We regularly keep frozen entrees in the freezer for my vegetarian daughter. While I mostly cook vegetarian now, there are times when we really want something else and she is not willing to cook for herself. Some of her favorites are the TJ's Masala vegetarian burgers and Boca's spicy chickenless patties. We also used to get the TJ's frozen asian dumplings, but I haven't bought them for a while now.

My daughter also found some house-brand veggie meals at Super Target that she really liked.

I've been a fan for years of Stouffer's Spinach Souffle. It goes with everything.

Suzy

seebee wrote:I once tried their chicken vindaloo, butter chicken, and massamun thai curry - all frozen, all inedible. Just plain garbage. Well, I DID actually eat the butter chicken. Still it was pretty bad, and the other two were completely inedible.

Just had the butter chicken - you weren't kidding. Even after I lowered my expectations after reading your post, it was pretty bad. I tried to mask the weird flavors as much as possible by dousing it with a ton of hot sauce, but the odd sweetness still came through. Also, the curry-to-rice ratio was way off...there wasn't enough curry to properly mix into the rice (or as my MIL would say, "eee, why are you eating your rice so dry?!").

Trader Joe's frozen Butter Chicken entree is now officially on my blacklist.

-- frozen meat dumplings and mushroom-filled dumplings from the freezer at Joe and Frank's deli, 87th and Ridgeland (they're wonderful in fresh beef broth or hot beet borscht, respectively)
-- Apollo frozen tyropita and spanokopita
-- Pepperidge Farm frozen puff pastry (good for last-minute Marshall-field's-style chicken pot pies w/ pastry triangles on top)
-- frozen passion fruit pulp from the Caribbean grocery La Unica on Devon Ave. (tho I haven't been there in a while, more's the pity)

The only prepared frozen food I wish I could have in my freezer is the discontinued Stouffer's Noodles Romanoff (::sniff:: ). I'm working on developing a satisfactory homemade version and will post on my progress later.

Katie wrote:The only prepared frozen food I wish I could have in my freezer is the discontinued Stouffer's Noodles Romanoff (::sniff:: ). I'm working on developing a satisfactory homemade version and will post on my progress later.

Yeah, hate to say it, but I used to love that, too; must be the eastern European in me, what with all that sour cream ... Let us know if you manage that. I'm for any kind of noodles that go with sour cream!

Katie and webdiva--you two might enjoy this--go downpage to the second recipe--which shows that you are not alone.

Geo

Geo, I've been working off that web page as a starting point, but still haven't gotten my noodles Romanoff the way I like it yet.

Katie, pls keep us apprised of your progress! We're rootin' for you..... Makes you wonder what Stouffer's was thinking? Although who knows, maybe there's only a few of us, actually, who supported the product.

Geo

Well, just eyeballing the recipes, I'd start by making the following changes in the 'Stouffer's' Romanoff recipe:

Breakstone's sour half and half (reduced fat sour cream); it's fine, but I'm tempted to go for Breakstone's full strength instead.
2% milk -- how on earth can one use skim milk in this???
skip the cottage cheese
one-third finely grated real aged Parmesan, two-thirds finely shredded/grated Tillamook extra-sharp cheddar or Black Diamond extra-sharp cheddar; at least 3/4 cup grated/shredded total
2 tbsp. Wondra flour, mixed into the grated cheeses before you add those to anything else
regular Smart Balance margarine instead of butter (that's the one place it's safe to cut calories)
2 tbsp. avocado oil instead of the other oils (avocado has no lingering taste other than richness, and it's a nice monosaturated fat)
onion powder, a tiny pinch of garlic powder, a pinch of white pepper, and a few drops each of regular Tabasco and Lea & Perrins white-wine Worcestershire (not enough to notice the Tabasco, just enough to keep things from tasting boring)
wide goulash noodles

I'd make the sauce first, on a gentle simmer while the noodles were cooking and adding the cheeses last, bit by bit and stirring all the while; then drain (save some of the pasta water from the bottom, with the starch in it), butter (Smart Balance) them and drop them into the sauce, mixing well, then adjust the taste by adding more seasoning or grated cheese, as needed. If the sauce starts to break once you've added the noodles, add a tablespoon or two of the pasta water and mix well. And then serve immediately, possibly with a bit of minced Italian parsley over the top.

Let me know if this works for you, Katie.

Actually, that sounds so good that now I'm wondering why I don't have any goulash noodles in the house ... !



I love you, but I love paprikash more. This is what it means to be Hungarian. -- anonymous Magyar

The blackbean chipotle veggie burger from Costco is so easy to prepare. We just microwave each burger for 2 minutes and then add guacamole on top. I put the burger into a whole wheat tortilla.