Vegetarian Journal's Guide to Frozen Convenience Foods
By Suzanne Havala, M.S., R.D.How many times per week do you cook dinner from scratch? Granted, there are some of you out there who are truly conscientious. You fix and freeze healthfully-prepared, individual portions of food that you can pull out of the freezer during the week and heat up for a quick meal. Or you actually do make dinner from scratch every night. I commend you. However, there is also a large contingency of kitchen-averse veggies out there who prefer to take a few short-cuts. They use some of the myriad of frozen convenience products that are out on the market today.
What is a frozen convenience food? We're talking about ready- made entrees or other items that can make up a substantial portion of a meal. Examples include frozen pizza, burritos, all-inclusive frozen meals (akin to the TV dinners of yesteryear -- an entree with a couple of side dishes), singular entrees, such as lasagna, etc. (Vegetarian burgers and dogs were discussed in the January/February, 1993 issue of Vegetarian Journal.)
There are hundreds of products on the market, not only in natural food stores but increasingly in neighborhood grocery stores as well. We won't attempt to review all that is available, but a little discussion about some of the considerations in choosing these products may be helpful. We've sampled a few products, and we invite you to send us any comments you may have about products that you have tried - good and bad -- so that we can share this information with readers in a future issue of Vegetarian Journal.
When Choosing a Frozen Convenience Product -- Consider the "Basic Four":
- nutritional value
- taste
- convenience
- cost
Nutrition
It's hard to assess the nutritional merits of products that don't give nutrition information on their labels. Taj Gourmet Foods makes a line of frozen Indian meals, sold in natural foods stores, that are delicious, such as the Mutter Paneer. Unfortunately, the nutritional content of the dish is a mystery.
In cases where no nutrition information is provided on the label, you may need to use subjective measures to make an assessment. Looking at the list of ingredients, and knowing that ingredients are listed in order of their predominance in the product, can also help. If oil is listed somewhere near the top, then the item is probably high in fat. Another option, of course, is to write the company for nutrition information. (The May/June, 1993 issue of Vegetarian Journal includes an article on label reading.)
Taste
Just as you may kiss a few toads before finding a prince, you may have to taste a few duds before finding a good product. Of course, taste is subjective - what one person likes another may reject. So experiment with new products. Expect to be disappointed now and then, but the chances are good that if you are open to trying new products, you'll find some new favorites. A couple of recent duds (judging is subjective - you may feel differently) were two Tumaro's products, Blue Corn Tamales and Black Bean Burritos, both found in natural food stores. The tamales were microwaved according to the package instructions, but the filling was dry. The black bean burritos were also prepared according to package directions. One was microwaved and one was oven-baked in foil. It was nice that the tortillas were made from whole wheat, but they were tough and tended to fall apart. The filling was an interesting mix of black beans, vegetables, and rice, but overall the product was sub-par.
On the other hand, a Jaclyn's product, Grilled Tofu in Black Bean Sauce, was very tasty. The tofu was chewy and tasted good, and the black bean sauce mixed well with the brown rice and mixed vegetables (green beans, carrots, and corn) that were included in the meal. The dish was well-seasoned and not bland. A Jaclyn's spokesperson also recommends trying the Salisbury Steak in Mushroom Sauce -- it's made with seitan.
Convenience
Let's face it: buying ready-made foods is usually more expensive than making a meal from scratch. We pay for convenience. Convenience usually means being able to reach into the freezer for a ready-made item that needs only to be heated in the microwave, conventional oven, or on the stove -- and can be ready in minutes. For those who like to use a microwave oven, most frozen foods can be ready in anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes. A conventional oven or stovetop cooking can take longer.
Frozen products may also be convenient if they can be heated and even eaten right out of the same package. Some packages that contain more than one serving of a food can be resealed easily, to protect the flavor of the remaining serving. One note: there was a packaging problem with the Jaclyn's Tofu with Black Bean Sauce. The product began to thaw on the way home from the store, and by the time it was put into the freezer, black bean sauce was leaking out of the package and onto the kitchen floor. The plastic covering over the serving container was not intact, and the sauce leaked right out of the cardboard package.
Cost
How much are you willing to pay for convenience? Jaclyn's makes Fat-Free Pizza. A box of 9 rectangular slices (total of 24 ounces -- about the same amount as a medium pizza) cost over $6.50 at a Charlotte, North Carolina, natural food store. The pizza is plain, made with soy cheese, and is pretty typical of frozen pizza in taste. Microwaving is not recommended, so the pizza had to be heated in a conventional oven. The crust was good -- thin and crispy -- and the cheese melted fairly well. It could have used more tomato sauce. The flavor of oregano was predominant. This pizza, like many other frozen varieties, would serve as a good base upon which to add more sauce and additional toppings. It passed the day-old-leftover-cold pizza test well, too.
But cost is a factor to consider. How much more would a fresh, home-delivered pizza cost than what you would pay for the Jaclyn's (or another brand) pizza? The Jaclyn's Tofu with Black Bean Sauce was $4.25 at another Charlotte, North Carolina, natural food store. Although the dish included sides of rice and vegetables, many people could probably eat more than the portions given in this product and would perhaps add bread and a dessert to the meal. The total cost might be as much as you would pay at a restaurant for a similar meal.
In the next issue of Vegetarian Journal we will review alternatives to dairy products including non-dairy cheese, yogurt, sour cream, etc.
