I tried a TV dinner way back in the 70's, and I wasn't impressed. I remember that back then you put the TV dinners in the oven. I'm not sure when they started making the.microwaveable dinners. Nor do I know if you can still even get the kind that went into a regular oven. Anyway TV dinners have been stuffing my chest freezer now for about a year. It turns out that my grandson, Bobert, grew up on sandwiches and TV dinners. Even when he just wants macaroni and cheese it's a microwave kind. He even scrambles his eggs in the microwave. I've tried to cook for him, and I know he appreciates everything I fix when he has company, but the majority of what he eats are TV dinners and microwaveable boxed edibles. I have shown him how to broil hamburgers, fry up bacon, and how to cook pizzas in the oven, but other than that he's ever ready to grab one of his TV dinners. And, he likes them!!! So my friends, please educate me on todays TV dinners, good or bad.
Well @Ina I. Wonder TV dinners are quick with the exception of the waiting time. I remember how they were oven prepared as well. Now days it's the convenience and the wide range of choices available. I believe your grandson just has a habit that is not easily changeable and not to worry as long as his choices are healthy,
One thing for sure, lots of sodium in TV dinners. We only get two types of TV dinners, I will get the Marie Calendar Chicken and my wife gets a lasagna dinner. We use to buy Pot Pies as well, but just too much sodium in them also. My wife really doesn't like to cook that much, so when her son was alive, she would make him a tv dinner quite often. She has told me, "Chuck would've loved your cooking, Honey". I remember, for a number of years, for Thanksgiving I'd get a Swanson Turkey TV dinner.
Thank you @Von Jones and @Cody Fousnaugh. The sodium doesn't bother me so much mainly because my doctor keeps telling me I need to add salt to my diet. I think I've bought maybe one box of salt in the last five or so years, so that isn't as much of a drawback as it might be for someone else, and Bobert doesn't use any extra salt or pepper either. Bobert has talked me into eating one of the Stoffer"s (?) lasagna dinners, one of the TV dinners, and one of the pot pies. I found that the taste was much better than I remembered, or my taste buds have drastically changed. But I also remember way back when the reviews on TV dinners were pretty bad. So of course I was worried about Bobert eating so much of that kind of food. He likes Hungry Man or Marie Calendar's meal and side dishes mostly. I've also noticed that TV dinners are starting to label some of their products as having less or even with no additives. Since Bobert will not eat any leftovers, and I find it difficult to cook without leaving any, the TV dinners seem to be the most cost effective way to feed him. I still feel as if TV dinners are not very nutritional, but Bobert is set on having them, so I thought I'd ask you fine folk.
We have frozen dinners often but we freeze leftovers from home cooked meals, Haven't had a store bought tv dinner in at least 30 years.
We also freeze some of our meals for later, just like Sheldon does, and otherwise we usually buy everything fresh and cook it ourselves. I understand that sometimes a person just does not have the time to cook a meal, and we do buy the frozen DeGiorno pizzas at Sam's Club, and so when we just want something quick and easy we will heat one of those up occasionally. However, that is not the same as eating a TV dinner every night. I never thought that they tasted very good in the first place, plus anything that was processed that much so that it could keep indefinitely, has to not be healthy to eat. Then, I read about most of the frozen food products being processed in China with not very good sanitation practices, and that was enough to convince me that it was not something I wanted to eat. We send over the raw frozen food, like chicken, to China. They then cook it, mechanically de-bone it, and grind it up and then process it into chicken nuggets, which they sell back to our American companies, and we re-package it under our American brands and make it part of a frozen dinner, or frozen package of chicken nuggets. I have seen the pictures of the dead animals and raw sewage in the rivers in China, and eating anything that comes from there does not appeal to me at all. When I shop, I usually only buy from the aisle of fresh foods, and even those are sometimes shipped here from another country; but at least I can see the product in its original form, and not how it looks after food processing.
I used to like TV dinners and pot pies, but that's when the alternative, as far of my repertoire of cuisine went, was Campbell's soup and Chef Boyardee. I still don't mind the taste of some of it, but I have no illusions as to the health benefits and detriments, so that doesn't happen often. I was sad when they quit putting a bottom crust on the pot pies, however.
There are some good alternatives to the frozen TV Dinners of any kind". I have used freshly.com several times and am impressed with the quality, choices & nutrition and the fact that the meals can be ordered on line. www.freshly.com
I used to love Banquet TV dinner chicken, and probably still would. DiGiorno pizza is very good for frozen pizza, although it's easier to eat it if you heat it up first.
@Ken Anderson , the pot pie that Bobert fixed me, Marie Calendar, had a crust all round. Actually too much crust for me.
I can tell you one thing about TV dinners. With a very delicate system such as my 93 year old mothers, when I am too exhausted to make dinner and the few times I have opted to give her a TV dinner, watch out! No delicate way to put this - but she blasts out of her diaper with uncontrollable diarrhea. That tells me everything I Need to know about TV dinners. No more. Lol
OK ... @Lakely Forest , that's enough said for me. I do wonder what my grandson sees in them, he eats at least one a day. Yuk!! I'd rather have fast food than TV dinners, him too, but I can't afford to feed him that way, even if I would. Good to see you!!
I generally just cook up an extra meal or two or a couple of side dishes on the weekend for when I don't want to cook during the week. The only thing I do have frozen is pizza.
While we all seem to be pretty much in agreement that frozen TV dinners don't have much nutrients left in them, and are not healthy food; there is another side to this issue. It is also important to enjoy what we eat, and not be feeling bad or guilty when we are eating, because that will upset digestion also. If you are living such a busy life that you do not have time to actually prepare healthy meals, then that probably means that you have been doing other things that are just as important in your life, and just can't fit everything into the day. And sometimes, we are just too tired and worn out to cook. On days when I spend hours outside working in the yard, when I come back inside, I just want a hot shower and relax, and not be in the kitchen cooking. That is when it is nice to have that easy-to-do meal, and we keep plenty of food around just for those times when we do not feel like cooking. It might not be the best plan in the world; but what I do is buy the freshest foods that we can afford, so that when we do prepare foods, they are healthy for us. I also usually get things that are easy to fix, and lots of fresh foods that can be eaten raw, which I know is the very healthiest food we can eat. That way, we are eating healthy foods most of the time, and it is not a big deal on days when we are too tired to cook, or just had too busy of a day. It seems like Bobert is learning a lot about living a full life right now, and learning to enjoy new foods will probably be one of those good experiences for him. He might be stuck in the old ways right now, @Ina I. Wonder ; but once he expands his "food horizons", he will be thanking you for teaching him that there are so many wonderful foods that he has never even had a chance to try before.