12 Store-Bought Frozen Meals To Keep Out Of Your Cart

If you've been browsing around Chowhound, you probably know we love to cook here. Sometimes, however, cooking just isn't in the cards. When that happens, store-bought frozen meals can be a lifesaver, but not all of these premade meals are actually good.

Store-bought frozen meals — also referred to as TV dinners — have been around for a long time. The idea of flash-freezing food came from Charles Birdseye, but the method wasn't widely used until about two decades later as a way to feed troops during World War II. The trend took off in the 1950s when, in an effort to get rid of leftover Thanksgiving turkey, Swanson started selling these dinners to the masses. Today, there are dozens of brands of frozen meals, resulting in hundreds of options to choose from. We've scoped out 12 store-bought frozen meals you should keep out of your cart to help you choose wisely.

Marie Callender's is a staple of the frozen food section, but that's not how the brand started. The legendary Marie Callender began selling fresh-baked pies out of her home in the 1940s, and by the '70s, that small venture had turned into a chain of full-service restaurants. In 1994, ConAgra Foods acquired the license to sell Marie Callender's frozen meals and desserts in stores. While some of the brand's frozen dinners, like the pot pies, are iconic, the brand has some misses, too.

Meatloaf and gravy is typically a comfort food, but Marie Callender's meatloaf and gravy frozen dinner is far from comforting. The meal comes with a slice of meatloaf and a serving of mashed potatoes in gravy, as well as a side of corn. Unfortunately, the portions are all off; the meatloaf is tiny compared to the corn and mashed potatoes.

If size were the only problem, this dinner wouldn't have made the list. The true atrocities come with the taste and texture of, well, everything. The meat is so gravy-soaked that it's practically a liquid itself, and the mashed potatoes are thin and watery. The gravy is somehow flavorless, yet extremely salty at the same time. As for the corn, the taste isn't terrible but the texture is rubbery and some kernels are even hard. Reviewers on the Target website give the meal an average of 2.9 stars as of writing, while the average on the Walmart website is slightly lower at 2.8.

Another food company owned by ConAgra Brands is Banquet Foods. ConAgra bought the brand in 1980, just about 25 years after Banquet started selling frozen dinners in stores. Today, the brand focuses solely on frozen foods, with lines of basic, single-serve frozen meals as well as extra-large Mega meals, family meals, breakfasts, sides, and snacks. Its meals are known for being a cheap dinner option, thanks mainly to the use of cheap, subsidized ingredients.

The Chicken Fried Chicken meal is meant to be simple and classic. It includes a breaded, fried chicken breast patty, country-style gravy, mashed potatoes, and corn. The patty and the gravy are together in one compartment, and unfortunately, this causes the patty to become mushy after heating. Of course, no one expects the microwave to get things crispy, but most people don't find mushy, slimy chicken to be palatable.

The mashed potatoes are a little better, but only slightly, tasting like standard, bland instant potatoes. Even mixing in some gravy doesn't help, as the only detectable flavor in the gravy is salt; no surprise when the dish contains a whopping 1100mg of sodium. The meal does have one redeeming quality: the corn is decent.

In the '80s and '90s, diet culture was everywhere, and in response, Stouffer created Lean Cuisine. These were all low-calorie, low-fat versions of popular Stouffer's entrees and were a hit, especially with the brand's target market: women. Recently, Stouffer's parent brand, Nestle, has made some changes to the Lean Cuisine line in an effort to focus more on health trends rather than calorie counting. Much of the rebrand has been successful, but a few items are a disappointment, including the Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes.

Perhaps we as a society need to agree that microwaved fried chicken just doesn't work. The texture is never crispy like fried chicken should be. In this Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes dish, the chicken manages to be both soggy and rubbery, with one reviewer on Target's website describing it as the "texture of dumplings." The chicken is also pretty bland, not even tasting much like chicken.

The rest of the dish disappoints as well. The meal comes with fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn mixed together in one bowl and topped with gravy. Having everything all together doesn't enhance the flavor at all; it's all bland. To top it off, the mashed potatoes are soupy and the corn is hard, making this a bummer all around.

Stouffer's is one of the best-known frozen meal brands in the U.S., but, like Marie Callender's, it actually started as a restaurant. The first Stouffer's restaurant opened in 1924, and the company didn't start making frozen meals until 30 years later. In 1990, Nestle, which acquired the brand in 1973, decided to sell off the Stouffer's restaurants, resorts, and hotels to focus solely on frozen meals. Much of these meals are comfort foods, with Stouffer's lasagna probably being the most well-known item the company makes.

With the lasagna being an undeniable hit, it seems like the brand's macaroni and cheese should be somewhat on par — and it was, until they changed the recipe. While the brand hasn't confirmed the change, people have definitely noticed a decrease in quality: one customer on the Walmart website said, "I grew up eating Stouffers Mac 'N Cheese since I was a child, and I am absolutely devastated and ashamed that Stouffers changed the original recipe." Another review on the GoodNes website reads, "I have been buying the single serving Mac n cheese for decades. I've noticed a change in the last few years but it seems worse than ever now."

General complaints are that the dish is watery, has too few noodles, and is tasteless. Others argue that it's not tasteless, but is, in fact, extremely salty. This isn't so surprising when you look at the ingredient list and see that there's 1200mg of sodium in a single serving.

Marie Callender's offers several different lines of frozen foods, from its iconic pot pies and desserts to single-serve and multi-serve frozen meals. The single-serve line includes basic meals, like the meatloaf and gravy listed above, as well as bowls. These bowls are usually some type of pasta or rice dish, and the lowest-rated bowl on the website is the Tender Ginger Beef & Broccoli Bowl.

The Tender Ginger Beef & Broccoli Bowl contains beef chunks and broccoli florets over rice and mixed with a ginger garlic sauce. This sounds fantastic, but the execution isn't there. To start, the ratios of the ingredients are off: there's way too much rice and sauce and not nearly enough beef or broccoli. The box boasts that the bowl has 17 grams of protein, but that's hard to believe with just a handful of thin beef slices.

Despite the bowl almost drowning in sauce, the dish is pretty bland. You can't taste the ginger or garlic, and some reviewers found the sauce uncomfortably sweet. One user on Walmart's website described it as "an unusually nasty sauce with a sickly sweet taste," probably a result of the 13 grams of added sugar. The texture is off as well, with the rice ending up hard and the beef chewy and stringy. As one Walmart reviewer put it, "It was so unappetizing even my dog didn't come near it."

Swanson had been selling frozen meals for about 20 years when they developed the Hungry-Man line. These frozen dinners were marketed toward men and today still boast extra-large serving sizes and hearty meal options. The brand, now owned by ConAgra Foods, has a few different lines of frozen meals, and most are homestyle dishes that are high in protein.  Quantity doesn't always equal quality, though, and Hungry-Man generally isn't considered one of the best frozen dinner brands.

Hungry-Man's Salisbury steak frozen meal proves this. The dish comes with mashed potatoes, green beans, a brownie, and of course, Salisbury steak. For those who don't know, Salisbury steak is made from ground beef, similar to meatloaf. The difference between Salisbury steak and meatloaf is that Salisbury steak is cooked in a skillet with a savory gravy.

Unfortunately, it seems the Hungry-Man Salisbury steak is a poor imitation of this classic meal, with tough, dry meat and over-salted gravy. The brownie is anything but rich, with a strange, artificial flavor, while the green beans are flat and tough. The mashed potatoes are probably the best part of this meal but still aren't enough to redeem this dish, especially as it packs in an astonishing 52 grams of carbohydrates, 14 grams of added sugar, and 1,630 grams of sodium.

Despite the relative simplicity of the dish, Salisbury steak seems to be a tough one for frozen food companies to pull off. Although Banquet's has an overall better rating than Hungry-Man's, customers are still far from impressed with their version of the classic comfort dish. Banquet's Salisbury steak meal comes with Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy in the same compartment, with separate compartments for sweet corn and a cinnamon apple dessert.

There are a few problems with this frozen dinner, starting with having the steak, potatoes, and gravy all in the same compartment. Packing them this way creates a gooey mess that's more like a stew. This is apparently a more recent change, and a lot of reviewers mentioned that the old packaging, with the steak and potatoes separate, created a much better meal overall. On top of that, the meat is tough and chewy, with one person on Reddit describing it as "fake and weird." The mashed potatoes are clearly artificial, with an almost gritty texture despite the gravy.

Things don't get better from here. The corn is tough and the cinnamon apple dessert is a sugary sludge. To top it off, the portion sizes are disappointing, with a reviewer on Walmart's website saying, "The amount that are in these now are almost comical," and another calling it "The saddest meal I've ever eaten."

Marie Callender's makes the list yet again for its sad attempt at honey-roasted chicken breast. This meal contains mashed potatoes topped with slices of turkey breast and smothered with gravy on one side, and a blend of carrots and broccoli on the other. Trouble starts before you even get a taste; the portion of turkey is minuscule, as is the amount of broccoli compared to carrots. To add insult to injury, the broccoli is mostly stems, with hardly any florets in sight.

This dish suffers from one of the same issues that Banquet's Salisbury steak does: putting the meat, potatoes, and gravy together creates a lumpy, soupy slurry. Once you do manage a taste, the flavor only makes things worse. While the carrots and what little broccoli there is taste fine, the chicken, gravy, and potatoes are mostly tasteless. The turkey certainly doesn't taste honey-roasted, and barely even tastes like turkey. The primary flavor in the gravy is salt, and the potatoes don't have any flavor at all.

Devour is a brand owned by Kraft Heinz, the company responsible for kitchen staples like Heinz ketchup, Kraft macaroni and cheese, and Kraft singles. Devour's target market is similar to Hungry-Man's, and the overall gist of its products is similar, too: high-protein, filling, "manly" frozen dinners. Unlike Hungry-Man, Devour takes traditional comfort meals and bumps them up a level, like with their Double Chicken Creamy Alfredo Ravioli.

Disappointingly, while this sounds like it should be delicious, the dish disappoints. To start, while this meal calls itself double chicken, it seems like the chicken was cut in half, not doubled, with only a few pieces in the whole dish. The chicken that is there is breaded, and, after a stint in the microwave, ends up mushy and kind of slimy.

The next issue comes from the ravioli. These are extremely doughy with hardly any filling. This results in ravioli that just tastes like dough and nothing else and has an awkward, chewy texture. The sauce doesn't add much, either; it isn't very thick and doesn't cling well to the ravioli. It's also pretty bland, which is surprising as the dish has over 1,000 grams of sodium.

P.F. Chang's is best known as a chain of restaurants that serves Chinese food with a fun flare. However, through its Home Menu line, the brand also offers single-serve meals, entrees, appetizers, snacks, and sides that you can purchase at the grocery store. For a brand with such popular restaurants, its frozen meals are somewhat disappointing, especially the Chicken Teriyaki Bowl.

This is a white rice bowl with chicken, pineapple, onions, bell peppers, and scallions blended together in a teriyaki sauce. Upon digging in, it becomes clear that this should have been labeled a pineapple bowl instead of a chicken one, as there is far more pineapple than chicken in this dish. This causes the meal to be intensely sweet, and it's unclear if this sweetness masks all other flavors or if there were just no other flavors there to begin with.

The chicken in this dish is strange, sort of spongey with an odd taste. Many reviewers found the dish difficult to finish, with one on Target's website saying, "I threw it away, couldn't get through it," and another on the Kroger website flat-out saying it's "Not edible."

Lean Cuisine finds itself on this list a second time for its glazed chicken meal. This dish is part of its Protein Kick line, a newer line of high-protein meals that's part of the recent rebranding efforts by Nestle. This protein comes primarily from the slices of white meat chicken, which is mixed with brown rice, green beans, cashews, and what it claims is a savory sauce.

What's unclear is whether Lean Cuisine knows what the definition of "savory" is, because it's not its glazed chicken. This dish is incredibly bland, with one reviewer on the GoodNes website stating, "It didn't taste like anything," and another saying, "I can't say it's the worst thing I've ever tasted because it has no taste whatsoever." The dish, despite being called glazed chicken, is severely lacking in chicken, and the bits that are there have a chewy, rubbery texture. The green beans, which just taste like green beans, are probably the best part of the meal.

The glazed chicken wasn't always an atrocity. The old version was a hit with consumers, and many find the new dish to be a massive letdown. Comments on the product page beg the brand to bring back the old version. One user sums it up by saying, "This new version is so disappointing."

Real Good Foods is a brand whose mission is to put healthy frozen food options on the market, foods with more protein, fewer carbs, and less added sugar. While this is a worthy goal, asa lot of frozen foods aren't particularly healthy, Real Good's execution isn't always stellar, like in the case of its Stuffed Chicken Cordon Bleu.

Chicken cordon bleu is a dish that involves wrapping ham and Swiss cheese inside a chicken breast, and then breading and frying the chicken. Theoretically, this should work well for a frozen meal, so long as you bake it instead of microwave it, and plenty of brands, including Aldi's Kirkwood brand, have pulled this off flawlessly. At Real Good, something went very wrong when it developed its Stuffed Chicken Cordon Bleu.

The dish overall is flat-out unappetizing. The chicken is dry, but the filling is where the biggest problem lies. It doesn't look like ham and melted cheese and doesn't taste like it, either. It's a strange, almost gray-colored goo with a rubbery texture like children's slime. One reviewer on Target's website said it "looks nothing like the picture... looks more like vomit," while another said, "It looked like the custard from Teletubbies." Another reviewer summed up the meal by saying, "I can confidently say that this is one of the worst things I've tasted. If you're looking to lose weight, buy this because after one bite you'll either throw it away or give it to your dog."

Let's be real: there are hundreds of frozen meals available in stores today. To determine what some of the worst options were, I used a multi-strategic approach. First, I drew from my own experience; I love to cook, but as a mom, I cook all of the time. When it's just me, I pretty much have the energy for either girl dinner or heating something frozen. Since my version of girl dinner is basically a handful of pretzels and a Diet Coke, frozen meals are the best way for me to get some protein.

This means I've had my fair share of frozen meals, both good and bad, but I didn't just want my opinion. I also looked around online for some of the worst-reviewed frozen meals to round out the list.