Unless you’re on front lines of a battlefield.
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After their second Marie Calanders meal even those at the frontlines might decide to go into their next fight with an empty stomach
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I’m either lucky or picky with my frozen food purchases because there are very few I would classify as garbage.
However at the bottom of my list are almost all Trader Joe’s Chinese frozen entrees, which are uniformly sickly sweet. (They have a devoted following, nonetheless, which just goes to show there are lots of different palates and opinions out there and on here too.)
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I hate the mushy texture of frozen breaded/battered fish fillets. I’ve tried a lot of varieties. I’ve switched to fish sticks. Gorton’s, either the regular or cod fish sticks aren’t bad.
I’ve given up on frozen Mexican dinners. There are some Mexican-ish rice bowls that aren’t too bad, but dinners like those enchiladas have just gotten worse and worse over the years.
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The not good frozen foods for me are most products from M&M Meats, a shop that sells almost entirely frozen foods in Canada.
I like lots of frozen foods.
The stuff at the Polish, Greek, Asian and Middle Eastern markets can be great!
Lately, the St Hubert’s (in Canada) already cooked pork ribs are a staple. Dumplings, perogies, spring rolls, ginger beef, Burek. I like Amy’s Mexican dinners and Thai bowls.
I think we already have a thread for the good frozen stuff! The one you started 
Your Fav Prepared Frozen Foods…
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The frozen avocado chunks I got at Aldi once (for reasons that elude me RN) were revolting.
I don’t buy a lot of prepared frozen foods save for very few reliable staples (like L&W fries, or TJ’s soup dumplings or stuff like that).
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Agree. Do you think it’s because those dishes typically are prepared in smaller batches and don’t meet the description of processed foods—that is, without preservatives and with the quality of ingredients we’d use at home?
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No idea! The client base might also expect better food for their money!
The frozen burek,
Tiropita and spanakopita from Greece and Cyprus is better than a lot of home cook’s versions!
Also, some Italian stores in Toronto have excellent frozen veal parm, lasagna, pastas, rice balls, etc. probably because that’s what the client base wants.
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How could I forget frozen ravs? A place in Philly makes the best ricotta/ricotta spinach ravioli. We always grab a couple packs when we visit.
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Frozen ice cream has rarely, if ever, failed me.
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Have you tried NO KNEAD? This method is both fool-prove and stupid easy. No stress, no physical effort. Patience required while the bread works its own magic. This is our go-to method.
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Remembering Lucca Ravioli in the SF Bay Area. Those were good! I swear I was eating those as a toddler.
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What do people think of Stouffer’s? A friend and her husband love the mac and cheese, and the meatloaf. I’ve had the spinach souffle in the distant past and loved it.
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Definitely agree on the Gorton’s. I always enjoyed breaded frozen fish sticks and fillets as a kid - kind of a treat growing up in a poor household - and at least for a while as a young adult in the Army. But I’ve rarely bought them thereafter.
Maybe 6 months ago my local grocery had all things Gorton on BOGO, so I loaded up with a couple types of fish fillets, a box of sticks, and I think it was 3 types of breaded shrimp (thinks to self: Gee, why am I always so tight on freezer space?).
The filets were mushy and watery just as you say, whether in oven or air fryer.
The shrimp were average-decent.
I’ll have to think on other stuff that might fit your category.
Edit - oh, now I remember the brand. Chung’s frozen egg rolls, veggie and chicken varieties. Also overloaded because BOGO (this is really the only time, other than New Year’s Eve, that I buy pre-prepped frozen stuff). I’ve tried these microwaved, oven, air-fried, and micro-defrosted then finished in the air fryer. Bad texture, but also the taste was very “off” on both the veggie and the chicken-veg. I remember someone recommended Chung’s pork eggrolls in one of your other threads but the store only had the veg and chicken at the time, so I didn’t get to try those.
Nah, man/woman, I get that you’re probably exaggerating for emphasis, but when you’re burning +5 Kcal a day, you take what you can get. C-Rats were horrible (esp. if you had to eat cold grease) but they were calories. MREs throughout the 1980s weren’t much better (same comment about cold greasy) but got a bit better by early `90s.
Disclaimer - not a combat vet, all stateside duty stations, but spent plenty of time eating that stuff on annual bivouacs.
Edit -
Oh, those too! A daughter asked me to get them for use in frozen smoothies. Not good at all. She made one smoothie and said she was done with the bag. I thawed some and tried on a salad, and tried to make guacamole. Not good.
The dumb thing about the Trader Joe’s Chinese main meal items I have tried (beef broccoli, Kung Pow chicken) is that you cook it in a pan. It probably takes only a few more minutes for me to make it from scratch. The orange chicken cooks up fast and easy if one is into deep fried candied chicken. Not much different than someplace like Panda express, which is not a complement.
I agree they are all too sweet.
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Frozen foods (other than ice cream) that are not garbage.
Marie Callender’s chicken pot pie
DiGiorno’s Rising Crust Pizza
Hungry-Man Salisbury Steak dinner (the standard and forbearer)
Costco lasagna
When it comes to frozen Meals I think most people have reduced expectations, me included.
We find T.J.'s Indian Meals to be tasty, not full of odd Ingredients, quick and easy.
Frozen Mandu and other Asian Dumplings (oddly Ajinomoto Gyoza Dumplings are pretty good)
Stouffer’s Spinach Souffle (hold over from when I was a kid)
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