6/19/06 | Healthy Choice wins Poll
[ Currently Eating: Coffee with Soy Milk ]
Hello, what’s this. I seem to have left our Frozen Dinner poll running on autopilot for a couple months without switching it out. That might be for the best, because it actually took this long to get a sufficient number of responses. I guess frozen dinners aren’t the must-have, technological wonder-food that they were in the 50s anymore…
Anyhow, color me surprised (mangled Heatherism). Dark horse candidate Healthy Choice Frozen Dinners ended up beating out the competition. I had thought for sure that either Michelina or Banquet would have taken the honors. Though, it was quite close between those top 3… they were all within 30 votes of each other. Swanson frozen dinners brought up the rear. I wonder if that has anything to do with my giving their potpies the cold shoulder.
As I’ve said many times before, the Cheap Eats site is about cheap food, not health food. Though, over the course of the year, I’ve managed to sneak in quite a few more healthy choices. That has something to do with the fact that I’ve been having stomach issues the past 2 months. (I can hear the peanut gallery saying “See, I told you all those boxes of macaroni and cheese and instant ramen meals would catch up with you.”)
But truthfully, I didn’t think that Healthy Choice would win. I don’t have a lot of experience with that brand of frozen meals, but the few I’ve had have been pretty decent. And coincidentally we just picked up a quartet of Healthy Choice dinners for about $2.50 a piece. I dunno what the going rate is, but that’s 2 and a half Banquet dinners…
One other thing about these polls is that I can’t offer more than 4 choices because of the format. So we missed out on Budget Gourmet, Marie Calender’s and a bunch of other ones. C’est la Cheap Eats.
I feel like I’ve run the next poll before in the past, but I can’t seem to find the post if I did. Well, if so I’m just going to run it again. Vote for your favorite brand of soup… yep, Wolfgang Puck brand is on there so feel free to tear Scrooge McPuck a new one…
June 19th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Maybe the results were skewed because a lot of people eat healthier now and Healthy Choice was the only healthy frozen dinner listed. Not that they are bad, but I find Lean Cuisine meals a lot more satisfying. Maybe do a poll with just the “healthy” frozen dinner companies listed? Like Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, Weight Watchers and South Beach or something? I’d be interested in seeing those results. Just a word of caution: Healthy Choice ice cream - avoid it! Yuck!
June 20th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
For whatever reason i have never even bought a Healthy Choice dinner. Green packaging throws me off in the frozen food display case. I voted for Banquet because the price is almost always 10/$10. So very cheap but only certain varieties are good…as with all the brands I’m guessing
June 24th, 2006 at 6:08 am
I voted for healthy choice, mostly becase I think they taste a whoe lot better than the other choices across the board. That being said, I like 1 or 2 of the banquet ones over the others. Of course the last time I bought a frozen dinner was over 2 years ago.
June 27th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
i love budget gourmet frozen dinners but my problem is the massive amounts of sodium that are in them, take hungry man from swanson it has your total sodium intake in one serving and it has two servings in the box. and unfortuallty banquet does the same thing just not as high but 800 grams for something that is not that big or tastes that great in the first part is not worth it.
June 30th, 2006 at 10:51 am
nicole - i haven’t tried the healthy choice ice cream, but thanks for the warning.
skibs - yeah, banquet is one of the few very cheap ones where you have a chance that the quantity of food is ok. budget gourmet may be good sometimes but it’s never enough food.
aaron - i’ve recently had some healthy choice dinners and i must admit that they’re not bad. $2.50 on sale…
chaos - i actually liked the hungry man dinner i had about 4 years ago, but yeah it was very salty…
July 2nd, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Healthy Choice kind of sucks these days. Years ago I used to get them because on sale they were a little over a buck a piece. Now they’re $2.50 each. Thats Marie Callender territory and for the same money Marie Callender blows them away.
July 6th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Oh reading these comments got me thinking again … I recommend the Stouffer’s Corner Bistro Paninis. I love love love the Southwest Chicken one. I eat it at least once a week, if not two.
http://www.seewhatscooking.com/CornerBistro/Panini/Index.aspx
August 20th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
I love Healthy Choice Dinners. I just started eating them in hopes of loosing a few pounds. Anyone had any luck with this?
December 18th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
I have bought your dinners many times but this last time I bought 5 and not only were the potatoes grainy and watery but the meat was like shoe leather. (Meatloaf) Is this what I have to look forward to for the other 4?
January 6th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Every time I need to lose weight, the HC dinners are the way I do it. I actually lost 20 lbs once, with this diet..
Oatmeal or cold cereal for breakfast
Any type of sandwich for Lunch ( I did try to stay healthy)
One HC dinner for dinner..
I used fruit or nuts for snacks…
I hope they make them forever…I like all of them…don’t overcook..I only put my micro on 6 minutes and let it set a minute before eating..
February 3rd, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Everybody I know simply loves Healthy Choice Dinners. What no one has been able to find anywhere is something that was most available at one time and now appears to have disappeared.
WHAT HAPPENED TO TUNA CASSEROLE?
I SPEAK FOR APPROX. 500 people. Can we hope for some
assistance here?????
March 31st, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Healthy Choice ice cream is great. I have been buying it for years. I find it delicious and, for a more healthy ice cream alternative, I have yet to find anything that competes.
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:49 am
I agree with Mike regarding the Healthy Choice ice cream. It is/was incredible! However, in the last 6 months or so, it has totally disappeared from the shelves/freezers of all 3 local markets here in Grand Rapids, MI. Plus all the shelves from the Detroit area freezers as well. My Mom and I are very disappointed regarding this matter. It was such a sinful pleasure for us to have a bowl of Healthy choice ice cream and watch the Detroit Tigers win yet another game. What are we to do?
April 6th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
I live in Vancouver Canada and would like to know where I can purchase the Healthy Choice products
Thanks
Wendy
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:16 pm
I know that this is not about loosing weight but Healthy Choice Dinners are awesome! I love them! and I lost 10 pounds eating them!!!!!!!! So to anyone who would like to eat something great and healthy try it!!!!!!!! you will not be dissappointed. I have all of my co-workers eating them!!!!!!!!