Marie Calendar Frozen Meals

Heh. I used to eat a lot of these when I was living alone. It was a quick and cheap meal but it’s been many years since I’ve eaten one. After my failed experiment with Freshly food delivery, I went to the local Alberston’s and bought a few frozen entrées. They were three for $10 so much cheaper than the food delivery services. I had this for lunch:

It was okay. Their website showed a rating of 3/5 stars, and it was appropriate. The taste was fine but they put the turkey and the mashed potato in the same divider. Instructions said to mix it after four minutes, then heat for 3 minutes more. Well, the gravy all melted with the mashed potatoes so it’s more runny that pictured. Since it was frozen, it took longer to cook in the microwave compared with Freshly, but the results were about the same. Here’s the nutritional information from the box:

Nutrition Item	Baked Turkey	%DV
Serving Size	369 g
Calories	260
Total Fat	6 g	8%
Saturated Fat	3.5 g	18%
Trans Fat	0 g
Cholesterol	45 mg	19%
Sodium	1,040 mg	45%
Total Carbohydrates	31 g	11%
Dietary Fiber	5 g	18%
Total Sugars	6 g	10%
Protein	19 g	24%
Vitamin D	0 mcg
Calcium	30 mg	2%
Iron	0.7 mg	4%
Potassium	750 mg	15%

It didn’t taste that salty but taste can be deceptive. The sodium and potassium numbers are higher than I’d like but acceptable if I watch what I ate for dinner. Again, for $3.34, it was not too bad.

I took three Renvela 800 mg tablets before eating since I don’t have the phosphorus numbers, and I’m cheating by drinking a can of Coke along with the frozen meal.

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I’m old. When I was growing up, we used to call these TV dinners. This was before the microwave oven was invented so everything had to be cooked in a conventional oven. The dinners were in aluminum trays covered by foil. For stuff like baked desserts and tater tots, you had to remove the foil over those compartments so it would come out browned and crispy. My favorite brand were the Hungry Man dinners from Swanson, especially the beef pot pie. Yum!

And everyone’s favorite…

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Another memory. Since my sister and I grew up as latchkey kids, we would come home after elementary school to an empty apartment (parents were working late), and often I would have to “cook” dinner for both of us. One of my favorite TV dinners was the pot pie from Swanson/Hungry Man. I believe there was both turkey and beef. I would have to go into the oven for about 45 minutes and invariably, the gravy would spill out so I always had to lay down a sheet of aluminum foil. I think we had to use a fork to jab the crust as well so some of the steam could escape. This was in the late 70’s and early 80’s so about 40 years ago.