Title sounds like a contradiction doesn't it?  Unknown how many here buy µwave food or would admit if they did.  I can cook pritdang well but don't always want to be bothered, especially cleaning up.  This is something would take me months (if not years) of disappointing results to make well from scratch.

A little background:  I'm not the most astute taster in the world but this IS Texas and we DO eat barbeque so I'm comparing this to $15 restaurant dinners and it comes up adequate-plus.  That's something for a microwave TV-type dinner.

It's Boston Market (brand) "Carver's Cuts Pulled Pork".  First, it's not ConAgra, which at least gives it a chance to be good.  What you get for $3-4 is 10oz, 480 cal, 29g protein, and "only"a gram of sodium.  The platter includes lean, tender pulled pork in BBQ sauce, parmesan-garlic corn, and a wedge of cornbread. 

The sauce is 'good'.  The corn is only garlicked so it tastes like something in contrast to the stronger sauce.  [Too much garlic stings my swallerpipe.]  The cornbread is a nice mouth filler to go with the rest.  All around, as the Brazilans might say, "voce nao vai querer eu chegue no final".  You won't like when it ends.  It's filling enough to call a meal.  I want more but 2 of them would be a bit much.  No problemo, justifies dessert (coconut cake for me).  In Amazon review terms, "will buy again".

Now, µwaving is an art and science.  All the more complicated that my 1982 GE is only 600W and everything today expects 1100W with turntable.  I don't like what 600W on 10/high does to the parts that get hot first, so really hoping the GE lasts the SECOND half of my life (already lasted the middle half).  I seldom go over Power 6 except for boiling coffee water.  So for this meal I double all the cooking times @6, rotating at 1/4th intervals, and it comes out the specified 165F and uniform throughout.  Your ovenage may vary, you'd know best.

We did not have frozen dinners when I was a kid.  They were deemed to be "too expensive", and it's likely that my dad wouldn't eat them as well.  My dad grew up in the country and expected simple, but hearty meals; which required mother to cook.  Mom did not work outside of the home so having a hot meal at least once a day was one of her primary chores.

As an adult I've given up cooking.  Just too much work for one person, so I've eaten my share of frozen meals, all flavors.  A few years back my bad cholesterol number went up and my doctor advised that I concentrate on "low fat" meals/foods, which I've done.  The problem with all of those really yummy frozen dinners for me is the saturated fat number.  It's my understanding that to qualify as "low fat" the saturated fat number should be 3.5 or less.  Try finding anything really yummy with that number!  I eat a fair amount of Healthy Choice and/or Lean Cuisine if I eat at home.

lawrence

How well I remember how good those Fried Chicken TV Dinners tasted. They were "gourmet" for the day. On a weekend when my dad was away on a fishing or hunting trip, Mom would ask my brothers and I if TV dinners were OK. We never said no. She was a terrific cook. Here is a very old newspaper clipping of her from during WWII. I assume she had a tasty recipe for rabbit. I guess this is a little out of place, sorry.

Ahh, Swanson.  I think they used real turkey back then instead of pink slime like now.  There was one I really wish was still around,  Beans 'n' Franks with cornbread side.  NOT vienna sausage, but 3 small wieners, and the cornbread was even good.  Nothing even approaching it today.

I kept the aluminum trays and made my own fried chicken TVDs with peas and corn, through most of college.  Not about to make that colossal mess for one meal, bnt well made sense to cook once and eat 4 times.  And of course, homemade fried chicken, as good as it gets.

Yes, I still throw a couple Banquet chicken PPs in now and then.  Marie's are worse, take longer and cost like double.  These are NOT low-fat but I'm in the [enviable?] position of needing all the calories I can stomach, fat or otherwise.

Sodium is another thing.  Who DOESN'T get too much of that?  Prepared foods are crawling with it.

Swanson. My staple growing up. I rarely ate what my mom cooked, so I basically lived off TV dinners. Swanson roast beef and veal parmigiana were among my favorites. Banquet, Mortons and Libbyland were big favorites back then too. And the quality was so superior to what they make today. Anyone remember Banquets Boil-in-a Bag? When my folks bought our first microwave in 1980, I remember taking TV dinners out of the aluminum tray before cooking. Shortly thereafter TV dinners started to switch over to  microwavable plates/trays. There was a brand, which I can't remember at the moment, that came in small plastic plates to be used in the microwave. The plates were reusable and we had quite a few.

As for today, I have yet to find a a frozen entree that comes close to scratch made in taste. Stouffer's remains fairly good. I've been disappointed so far with Boston Market, but to be fair, I keep comparing it to their restaurant prepared meals. Banquet went the cheap route years ago. Aldi and Lidl have fairly decent store brand offerings, particularly in the Indian food categories . Costco Signature and BJ's Wellsley Farms are often good. And a fairly new brand, Devour is quite good. I am fond of their macaroni and cheese.

Franks and beans are pretty easy to make without buying a frozen dinner, aren't they?

We'd both think so, but no combination of commercial offerings comes close.  I've tried.  The bean sauce and the franks themselves are always too spicy/salty.  ConAgra, the food version of WCI, bought VanCamps and ruined Beanie Weenie.

I've been disappointed so far with Boston Market, but to be fair, I keep comparing it to their restaurant prepared meals.

The restaurant rents the name to the supermkt company.  I'm also fairly unimpressed with their other offerings, specially at the premium price. 

As I started out, not the most discerning palate.  I liked airline food back when there was such thing.  American had a bitchen breakfast; omelet with potatoes, and strawberry blintzes with sausage.  I'd charm the stewardess out of both, back when that's what they were called. 

But back at discernment, I DO like what I like and I can tell when it's right or wrong.

I was a latchkey kid so I ate a lot of microwave foods in the early 80s.  That was a time when microwaves were just becoming mainstream so there were a lot of microwave foods coming out.  Some were good, some were terrible.

One thing that stands out in my mind as being good were these microwave blueberry pancakes.  I cannot remember the brand but inside the large package there were small individual generic white boxes each containing a serving of pancakes.  You would microwave them in the box and then tear open a pull tab around the top to get at them.

They were loaded with some kind of buttery blueberry syrup/sauce and there was no need to add anything else.

Well, instead of eating pulled pork this week, forced by Kroger's wayward middle management to eat my words, "will buy again". 

Not at Kroger I won't.  In the ensuing week, the product has been discontinued by the chain.  Shelves shuffled, the tag for it gone, manager confirmed.  That makes THIRTY-something products, some of which I had bought for years (like Comet cleanser), that Kroger has discontinued in the past 3 years.

All the customers-- and employees!-- I talk with say the same thing.  The store has nothing to say about it, according to local management who just shrugs.  I used to rave about Kroger.  As in, why would anyone shop anywhere else.  My parting words today were grumbled, "I hate this store".

There is an Albertsons about the same distance in the other direction, but their prices are substantially higher across the board AND there's a particularly gnarly interstate crossing between me and them.  (All TX hwy crossings are like that.)  I'll try Fiesta but not much faith in their house brands whereas Kroger's are very good.

Wallyworld is not an alternative; Kroger is actually copying them in an attempt to compete.  HEB, HQ'd in San Antonio and serving Houston and Austin, beats Wallyworld for market share.  And they don't by gawd do it by discontinuing merchandise.  They have their eye on DFW.  I should live so long, and I have to eat tomorrow.

Thanks Eddie.  Awkward location here, TarJay is also on the other side of I-30.  Sub-prime real estate, even BurgerKing moved away.  Looks like Kro is still going to be the practical source of bulk commodities.

Finding discontinued stuff (Comet, Pepsodent, more) at Family Dollar.  It's even closer.

I don't mind cooking but for dietary reasons I prefer size-limited microwaveable meals, like Lean Cuisine, Safeway Select, Stouffer's, etc. At least for lunch and often for breakfast. I'm currently doing a very low carb thing, and these meals, by listing the carb content, allow one to keep the carbs limited while still getting enough protein and veggies. Of course, the pasta and rice dishes are out. However I have some older stuff stashed in the freezer so I wind up eating around the carbs.

The incipient Northern California electricity shutdown (due in my town in about an hour) will mean I won't be able to nuke stuff for the duration. It will mean going to canned fare, or thawing out stuff like frozen steaks/chickens and cooking them with gas or propane.

As far as TV dinners go, the Hungry Man line has a decent enough "Classic" Fried Chicken selection. Although it's usually priced higher than their other offerings, probably because it's so popular.

As far as supermarkets go... out here some years ago the main two selections were Lucky and Safeway. About 10 years or so ago, Albertson's bought out Lucky. Then in the last couple of years, Albertson's also bought out Safeway. However the two stores in my area seem to have retained some individuality. Albertson's is owned by Cerberus, of Dan Quayle fame (yeech), out of Boise, Idaho.

For dietary reasons I eat a lot of salads as well, along with various fresh veggies (steamed or stir fried on cooktop). Most of my fresh veggie purchases are at a local Mexican grocery - Cardenas. Which, I understand, has a lot of stores all over California. My only complaint about them is that sometimes the quality on heavily discounted stuff (like fruit) is lacking - like mushy peaches and apples. And sometimes they advertise a special and don't yet it have it in stock on the advertised start date.

I'll watch the sales flyers and stock up on chicken, steak, and frozen entrees when the price is right. So my freezer is fully stocked now. Not to worry, I have a small generator to plug it into should the power outage last more than a day or two.

Welll I better post this before the power goes out. When it's all said and done. I'll vent about PG&E in the appropriate venue.