Healthy Choice, Smart Ones, and Lean Cuisine are rip offs!

Ok so maybe every meal isn't a rip off, but it's amusing to me that most 88 cent Banquet meals have less calories than do the meals listed above...that cost much more. Give me the cheap stuff with less calories any day!!!

They are also full of way too much sodium and tend to have a whole lot of chemicals and sugar. Best to stay away from frozen meals if possible. Some of the least nutritious food you can eat, in reality! Even if the name says "Healthy".

Actually, if a product says "Healthy" or "Diet" or "Light" those are pretty much code words for "hidden badness stay away!"

This is the one change I KNOW I need to make in my diet, but thus far, convenience has won out over health. Time for a change!

I'm sorry but lean Cuisine is a gourmet meal compared to Banquet, YUCK!!! lol

It seems hard, but once you get used to it, it isn't going to ruin your day to spend 30 min a night in the kitchen OR a few hours on Sunday Definitely took me a long time to get there too.

I relied on them at first to keep my portions under control, but as I have progressed I find I am getting pickier about what I eat, and I don't do the frozen meals anymore...there is sooo much sodium in them!!

Since I'm handicapped and have to eat salt (yuck), I eat the frozen dinners like lean cuisine, etc. I even have to add salt to them. In winter, it's safe for me to fix. Now it's spring and soon to be summer. I eat salads about every other day. I don't miss the hot meals.

I can't even eat them anymore. The veggies are wet and limp, pastas taste like dishwater, and like k8yk said, OMG the sodium. If I eat one now I can't get my wedding ring off for 2 days.

I prep one day a week. I put single servings of whatever meats into freezer bags and freezer to microwave containers; they get pulled the day before I use them which works great for marinades. You can even get the cheaper stew meat, pour in some vinaigrette, toss it in the freezer. Get it out Monday, (use it within 4-5 days), when you're ready remove & wrap loosely in foil, bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. While that's cooking steam your veggies, make your salad, microwave your baked potato, whatever and you're done. Make double amounts and put together your lunch while you're getting the rest of dinner ready. Check out Green Giant's "Simply Steam" line, the sauces are lighter and while still sodium heavy can help make the transition and learn what kind of flavors you like together. They even have individual boxes you can take to work with whatever leftover proteins you had the night before.

Even easier, lets say Sunday you make spaghetti sauce in the crock pot using lots of pureed veggies and cook a roast in the oven. Ball makes awesome 8 oz freezer to microwave cups. When your sauce cools, put it into the cups and make pasta while your roast is cooking. It will take you as long to grab a handful of pasta and your sauce as a Lean Cuisine box. Your roast can be used in salads, on top of steamed veggies (mix it in the sauce!), sandwiches, or anywhere else you want protein. Same with baked chickens, meatloaf, and veggie lasagna. The 2 hours prep you spend one day a week will allow you to have the food you *want*, not the food you're stuck with because you're busy. You shouldn't be punished for being busy!