Keeping up with all of the demands of daily living can really wear a person down. One area where people tend to cut out time and effort is on lunch or dinner. This can sometimes hurt a person more than help. Yes, we save time by grabbing something quick and cheap, but sometimes our bodies need more nutrition than what we are giving them.
If you must just grab something, think about grabbing a frozen dinner made by Marie Callender’s. These meals will cost about $5 each, which sounds expensive for a frozen dinner, but consider that driving through a fast food place will cost you about the same or a little more. I can also catch these frozen dinners on sale at Kroger for about $2.99. That makes them a great deal!
In this meal, I have turkey breast with stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy and green beans with cranberries. It is 14 oz of food, which is enough for the average person. The chunks of turkey breast are fantastic! They are not thin slices of what might be turkey, they are big chunks of the real thing! It’s not too dry or mushy and it does not taste as if it comes from a frozen dinner. This turkey tastes like you just sliced it off of the Thanksgiving turkey. Yes, it is that good.
The rest of the meal does a great job complimenting the turkey. The stuffing is not like the dry squares of croutons, but like a real homemade dressing. The green beans do not have that frozen taste to them, but are very fresh and are flavored with the cranberries. The mashed potatoes and gravy isn’t all watery like some frozen meals can be. They taste like they were just whipped up in the kitchen.
As far as nutrition is concerned, they offer a chart right on the front of the box that tells you how much of the daily recommended daily servings you’ll get from this one meal. For mine, it was 10% of daily grains, 40% of of daily veggies, and 45% of daily meat.
I also checked out the back of the box for more information on what I’m actually getting from this one meal. It has 350 calories, 90 of those are from fat. Total fat is 10g: saturated fat is 2.5g and trans fat is 0 g. Cholesterol is 40mg, sodium is 1340mg, potassium 870mg. Total carbohydrate is 41g with dietary fiber 8g, sugars 5g and protein 23g. So, overall, I think this meal is more nutritious than most frozen meals, although you still really need to watch carefully. Each meal will be different. Those that are diabetic or have other health issues will need to read the label closely and follow your doctor’s dietary directions.
The meal is easy to cook and only takes about 5 minutes in the microwave. Compare that to 5 to 10 minutes sitting in a drive-thru and I think you’ll see your time is wisely spent cooking a meal yourself.
I recommend trying these frozen meals. Not only are they affordable and time saving, but they are a healthier choice for our always busy world.
