Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

I eat a lot of Frozen Dinners. I love them. I eat them for lunch. I eat them for dinner. I think of myself as a connoisseur of them. (damned French word! How do you spell it?) I generally don’t pack a lunch, if I do, it’s a frozen dinner. It’s cheaper than the cafeteria, and if it’s not enough food, I will get a small something to supplement my calories.

I am often overwhelmed by the mind-boggling variety of them all. Celentano’s? Or Michelina’s? Stouffer’s or Marie Callender’s? Lean Cuisine or Lean Pockets? What’s a lazy girl to do?

Tonight, I vow to bring you FDR’s, an ongoing series. This is very serious business, for any dedicated frozen dinner eater, you know that there are your tried and true staples, like Stouffer’s Mac & Cheese, but you get tempted by the new flavors our there, Uncle Ben’s Teriyaki Bowl. The problem is, do you know what you are going to get?

I am a sort of picky eater too. I have food allergies, namely to fruit, so I must be careful with spiced apple desserts and extra cranberries tossed on green beans. If you haven’t figured it out from my recipe posts, I am a devout meat eater. The protein is good for me. Though I like some of the veggie bowls out there, I just have to top them with chicken.

What’s the rating system?

* - 1 star - GROSS. Never getting it again

** - 2 stars - I could eat it again if I had to, but only if it’s on sale.

*** - 3 stars - Tasty. But not going to be my first selection, just something to round out the choices.

**** - 4 stars - Really yummy. I’ll be adding it to my fall back list of frozen food so that when I am overwhelmed with choices this will be a default selection which I know I will eat.

So on to tonight’s review!!

Michael Angelo’s Chicken Parmesean

The box was promising. It’s thicker than most boxes. the picture looked good. It took a few minutes longer to prepare than a Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine. 5-7 minutes versus 4-5 minutes. I think my weak microwave overcooked it a bit at 7 minutes, but the meat was fine. It was the sauce that got overdone. There was nice gooey cheese, but not too much, in fact, it could have had a little more.

I didn’t really pay attention when I bought it, so I didn’t know there were spaghetti noodles in the bottom. The chicken was nicely sized, larger than a deck of cards, but about half of what I would normally serve myself. I could have used some more noodles, about 2-3x what was in the box, but for a frozen dinner, it wasn’t an unusually small portion. I would say about average.

How was the price? I got this on sale with my supermarket card, which is how I usually buy my meals. This was a $3.00 meal, but I think it was worth it. Generally I get Stouffer’s or Lean Cuisine for about $2.00-$2.50 a box, depending on the deal that is running. At the original price of $3.99 I wouldn’t buy it, but served with a nice salad and a few slices of bread, it could be a pretty full meal.

I rate this one 4 stars. ****