. They're never going to be as good as fresh, but considering it's pre-made frozen food, IMO most of them range from okay to good.

[–] Videon (24) 5 years ago

I agree. Frozen pizzas have come a long way. They used to all taste like cardboard.

[–] sslssg (34330) 5 years ago

I think it all depends on where you are and what you can get. Jamie Oliver's Scrumptious Seafood pie is pretty good.

Where I am we have a ton of frozen Asian foods that for a frozen meal are decent. We also have some smaller companies that are breaking out of the farmers markets and into grocery store freezers. Can get many things from hand pies, to curries, to ukranian food, to hummus.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

Probably it does. Jamie Oliver's Scrumptious Seafood pie sounds good. What's in it?

The frozen Asian food here is consistently terrible. I just bought a chicken Pad Thai to give it a try, but my expectation are low. The former farmer's market small companies' frozen food sounds promising. We don't have any of that here. There's one small organic/vegan company that's easy to get but I haven't been impressed with any of the dishes I've tried.

[–] sslssg (34330) 5 years ago

I just looked to see if I could find the ingredients and it looks like the chain has discontinued it. Ugh. I'll have to add it to my book of products I love that get discontinued.

I think it had a béchamel sauce with haddock, scallops, carrots, onion, spinach maybe? and topped with mashed potatoes.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

🙁 I hate when that happens. It sounds good. Like a seafood shepherd's pie.

[–] sslssg (34330) 5 years ago

I once wrote a facebook message to a grocery store chain in my country telling them how much I loved one of their products they wrote back thanking me and saying they loved it too. Two months later they discontinued it. Since it was their store brand, I couldn't get it elsewhere.

A lot of my friends have starting joking that they don't want me to like anything they like because I seem to have the ability to get things discontinued at a disproportionate rate. 🤷‍♀️

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

😐 Thanks, grocery store.

Maybe you can get away with liking things as long as you don't say it out loud, or type it 😄

We've got a great chain of small grocery stores here called Trader Joe's. They have all kinds of great things, most of them at very reasonable prices. Some things they carry for a long time, others (some of my favourites) disappear, never to be seen or eaten again :(

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

anchovies are unfairly maligned, and are a great topping in moderation.

i basically agree that frozen dishes are usually just fine & often quite good, but i try to keep a very, very tight rein on my food budget, so almost any kind of pre-made, prepped food is off limits for me. the only real exceptions are the vegetarian hamburgers from the frozen section i'll occasionally indulge in.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

Anchovies are one of those things people either love or hate, and most people hate them. Too salty and fishy for most, I expect. I love them but yes they do need to be used moderately.

I admire your ability to stay on budget and (I assume) cook fresh for yourself. I don't have a kitchen in my current temporary place, so either it's what I can make on a hot plate or microwave, or take-out. I don't eat a lot of frozen because most of it I can't get enthused about and I prefer fresh. Only buy it on sale, but it is nice to have when I'm not up for the no-kitchen cooking challenge :)

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

i do try to cook almost exclusively from fresh foods, or at least 'non-premade' foods. i buy lots of frozen vegetables so i don't have to fret about them going bad on me.

that has to be tough & really quite a drag living without a kitchen. i hope that's very short term for you.

[–] Mrmojo4700 (21542) 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 10200 (656) 5 years ago

I use very little frozen food, but occasionally I have had a few Stouffer's side dishes and think they are fairly good.

I use frozen pie crusts when I have big family dinners just to save time. They are nothing like homemade, but my group doesn't seem to notice.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

Stouffer's makes a decent spinach soufflé, too. You've probably had that.

Never made a pie. What kinds do you make? Edwards has a very good frozen key lime pie with a graham cracker crust (my favourite).

[–] BuckSwope (3511) 5 years ago

The spinach soufflé is great. One of my favorite frozen meals is Michael Angelo's eggplant parm.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

It is good. Never had Michael Angelo's eggplant parm. Will give that a try. Thanks :)

If you have a Trader Joe's in your area, they make a good eggplant parm. Their spinach lasagna is good too.

[–] BuckSwope (3511) 5 years ago

No trader joes where I live now. I miss it!

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

😢

When I first moved here, one of the reasons I was reluctant was because there wasn't any TJ's.

[–] BuckSwope (3511) 5 years ago

I do have a fresh market that is good but pricey. The publix is good as well but also pricey.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

Publix is pricey? I have a friend who for many years lived in FL and used to talk about shopping there. I assumed it was a low to medium priced place. Obviously I assumed wrong.

[–] BuckSwope (3511) 5 years ago

The one I shop at is rather upscale, but I live in a tourist town.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

Maybe they have different price points at different locations? Or, I just assumed the wrong thing 😊

I also live in a tourist town. Isn't winter great? Or maybe where you live winter's the height of tourist season.

[–] BuckSwope (3511) 5 years ago

I'm in Kitty Hawk so yeah it's dead now and I love it. Where are you at?

And I do believe the area the store is in makes a difference in what they carry and their pricing.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

A California beach town, so I get it. It's so nice and peaceful in the winter.

Probably. Grocery store and gas prices are higher here, and rent is insane 😮

[–] BuckSwope (3511) 5 years ago

I left Cali because of the cost of living.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

Yeah, it's nuts. I'm still investigating other places to live.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 5 years ago

> One of my favorite frozen meals is Michael Angelo's eggplant parm.

I can't exactly concur with that. I tried it for the first time a few days ago. Did everything exactly according to directions. When I pulled it out of the oven, parts of the top were burned. And the plastic tray was a little melted around the top edges.

The oven is almost new and I've verified with a thermometer that the temperature is what it's supposed to be, so that can't have been the reason.

To give them due credit -- I salvaged what was edible out of it, and it was tasty. And I tried another Michael Angelo dish later on -- chicken piccata, IIRC -- and it didn't have those problems.