Favorite Frozen Meals: Healthy Choice

Visit Pennies & Pounds for a revised and updated version of this Healthy Choice article, along with more posts on weight loss and healthy eating on a budget!

Yesterday I started relaying my top picks from the freezer case for quick, portion-controlled meals that aren’t weight-loss setbacks. Today, the focus moves from Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine to that iconic green box, Healthy Choice.

Talking about the Healthy Choice brand provides me with the opportunity to discuss at least one particular nutrition claim you see in the supermarket — “healthy.” Unlike many of the words slapped onto packaging, “healthy” is actually about as heavily regulated as “organic.”

When a company claims this accolade for its product, it’s declaring that the food is low in fat, cholesterol, and, significantly for processed foods, sodium. “Healthy” foods also must contain certain levels of essential nutrients, according to the FDA.

Healthy Choice meals all have to be relatively low in sodium because of these regulations. For example, Healthy Choice’s mac and cheese (with veggies) has 600 mg of sodium per 9.1-oz serving, which is about 25% of the typical daily limit. On the other hand, Stouffer’s cheesy mac (which claimed on the web site to serve one person before I got to the nutrition facts) has 1,395 mg of sodium for an equivalent portion.

Overall, I like the Healthy Choice line’s creative entrée selections. Like many low-cal brands, Healthy Choice doesn’t stick to the usual fried chicken and Salisbury steak. They’ve also come up with a new method of heating some meals using steam, but I can’t evaluate how well that works as it arrived in stores after I stopped needing to buy the meals. Nonetheless, it’s evidence that this brand tries to innovate, like Lean Cuisine.

Healthy Choice

Country Breaded Chicken

I know I might have knocked fried chicken meals a bit above, but I have to say, this particular meal might well have become my number-one favorite choice for weekday lunches once I discovered it midway through the 06-07 school year. How decadent it feels to be eating two fried chicken breast portions (bigger than tenders, mind you), mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, and a delicious cherry crumble, all in one sitting! The chicken tastes so good you will wonder how on earth this meal could have only 370 calories and nine grams of fat.

Chicken Margherita

I hardly finish saying that I’ve never tried the Café Steamers, yet here I go posting one. As it happens, Healthy Choice has moved several of its past regular-tray offerings into this line, eliminating the old versions. Thus, if you want to try the tangy Chicken Margherita, with its balsamic sauce and sweet tomatoes and garlic, you’ll have to plunge into the brave new world of steaming. This meal has only 340 calories, though it obviously does not come with a built-in sweet treat.

Premium Fudge Bars

I know this doesn’t qualify as a meal, but these 80-calorie fudge bars are a yummy guilt-free dessert! They look satisfyingly huge as you eat, too.

Alas, I can’t pinpoint any other meals as particularly good enough to merit a recommendation. That’s not to say the rest of the meals are terrible; they’re just ordinary (or I haven’t tried them, being that Healthy Choice was usually more expensive than the others). No one’s getting too excited over yet another box of meatloaf.

Next time: South Beach!