Two More Frozen Entrées

Trying to diversify my lunch choices, I bought a few different frozen entrées from Albertsons recently. The first one was the Savory Swedish Meatball Bowl. It got a dismal 2.1 ★ on their website, but I thought the dish was pretty good. I am a big fan of Swedish Meatballs from IKEA, and I always get dishes like Beef Stroganoff when it is available at work.

The Marie Calendar’s version of Swedish Meatballs also included some noodles, and looks like this coming out of the microwave oven:

As always, the box photo look 10x better than the actual entrée. For sure I was expecting larger meatballs and the actual paper bowl was disappointedly flimsy. I also wished there was more gravy/sauce in the dish since the noodles were a bit dry. However, the meatballs were better tasting than expected. I also think my microwave puts out more power than the standard 1100 watts since most food start to burn when cooked per package instructions. The noodles were nice and chewy as well. Usually microwaved noodles come out soft and mushy instead. I would have given the entrée a 4 ★ rating, and 10/10 would eat again.

The other frozen entrée I had (today) was the Healthy Choice Crustless Chicken Pot Pie. I usually only get Marie Calendar’s frozen entrées because they taste the best, but they are not the healthiest choice (get it?). Anyway, here is the packaging and entrée in real life:

It is one of those “Café Steamers” things from Healthy Choice. I posted about another entrée about a month ago. Truthfully, I could probably copy/paste the previous post, and it would describe this entrée perfectly. The box photo looks a lot better than the actual food, and seems to have double the amount in the box. There was enough chicken, and the dumplings were not too bad either. Like what I said about the noodles up above, the dumplings were not mushy and had a good al dente feel to them. I did run the microwave at 90% power so that likely prevented some sporadic overcooking. Once again however, the actual taste was pretty bland. There was enough sauce to cover the “steamed” ingredients, but it was not very tasty. Maybe the small size and bland taste is what keeps the entrée healthy?

Here is the nutritional information from both entrées.

Nutritional Item	Marie Calendar’s Savory Swedish Meatball Bowl	Healthy Choice Crustless Chicken Pot Pie
Serving size	326 g	272 g
Calories	460	300
Total Fat	21 g	6 g
Saturated Fat	0.5 g	2 g
Cholesterol	105 mg	85 mg
Sodium	610 mg	600 mg
Total Carbohydrates	47 g	40 g
Dietary Fiber	3 g	3 g
Total Sugars	13 g	4 g
Protein	20 g	21 g
Calcium	90 mg	40 mg
Potassium	390 mg	700 mg

I wrote all the above without looking at the nutritional information first. The meatballs taste better probably because of all that fat! The Healthy Choice entrée is definitely “healthier” but does it override the really bland taste? They are about the same price at the supermarket so I am not sure which one I should get. Probably should just avoid all of them and eat a salad instead.