The Pasta-farian Diet

I think I’m going to propose a new diet called “The Pasta-farian.” I freely admit I’m borrowing the concept, in toto, from a research study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in which dieting subjects ate frozen Uncle Ben’s Rice Bowls and lost weight. Now, clearly, despite the frantic efforts of anti-carbohydrate apostles over the years, if you can eat rice and lose weight, it can work for spaghetti and its cousins, too.

The theory behind the rice-bowl diet was simple; that people had difficulty in portion control or in correctly judging just how many calories they were actually eating. By using prepared frozen foods, this uncertainty was eliminated, and the participants eating the frozen foods lost more weight than those who prepared their own meals within the caloric guidelines (not to mention, saved a lot of time!). These results were replicated both in male and female test subjects.

The great thing about my new Pasta-farian diet is that, unlike the somewhat limited rice bowl selection (during the study, 24 choices), dozens of manufacturers of frozen food produce hundreds of pasta choices, ranging from Healthy Choice Stuffed Pasta Shells Marinara (230 calories) to Marie Callender’s Fettuccine Alfredo with Garlic Bread, weighing in at a whopping 920 calories. There are dishes to suit all tastes and all caloric or carbohydrate requirements. For carnivores, from Swanson comes Hungry-Man Hearty Meatball Lasagna Bake, while over at Amy’s Organics you Vegans can get your lasagna with vegetables or tofu. For palates wanting a more café-style selection, Bertolli offers a terrific line of pasta dinners for two in a bag, while Stouffer’s new Corner Bistro selections are catching on fast.

So, don’t hesitate. There are lots of great lunches and dinners that can fit into the Pasta-farian diet plan for successful weight loss, not to mention the ease of preparation. Hey…if it works, why not?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Salisbury...

When you start exploring the world of frozen foods, TV dinners – call them what you will – one of the first things that you notice is that some entrees seem to take on a life of their own.

It’s the only way to explain why certain meals appear in virtually every brand of frozen food.
Take fried chicken. In one form or another, it’s carried by Swanson, Banquet, Marie Callender’s, Healthy Choice (as “breaded” chicken) and Swanson Hungry-Man product lines. Obviously America is fanatical about its fried chicken. Ditto lasagna. Lasagna, with or without meat sauce or with veggies instead of meat, is served by Amy’s Organics (seven different ways!), Marie Callender’s, Swanson and even Weight Watchers, among others.
But the big winner has got to be the ever-popular Salisbury Steak. With mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes or even grilled onions, Salisbury steak outflanks the competition (yes, that’s a pun). Served by no less than ten different food manufacturers in various combinations, America must have a love affair with the homely hamburger in its Prom dress: gravy.
What is it about Salisbury steak that moves us to eat it in droves? Does it really taste better than other beef dishes? This hardly seems likely. It’s not as if you stumble across a lot of foodie blogs waxing rhapsodic about the lowly Salisbury Steak.

Perhaps it is nothing more than an acquired habit… it would be hard to find an adult in the USA that hasn’t eaten a Salisbury Steak TV dinner as a kid, and for most people, choosing food tends to be “go with what you know.” It’s predictable, is old Salisbury steak. We may not like the potatoes it comes with or we may have a different preference for gravy but when we pick one up at the market, we know what we’re getting.

It’s a known quantity. It may not be fabulous, but it’s not dreadful, either.
Maybe our fascination with Salisbury steak is a “comfort food” decision: a burger with pot roast’s accessories of gravy and mashed potatoes without the hours it takes to produce an actual pot roast.

Of course, there’s the alternate theory… it’s just a good excuse for an adult to eat a burger for dinner.

Enjoy

A few years ago, I was ill. It was difficult to shop but nearly impossible to cook. So I hesitantly ventured into the frozen food aisles of my local grocery store, seeking ready-made meals that I could have handy in my freezer.

I had no idea what to choose or how to choose it. Thousands of entrees and meals confronted me and I had absolutely no clue what to buy. Having heard good things about Boston Market™ restaurants, I grabbed two items from that line: a chicken-and-noodle dinner and a side dish of macaroni and cheese.

I thought the chicken-and-noodle dinner would be safe - how bad could it be? And of course, the picture on the box looked great! After all, isn't that how we all basically choose these foods? We've either had it before and it was "okay" or we buy the image on the outside of the box. (More thoughts on food photography as a form of hypnosis or Black Magic some other time).

How bad could it be? The answer is: oh, really, really bad.

What I thought would be somewhat bland comfort food was so tasteless, it was inedible. I literally threw it out after a few bites. (By the way...for the chicken-y comfort food my mouth was wanting, see Banquet Crock Pot Classics Creamy Chicken with Pasta Dinner).
A few nights later I prepared the mac and cheese as a side dish - and it was also ghastly. If there had ever been cheese in that dish, it had long since disappeared into the Witness Protection Program.

And so the idea for the Icebox Diner was born: a place where everyone could share their experiences with frozen meals, telling each other what we like and what we don't like; what is great low-carb food and what's dreadful; what really is low-fat and what isn't. A place to warn other folks not to try that Brand X Yak-Meat Dinner or to share with other Diners that the Bertolli dinners-in-a-bag are actually great. Tell us how much you paid, so we can see what company gives you the most bang for your buck.

Again, welcome. We are really happy to have you join us. Take a counter seat or a booth. Contribute your reviews of frozen snacks, entrees and dinners - even desserts. Add products that we don't have yet.

Enjoy.

It's all about me

Auntie, as she prefers to be called, may be the black sheep of the Gore-May family but she knows what she likes. As she wipes tables and pours coffee at the Diner she occasionally reflects on her youth: golden summers at her grandparents' home on Long Island, yachting and playing tennis, where an entree was an entrée... snowy winters at her other grandparents' home in rural Canada, collecting pinecones in the snowy woods and spooning up home-nurtured soup beside the fire... Here she shares her thoughts...