Price: $2.50
Serving: 1 tray, 12.3 oz.
Calories: 360 per serving
Fat: 9%, 6g
Cholesterol: 13%, 40mg
Sodium: 25%, 590mg
Protein: 20g
Carbohydrates: 19%, 56g
Fiber: 28%, 7g
Sugar: 17g
Weight Watchers Points: 7 POINTS

Healthy Choice says: beef in a Spicy Southwestern Style Sauce, Whole Grain Rice, Vegetable Blend & Caramel Apple Multigrain Crisp.

Jessica says: Healthy Choice Fajita Steak is good! As you can see in the pictures, this meaty Mexican-inspired dish with a kick had a healthy serving of EVERYTHING. Every compartment was filled up with frozen dinner foods. There was a admirable amount of whole grain rice, a decent helping of thick, beef chunks, plenty of corn with just a few beans (that’s the way I like it, but if you’re hoping for tons of beans, this isn’t for you) and the very reason why I love Healthy Choice complete meals, Apple Crisp! Mmmm!

I think the addition of cilantro in the vegetable blend was not my favorite combination, but the corn wasn’t too soft and the cilantro wasn’t so strong that I couldn’t enjoy the sweet corn. The Spicy Southwestern Style Sauce was a little spicy, but not bad at all, and there was plenty for not just the meat but also to mix in with the rice. Of course the beef is the typical frozen dinner beef, but the chunks were thick and there were several thumb-sized pieces. The Apple Crisp has always been my favorite Healthy Choice dessert, but you can definitely tell it’s a healthier version of the sticky, gooey mess my mom used to make me.

Eat it or leave it? Overall, I will definitely buy this again. It’s always hard to find frozen dinners that actually have a lot of food and variety. Healthy Choice really did a great job with this one.

Price: About $8.00
Serving: 1 souffle, 3.77oz.
Servings per box: 4
Calories: 317 per souffle
Calories from Fat: 189
Fat: 32%, 21g
  Saturated Fat: 65%, 13g
  Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 17%, 50mg
Sodium: 20%, 490mg
Protein: 7g
Carbohydrates: 9%, 26g
Fiber: 4%, 1g
Sugar: 12g
Weight Watchers Points: 8 POINTS

Entree Foods says: Using traditional methods, we have combined real Belgian bitter chocolate, thick Jersey double cream, free range Welsh eggs and fresh vanilla to create the perfect chocolate soufflé. To make it even more special try drizzling some luxurious brandy into the middle of your soufflé and serve with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream on the side.

Abi says: Commenters often implore me to sample items from Costco, but I live in a tiny apartment (497 square feet) with a moderately sized freezer and one other person. It is not the sort of situation that allows for Costco anything.

Until the day I saw these souffles.

I was at Costco to see if they had spa gift certificates at a good price (which they did), and to pick up a couple bottles of champagne. I did not intend to purchase any frozen foods, just to graze my way through a lunch worth of samples (and they had booze samples there that day! crazy! I did not drink them. Ahem.). I wound up with the following items: socks, gift cards, champagne, and chocolate souffles. And when I got home I did everything wrong with these souffles and they still turned out delicious. Okay, so they’re made with Belgian chocolate and that’s something pretty difficult to screw up, but boy did I suck at following directions.

Exhibit A: Instructions in bold that say Previously frozen do not refreeze.
What did I do when I got these home from Costco? I froze them. I thought they were from the freezer section! And I was leaving on a camping trip (which I’m now back from – woo Internet! And sleeping inside where it is not 35 degrees!), so I wasn’t going to stick a bunch of prepared egg-containing things in my fridge. Did the refreezing make these not-good in any way? No. They were super-delicious. The outer 1/2 inch of the souffle puffs up into almost-cakeyness and exhibits a dryness that nicely contrasts with the OMG LAVA HOT BURNING ARHG NO! HELP! CAN’T STOP EATING EVIL TOO-HOT! center of the souffle.

Exhibit B: Instructions to cook fully.
I did not cook these souffles fully. Well, the first time was my husband’s deal. We’d already been through multiple instances of ‘Oooh, let’s eat these chocolate things in the freezer!’ ‘Wait, WTF? 24 minutes in the oven? Plus preheating? No way.’ (Yes, we’ve been spoiled by the 55 seconds of microwave time required by Trader Joe’s Chocolate Lava Cakes) We finally got up the strength to cook these things for 24 minutes and they were underdone. Well, screw an extra 3-5 minutes in the oven – we had serious chocolate needs! The second time? Hey, those souffles were great underdone the first time….

Exhibit C: Well, look at that photo…. go on, click on it for a BIG version.
If you don’t cook the souffles all of the way then they don’t rise fully meaning that in just 30 seconds you’ll end up with a collapsed souffle because the inside is a puddle of chocolate goo. Belgian chocolate goo.

That’s fine because I like chocolate goo. If you are lucky enough to live near a Costco and have a Costco membership or have a mom as nice as mine who gives you a Costco membership (and AAA!) as a gift, then go to Costco and buy these. And if you think that everything at Costco sucks and you are a hater of big box stores and you love local foods and fine cuisine, then a) I am with you on a lot of those points…usually, and b) watch this video of Eric Ripert:

Costco!

Ingredients: Chocolate (cocoa liquor, granulated sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier: soy lecithin, vanilla extract), pasteurized free range egg, double cream, granulated sugar, cream cheese (cream, water, skimmed milk powder, salt, dairy cultures), vanilla extract, leavening agent: sodium bicarbonate.

One year ago: Lean Cuisine Steak Tips Dijon
Two years ago: Green Giant Healthy Weight Frozen Vegetables
Three years ago: Kashi Pesto Pasta Primavera

[/caption]Price: $3.99
Serving: 1 croissant, 1.5oz
Calories: 150 per serving
 Calories from Fat: 80
Fat: 14%, 9g
 Saturated Fat: 27%, 5g
 Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 8%, 25mg
Sodium: 6%, 150mg
Protein: 3g
Carbohydrates: 5%, 16g
Fiber: 0%, 0g
Sugar: 2g
Weight Watchers: 4 POINTS EACH

Trader Joe’s says: Croissants are meant to be served and savored fresh from the oven. Chef Jean-Yves Charon shapes these croissants to a smaller size that’s ideal for feeding a crowd. He makes the puff pastry in the traditional style, using butter and ultrathin layers of yeast dough, laboriously folded and refolded, cut and shaped by hand. You’ll appreciate how easy it is to bake them: Let the frozen croissants rise for about nine hours or overnight, then bake and voilà: warm flaky croissants. Set of 24. A Williams-Sonoma exclusive.

Abi says: Yes, that text above is from Williams-Sonoma. Why? Because Trader Joe’s didn’t put a pun-filled story on the box of Mini Croissants. Instead, they are suspiciously quiet about the origin of these flaky crescents of buttery love. But I have a feeling these pastries have the same maker as the Trader Joe’s Chocolate Croissants: world famous pastry chef Jean-Yves Charon. He also makes the Trader Joe’s Lemon Tartes. I did not like those.

But I liked these croissants a lot. Also, I’m easy. After 10 minutes spent trying to think of croissants I don’t like, my only conclusion is that letting croissants go stale makes them inedible in non-bread-pudding situations. Now, considering Williams-Sonoma wants me to share other consumer’s reviews over my own Facebook or Twitter profile I figured I’d cobble together a few statements to show why these croissants are so awesome (and why you shouldn’t pay $40 for the ones from William-Sonoma – unless you live 500 miles from a Trader Joe’s, then you should consider it – these croissants are quite nice with a bit of homemade blueberry jam).

Culled from 44 pages of positive reviews, here are some comments from William-Sonoma purchasers and my own additional remarks.

These are by far the best Croissants I have ever tasted and at 235 lbs I have tasted a lot.

I can’t decide if this is my favorite quote or if it makes me think twice about making croissants for the weekend.

These frozen mini croissants are exceptionally good – far better than those I make from scratch – (which I thought were pretty good!).

She’s right, they are better than the ones from scratch. It goes to show you that professional pastry chefs know their stuff.

I originally heard about these croissants on the Oprah show. I decided to try them, although they were more than I wanted to pay for them. After I served them for the brunch on Christmas Day, one of my two sons said, “Mom, you have to have these every Christmas now – they are fabulous!”

Oprah: making you buy stuff that is wonderful, but way, way too expensive.

They are like having a french baker living in your freezer.

But easier to explain to your husband. And the police.

Calling them ‘mini’ is a bit of a misnomer. They look tiny out of the box, but once you’ve baked them each croissant is about the size of a champagne mango, albeit nearly hollow inside. They make for a great sandwich, but I prefer pulling apart a croissant and spreading each bit with some jam. No butter is necessary.

The major drawback of these croissants? You have to think ‘I’m going to want croissants in the morning’ and then put out the croissants and have an apartment that is warm enough for bread to rise. Unrisen croissants are one of the saddest sights on a sleeting Saturday morning.

P.S. Trader Joe’s charges you 50¢ per croissant. William-Sonoma charges $1.67 per mini croissant. Are you willing to pay 3 times what you should (plus overnight shipping!) for mini croissants? I sure hope not.

Price: $5.00
Serving: 1/4 tarte, 2oz
Calories: 150 per serving
 Calories from Fat: 70
Fat: 12%, 8g
 Saturated Fat: 22%, 4.5g
 Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 8%, 25mg
Sodium: 28%, 670mg
Protein: 8g
Carbohydrates: 4%, 11g
Fiber: 4%, 1g
Sugar: 1g
Weight Watchers: 4 POINTS

Trader Joe’s says: Based on a 100-year-old recipe from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, this savory tart defied categorization. Not a pizza, much more than a flatbread an definitely not a dessert, this tart is savory, decadent and completely delectable! It starts with a thin, crisp, hand-folded crust that’s perfectly fired for exactly the right balance of flavor and texture. The crust is topped with creme fraice, caramelized onions, thinly sliced ham and Gruyere cheese. Bake it in a 475 degree oven for 7-10 minutes and you’ll have an appetizer to astonish your guests.* Or pair is with a salad and you’ve got dinner for two in ten minutes or less. Delicieux!

Abi says: I am up for just about any excuse to open a bottle of sparkling wine, including baking French-inspired frozen meals. I didn’t feel like getting trashed last Thursday night (and I volunteer at an elementary school on Friday mornings – NOT something you want to do hung over), so I opened a bottle of relatively inexpensive sparkling wine from Trader Joe’s (something I woudn’t feel bad not finishing), popped a Trader Joe’s Tarte d’Alsace in a super-heated (400 degrees) oven, and ate some salad.

Yeah, I know how to party.

However, my smoke detector does not know party. If I heat the oven above 350 degrees (aka hotter than chocolate chip cookie temperature), the smoke detector goes off. Is my apartment smoky? No. Have I potentiallty freaked out my neighbors? Not really: sensitive smoke detectors are a problem in the entire apartment complex. You’d think none of use knew how to cook at the rate our alarms screech.

Thank goodness this tart(e) is worth all that horrible noise. The crust crisps up into delightful flakiness that belies a surprsingly low calorie count (600 calories in the ENTIRE tart – dang), making me wonder just why I ever buy those heavy, sodden DiGiorno frozen pizzas. Usually the toppings are my priority in a pizza-like item, but here the well-cooked ham ham played second fiddle to the crust. I’m a sucker for good crust. But back to the ham: it is abundant! It completely destroys your meat expectations! Also, the ham is well-cooked (aka not soggy) and surrounded by salty, savory gruyere all floating atop the thin layer of creme fraiche (sort of like sour cream, but more awesome than you can imagine cooked sour cream on pizza being because in my head warm sour cream on a pizza is more ‘problem’ than ‘awesome’) that keeps this all from being a big salt-fest.

Alas, there are downsides. Trader Joe’s seems to think that ‘caramelized onions’ means onions with added caramel color. That is a total jerk move. Hey, want some ice cream? Oh, sorry – it is ice with cream on it! Who does that to someone? Second, I am pretty good at pronouncing words, but erythobate throws me. I wouldn’t bring this up (hey, I ate this crazy-ingredient-containing California Pizza Kitchen pepperoni pizza), but Trader Joe’s specifically displays signs that say you’ll be able to pronounce all of the ingredients in their foods. They also don’t specify at what age you’ll be able to pronounce the foods. They might want to consider new signs.

The use of meat preservatives aside (most of the meat preservatives you see in frozen food are there to make sure the meat doesn’t turn gray – not a judgment on safety there, just indicating use), I love this tarte. It is everything I could ever want in a pizza-ish product, plus it goes perfectly wish a salad and sparkling wine to create the sort of dinner that you don’t want to share. Which I didn’t and my husband came home and was all ‘Mmm, it smells good in here…is there any food left?’ and I was all “I’ve been working on this bottle of sparkling wine for two hours…do you think there is any food left?”

*Trader Joe’s says “you’ll have an appetizer to astonish your guests” but if you live in Stanford grad student housing you’ll have an appetizer that’ll freak out your guests because it will set off your smoke detector.

Ingredients: CRUST: Wheat flour, water, sunflower oil, salt. TOPPINGS: Creme fraiche (cultured pasteurized cream, citric acid, sodium ascorbate), cooked ham (cured with water added, salt, sugar, sodium phosphates, smoke flavoring, sodium erythrobate, sodium nitrite), caramelized yellow onions (yellow onions, canola oil, caramel color) gruyere cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, enzymes, salt).