Cook or Eat Frozen Meals

C

charlotta

Member
Location
montgomery alabama
Living alone, I do not enjoy cooking. I browse the freezer section of Publix's. I am having a heck of time trying to eat healthy. The thing is they are loaded with salt. I need to watch my salt intake. All of them are organic but you cannot find one that has less than 490 grams of salt. I do keep frozen shrimp, steak and boneless chicken in freezer for grilling or quick cooking food.

I am thrilled that a Whole Foods Store is coming to my neighborhood. I hope they have prepared foods not so high in salt. The frozen section has done a good job of cutting back on sugars. Let me hear from you if you are finding the same problem and what do you do to remedy the problem . I don't like to cook in large batches, as I throw it away. I also have a small freezer.
 

We eat a few frozen things that we buy at Costco, but they are not low sodium. I think Amy's, Hain, Organic Classics and Lean Cuisine have some variety of low sodium dishes, and taste pretty good. Beware of Whole Foods, they are pretty pricey and not everything they sell is particularly healthy, do your homework. :)
 
I don't live alone and I still don't enjoy cooking. I must be missing some vital female homemaking gene because I really hate cooking. I could live happily on good frozen meals and take-out. Heck, a bowl of soup and a few crackers is a perfectly good dinner to me, but the Spousal Equivalent likes meat.and.potatoes.and.vegetables for dinner. He also doesn't care for leftovers, which is my third favorite recipe. Reservations and take-out are my #1 and #2 favorites. I keep telling him I'd be perfectly happy if he converted to Islam and brought another wife in to cook - LOL. He does occasionally cook a meal, but usually it is something elaborate he's seen on a cooking show, requiring a ton of expensive ingredients, using every single bowl and pan in the kitchen and resulting in a finish product that seldom is edible.
 

We're not vegetarians, but we do go sometimes for weeks meat free, and switch things up on a daily basis. We often have Morning Star Farms "Grillers PRIME" veggie burgers, the 'prime' is really the one that taste the best. There's 4 in a package and are available at most super markets, we usually get ours at Kroger. They don't always have the grillers prime, so we'll go to another store for them, worth it, IMO.

Each burger is 170 calories, 9 gr. fat, 0 cholesterol, 360mg sodium, 0 sugar. We eat them on whole wheat buns with onions, mayo and tomato, and fry them in a pan with a little butter or olive oil for flavor and crispy outside.
 
Occasionally I get frozen pizza when they're on sale. They seem to be getting smaller and smaller. Also frozen ice cream, frozen pie, frozen fruit in winter, frozen cauliflower is good, sometimes. Frozen green beans are awful. Frozen spinach for lasagnas is good.
 
An easy meal is to divide up a package of whole wheat spaghetti, maybe a 12 oz. pack into three sections, depending on your appetite. I've found that 13 minutes is perfect when I make it, boil the water, put in the spaghetti, come to boil again, then turn down one notch so it doesn't boil onto the stove.

You can sautee shrimp or mushrooms in olive oil and serve it over the spaghetti for a quick and pretty healthy meal.
 
I'm not fond of cooking so it's fortunate that my husband does. He makes big pots of curries and I make the rice. The curry lasts at least 3 days and since they never have meat in them they are fine. I usually freeze single servings of the curries so we always have some if we're gone a couple of days and get home too late to cook a new batch.

I used to do a lot of stir fries when I lived alone during the 90's but was also still eating frozen meals from the supermarket of health food stores. I wouldn't buy any of them now. The only thing we buy out of the freezer section is Quorn to use in curries and chilis and frozen peas.

Why not cook one day a week making a couple of different easy meals for a week and freeze them in single serve containers? I eat a salad every day and those take no time to make.
 
Thank you for the suggestions, Seabreeze. I rarely buy food at Costco bc so much is sold in bulk. I do buy tires, electronics, and my supplements. I can't stand it when food goes bad. I
am thinking about getting a small free standing freezer and put it in my garage.
The frozen meals that you mentioned do have a lot of sodium. Most have more than 500 milligram (more than 6 tsp) . I have a genetic blood disorder that cause blood clots and therefore it is imp that I watch the sodium.
 
My brother/roommate loves to cook and he creates some delicious meals. I'm in charge of salads. We often make a big batch of something - enchiladas, for instance - and freeze what we don't eat right away. We always have some frozen fruit and veggies on hand but we rarely buy the frozen meals. Whole Foods is expensive but it's fun go browse around and get their free samples.
 
Our freezer is used for vegetables from the garden, leftovers, and meat from our local locker when we buy half a beef or pig. Beyond that when I go to the grocery store I don't purchase anything from the frozen foods aisle.
All of our meals are prepared as fresh as possible with no processed foods. Frozen foods are nothing more than a brew of foul chemicals that I don't want or need.
 
I probably don't have much advice. It has to be really difficult if you need to watch your sodium so much.

I can say I also hate to cook and I'm a lousy cook. I usually try to keep a couple of "Amy's" meals in the freezer. I don't even eat one a week usually though.
 
What I do is, when I have to cook, I cook a large pot full and then I divide it up into single servings and put it in the freezer. For example, I make a large pot of pinto beans and I don't add salt. Then I divide them up and put them in the refrigerator freezer for later. Yesterday, I made a large batch of Brussel sprouts that I got in the freezer section and again, I didn't add salt. It wasn't in the prepared section but in the vegetable section that you have to cook it yourself. I divided them up and now they are in the freezer waiting on me. Like you, I don't like to cook so when I have to do it, I do it in large quantities.
 
I do both, take out, phone in, burgers, pizza etc. but I can also cook simple things.
This afternoon I'm making Chicken Chow Mein; Frozen chicken breasts, stir fried in my wok with chopped celery, onions and bean sprouts.
Even bought a small can of water chestnuts. I've made this several times before; it's fairly simple and quick. We all love it.

Served over crisp chow mein noodles.
 
I live alone and enjoy cooking for my self but other than occasional frozen bean and beef burritos I avoid frozen prepared meals. I do buy frozen veggies, frozen shrimp, halibut,salmon,mahi mahi,scallops. I buy fresh fruit and veggies as well, but only enough for one or two days. Occasional beef, pork and lamb I buy fresh as well.
 
When I eat, I eat what I want. I know, salt this, something else there, but I just eat. I don't plan on living forever and I bet I don't.
 

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