Happy Frozen Food Month
File photo.
March is Frozen Food Month. There is a month for everything in the food world, as we know, but I do believe frozen food deserves some props at least once a year. What would we do without it?
Obviously, fresh ingredients are always preferred over anything frozen or canned, but when Old Man Winter turns the earth to rock and drags temperatures down to teeth-chattering levels, we must look to the frozen food aisle for many of our favorites, including fruits and vegetables.
Frozen produce shouldn’t have a bad name. Most of those products are flash frozen the same day they come out of the fields, retaining their healthy components and flavors. They are generally much more nutritious than canned produce.
In our house, our favorite frozen product is spinach. You will always find several bags of frozen spinach in the freezer. I use it in recipes, but more often it’s my go-to vegetable side dish on a night when I’m in a hurry. We probably consume one bag of frozen spinach per week, on average. We also like frozen turnip greens. Both are delicious with a little Tastefully Simple Bacon Bacon.
In addition, I like organic frozen burritos, ice cream and the occasional Kashi frozen dinner. And I always have a frozen pizza in the chest freezer in the basement in case of an emergency. And by emergency I mean, like, extreme laziness or craziness on a week night.
In honor of Frozen Food Month and the fact that, according to the weather forecast, we are about to be frozen ourselves, tell me: What is your family’s favorite frozen food product? Is there a frozen product you would never buy?
March 5, 2013 - 10:31 AM
RSS feed 
I buy a lot of frozen entrees for lunch. I am trying to shed a few pounds and these entrees make calorie counting and portion control easy.
I just recently started buying my lunches from the frozen cases in the nutrition aisle at Kroger. Big fan of the Kashi steamers. I did, however, try Amy’s Light and Lean Spaghetti with Meatless Meatballs (totally my mistake that I didn’t notice the meatless part) and I had to throw it away. Completely inedible mush.
For a light dessert option, I am in love with Healthy Choice’s frozen Greek yogurt. So very good and only 100 calories.
Edamame is definitely a favorite. I won’t buy frozen kale again – big difference from fresh, which also meant the kids wouldn’t eat it!
I keep frozen broccoli florets and frozen peas stocked. Both can be used as quick side dishes when I can’t make it to the store for fresh and both can bulk up a quick batch of soup.
I also like to have some frozen fish filets on hand for quick and healthy dinners. It’s never quite as good as fresh fish (I love going to Fresh Market and picking out dinner from the seafood case), but it does the job.
I’ll have to try that frozen yogurt, Nona. It sounds good.
We also keep frozen fish on hand, Rebecca. Broiled tilapia may not be the most exciting dinner, but it’s certainly healthier than fast food!
What about UNhealthy frozen food faves, the guilty pleasure stuff? I like Stouffer’s chicken and broccoli casserole
I tend to avoid frozen dinners because they have so much sodium, but one exception are Marie Callender’s pot pies (usually turkey or beef). They’re enormous compared to other brands, have a great crust, and make for excellent comfort food.
Or Stouffers party sized lasagnes with a side of Texas toast …a garden salad makes it healthier
I keep frozen corn, peas, baby limas, mixed veggies on hand, as well as the occasional brussel sprout. As for unhealthy frozen food, Triple Chocolate Turtle Tracks ice cream! I can’t buy that very often!
I keep frozen corn, broccoli and peas on hand. Love edamame too. I have a great recipe for it from the NY Times that I’ll be fixing tonight. Ice cream occasionally for a guilty pleasure, or if the grandkids are coming. I used to buy a lot of frozen dinners, but haven’t for a long time.
Anything Michael Angelo’s! http://www.michaelangelos.com/
We buy frozen vegetables for a few things, especially things like corn, broccoli, cauliflower, pearl onions, and potatoes…plus some pre-sliced/diced/chopped pepper/onion blends for stir fry and other things, just as time savers. We also do buy some frozen meat items like some burger patties and whole turkeys…but aside from meat and veggies, really the only other thing we buy frozen is gluten-free waffles.
-
We don’t buy any frozen meals…very few are gluten free, most are high in sodium, many are high in fat…so we skip them. And even when we manage to find some that work with our dietary needs…there’s no way I’m paying the prices charged (some can be $5-7 per meal…).
-
So, what we tend to do instead is make big batches of food from time to time, and then freeze a good bit of it in individual-sized portions for later use. We have done this with soups, pot roast, chili, spaghetti, lasagna, cupcakes…you name it. We can still get the relative convenience of a heat-and-eat meal, but we know what’s in it.
-
Our logic behind it is this: if we’re making dinner for two (my wife and I), then why not make it 4-6 or more servings worth? In many cases, that’s simply how much some recipes yield…and buying or using small quantities of ingredients is either difficult, or results in a lot of spoiling. So, since we’re already dirtying the kitchen to begin with, it’s really no less convenient to make our own frozen meals for later.
-
Our only real problem is that we’ve run perilously short on storage containers! But properly stored, we’ve had some frozen meals last a few months in the freezer.
debbie, please share your recipe for edamame!
That’s definitely the way to do it, OJ.
I used to buy a lot of Lean Cuisine frozen dinners but it’s been years since I’ve done that. It was the sodium content and preservatives and the fact that none of the meat appeals to me in those dinners that got to me.
I occasionally buy the Kashi frozen dinners I mentioned before, but only when they go on sale for $2.77 each. I like the coconut-lemongrass chicken and the Mayan vegetable bake.
We go the way of OtherJohn as well. I try to overcook every meal and create little individual dinners for during the week. (I primarily cook weekends) I bought a supply of the little round aluminum cooking pans – sort of like the ones restaurants send your food home in – and I wash and reuse them. It made no sense to me to work so hard bringing in great local food and ingredients, and then stuffing the freezer full of Healthy Choice and LCs.
I do keep a frozen Kroger Self-Rising pizza on hand for “emergencies”, which look a lot like your “emergencies”, Lindsey.
OJ has it right!
We do the same thing in our house and it eliminates any urges to “go out” and eat, which is terribly close by. Plus, as OJ pointed out, you know what is in your food if you cook it; less sodium, less fat, etc.
The best part for me is the cost savings. Eating out gets ridiculously expensive anymore, it seems.
Carol, I will later this afternoon. I’ve tried to look it up from my work computer, but can’t bring it up. You cook them with garlic and fresh dill.
I cook and freeze meals too. I quit buying the frozen dinners, because I like to cook and I thought why am I buying food that I can make myself.
We rarely eat out any more…a big factor on that is the cost, it’s just ridiculous for me and my wife to go out to eat, and drop $20-30 on a lower-end sit-down meal, or upwards of $50-60 on something similar to what we might cook. The meals taxes and tip alone for most meals exceeds the cost of the base ingredients for cooking most of what we eat anyway.
-
Like last night, I cooked nice ribeye steaks on the grill, plus did a grilled vegetable medley of green/orange peppers, red onion, and squash…and also made garlic-parmesean mashed potatoes. The steaks were the pricey part of the meal at around $10 for both, but the rest of the meal cost less than $5 total, and we had enough leftovers of the veggies and potatoes for 2-3 additional meals. Worked great with the grilled chicken tenderloins I made at the same time, using a homemade spicey dry rub similar to what Outback uses.
Plus again there’s the concerns over what exactly is in the food, both from an overall health standpoint, and from an allergy standpoint. We’ve run into too many situations of having food get cross-contamination, or having an allergen ingredient in it that the staff was unaware of, that we just don;t chance it much. Eating out is now a rare treat, so when we go out, it’s usually somewhere that makes for a nice evening out, rather than just dinner.
Debbie,I used some edamame a couple weeks ago in a spicy sesame noodle dish. It was quite tasty. I used to buy the spicy noodles at FM until I realized that spending $20/lb on something that was basically pasta was insanity.
I don’t care for the frozen meals, I’m always left unsatisfied and still a little hungry. I do, however, cook in large quantities and then freeze individual portions, which I often bring to work for lunch. I do keep some kind of frozen treat on hand, and generally have garlic toast and soft pretzels in the freezer as well as a variety of veggies.
Carol, here’s a link to the recipe I mentioned for edamame.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/dining/091vrex.html
Kristen, that spicy sesame noodles dish sounds great. Want to share that recipe? I have to agree with you on the $20 a pound deal. I’m always tempted to buy the mushrooms that cost that much or more, but my rare frugal side always talks me out of it.
You can go to easyhomemeals.com for pleanty of recipes using frozen foods. Frozen is Real Food that are chef inspired recipes, made with fresh ingredients, and portion control packaging that leaves nothing to waste. Many of the manufacturers have reduced the sodium content and continue to reserch different ways to enhance the flavor which would reduce the sodium content even more. Truth is you can go to a restuarant order the same type meal and the sodium content would be higher than what woulf be in a frozen meal.
Thank you Debbie!
You’re welcome, Carol. I hope you like it.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/cold-sesame-noodles-recipe/index.html
Here you go, Debbie. Instead of the sambal oelek, I used some hot sesame oil. I added the shelled edamame and matchsticked carrots red-peppers. I also used soba noodles because I had them. It was a great side dish, but throw in some chicken or shrimp (if not a vegetarian) and it would be a great lunch to pack for work. It gets better the second day.
Thanks, Kristen!. I just now saw this.