Frozen packaged meals are an excellent food choice for busy individuals who do not have time to cook; placing them in a microwave for anywhere from 3 to 6 minutes results in a quality dish that is ready to eat without consuming effort to prepare. As a frequent purchaser of frozen packaged meals, I have sampled numerous brands, among them Michelina’s and Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine, each of which I consume regularly.
Michelina’s frozen meals are impressive in terms of affordability; in most stores, a single meal sells for under a dollar. There exists an extensive assortment of healthy, low-calorie Michelina’s meals, ranging from about 250 to 300 calories per package. Italian cuisine and pasta dishes in the particular are the specialties of the Michelina’s brand; for excellent store-bought spaghetti with marinara sauce, fettuccini alfredo, or cheese ravioli, Michelina’s is hard to match. I would also highly recommend Michelina’s four-cheese lasagna and lasagna with meat sauce. Michelina’s has even begun to experiment with decent microwaveable pizzas, priced the same as its other meals. One does not get food of this quality for under a dollar from many other suppliers!
Lean Cuisine meals are somewhat more expensive than Michelina’s meals; their typical prices range from two to three dollars per meal, and around $1.90 if one is fortunate to find them on discount. Lean Cuisine also offers a fairly extensive offering of Italian food; its spaghetti with meatballs is of high quality, and the chicken carbonara is absolutely delightful. There is some overlap in the offerings of the two brands; Lean Cuisine also offers some kinds of lasagna and fettuccini alfredo. But these are of roughly the same quality as Michelina’s meals, so I recommend purchasing the less expensive Michelina’s varieties.
Lean Cuisine’s microwaveable pizzas are several steps ahead of the Michelina’s variety; in my judgment, they rival pizzas provided by some delivery services and restaurants, and they are certainly healthier to eat. A whole personal spinach and mushroom pizza contains only 310 calories, and the margherita pizza is a close second with 320 calories. The sausage and pepperoni pizzas are slightly more calorific (in the high 300s), but they are still quite healthy compared with most conventional pizzas. The low-calorie cheese in Lean Cuisine pizzas can go a long way to prevent overeating!
For those seeking to cut even more calories, Lean Cuisine offers some attractive meal options. The salmon with basil meal is absolutely delightful and only has 220 calories. Lean Cuisine’s stuffed cabbage rolls are the pinnacle of healthy eating at only 200 calories per meal. That is the equivalent of the smallest, healthiest Lean Pocket! If you have somehow managed to obtain coupons for these Lean Cuisine meals or find them on discount at a grocery store, I advise you to purchase them without hesitation; you will thereby get several days of delightful food that you will not feel guilty about eating.
For those trying to save money or living on a limited budget, Michelina’s is preferable to Lean Cuisine because of extremely low prices. It is possible to eat three Michelina’s meals a day for seven days a week, having paid under $21 for all that food. Both Michelina’s and Lean Cuisine meals save time that would have been spent cooking and are highly suited to people with highly demanding work schedules and extremely limited discretionary time. Lean Cuisine frozen meals are, on average, lower in calories and extend beyond Italian food in the kinds of choices available. Lean Cuisine also sells Mexican foods – chicken enchiladas or Santa-Fe-style rice and beans – and Chinese-style meals, thereby serving a more diverse range of consumer tastes. Both brands are quite good, however, and will have something to suit virtually every kind of customer.
