But Twinkies aren't a balanced meal, which led to the "Morton Twinkie Supper. Another one of Swanson's international options, this frozen dinner looks like a predecessor to what you might find at an American Chinese takeout restaurant today. If Swanson's international cuisine was gaining traction, this was the all-American alternative: fried chicken.
Hey, for being frozen, it doesn't look half bad! Another one of Swanson's international options, the Italian-style dinner featured spaghetti, spinach, and an apple-peach compote for dessert. From the looks of this vintage ad, the Swanson Mexican-style dinner featured an enchilada, black beans, and rice. Now owned by Nestle, Lean Cuisine provided a "healthier" alternative to other TV dinners when it was introduced in the '80s.
One of the earliest flavors, Chicken and Vegetables, was marketed to women as a lower-calorie alternative to Stouffer's frozen meals. Banquet's classic flavors, like the Salisbury steak, have been around for decades. But if you're an '80s kid, there's a good chance you had this meal at least once growing up. Hot Pockets are still in the freezer aisle of your grocery store. But they were invented in , and they're sure to bring nostalgia for people who grew up during that decade.
Hey, alternating between scalding-hot cheese and still-frozen meat was just part of the fun. Another frozen "snack" that was really a meal, Bagel Bites hit shelves in Fortunately, they're still available today. Now listed as a "classic taste" among Stouffer's offerings, this dinner made mac and cheese easier than ever. You don't even have to boil water! Prefer to cook from scratch? Stouffer's made use of the relatively new but incredibly quick and convenient microwave oven technology and related microwave-safe packaging.
A divorce. Their young daughters. Wait, what? Dieters are encouraged to follow a plan, which includes three calorie snacks, two calorie meal replacements, and one actual meal per day. And that healthy posture is a little more complicated for Lean Cuisine. On top of that, the idea that the cholesterol a person consumes in their food has any effect on the levels of cholesterol in their body has been debunked for at least 15 years, so the low-cholesterol promise of Lean Cuisine is pretty much pointless.
In , I was 11, and Lean Cuisine had a slate of TV commercials that were slightly different but all centered on a group of four female friends — just like Sex and the City! The fourth woman — peppy, carefree, thin — would describe a rich, complicated-sounding meal with many delicious components. Three jaws go slack with jealousy and horror. Just try absorbing calories when your stomach and esophagus are riddled with holes!
Later, when I graduated and moved to New York, I ate it daily. If I wanted to eat comforting, cheap, not particularly healthy food that was less likely to make me gain weight than other comforting, cheap, not particularly healthy foods, who was I hurting? Then again, what is a personal choice?
The pressure to be thin is not something I can remove from myself, or others, regardless of what a formerly-known-as-diet company may say about itself now. Nate Hill, the marketing director for Lean Cuisine, provided information for this story via email. How will you be known?
The takeaway from reviewing these take out alternatives basically comes down to the fact that Lean Cuisines are not meant to be complete meals.
Adding a side of fruit or veggies will boost the good for you value and even out the nutritional ups and downs of the microwavable meals. But there's one question that remains throughout the brand's nearly 40 year history, are these supposedly healthy meals really good for you? The folks at Live Strong dug deep into the topic and the verdict is hardly cut and dry.
With highly processed products ranging from four cheese cannelloni to coconut chickpea curry listed on Lean Cuisine's current product page , the only common denominators are the low calorie count and an ever appealing convenience factor.
In the s, Lean Cuisine also targeted dieters by emphasizing fat free and low fat entrees. An ad from By the late s, though, Lean Cuisine embraced the popularity of Weight Watchers by printing the number of Weight Watchers points that each frozen entree was worth. Dieters, then, could eat Lean Cuisine while easily following their Weight Watchers programs. Because of the FDA, the amounts of fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol in all of Lean Cuisines products must be under a certain amount of grams to qualify for the name Lean Cuisine.
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