Price: $4.99
Serving: 1 souffle, 2.6oz
Souffles per package: 2
Calories: 270 per serving
 Calories from Fat: 140
Fat: 25%, 16g
 Saturated Fat: 50%, 10g
 Trans Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 28%, 85mg
Sodium: 3%, 80mg
Protein: 4g
Carbohydrates: 9, 27g
Fiber: 8%, 2g
Sugar: 13g
Weight Watchers Points: 6 per souffle

if you need ramekins
if you don’t need ramekins

Trader Joe’s says: Do you dream of baking your own souffles for an elegant snack or dessert? Just don’t think you have the know-how? Trader Joe’s Ready to Bake Chocolate Souffles to the rescue! These fabulous, chocolate-y souffles (already in their own ceramic ramekins) go from freezer to oven without defrosting and are ready to enjoy in 20 minutes. Serve them as is, or for a dessert worth of the finest restaurant, top with freshly whipped cream and/or fresh raspberry puree. Voila! Your dreams have become a reality.

Abi says: These souffles are fantastic. Each one is pillowing and just a bit eggy (in a good way) and has enough fluff and puff to deliver intense chocolate without weighing you down. Also, each souffle is a satisfyingly rich dessert at 270 calories. PER RAMEKIN. Granted, these souffles are also half the size of the unfairly portioned Patrick David frozen chocolate souffles. But they are also more richly chocolatey. And come in classy ramekins, a state that may be a plus or a minus depending on whether or not you need tiny, tiny bowls.

When I first saw these puffy tubs of heaven at Trader Joe’s I thought “Five bucks? That’s a lot for two Trader Joe’s desserts!” Then I realized that the price included approximately 25¢ worth of Chinese ceramics, which inflated to American prices equals a couple of dollars. If you need ramekins, this is an excellent deal as they cost a buck or two each and these ones come with yet-unbaked souffles!

If you don’t need ramekins, you might buy these once just to try them and then never buy them again because unless you’re planning on opening a second-hand china shop, the world has enough ramekins. Sadly, I fall in the later camp. I adored these, but I dread piling up a cupboard full of ramekins just because I happen to enjoy chocolate souffles. Another downside to such a wonderfully elegant and fresh dessert is that these take 22 minutes to bake in a 375 degree oven. That’s a long time when you’re used to the 1 minute chocolate lava cakes.

For those uninitiated into the world of souffles, I’ll let you in on a secret: souffle liquid can be made at almost any time and then refrigerated into ramekined individual servings for later use. Not familiar with how to make souffles? Check out this terrific recipe (with plenty of photos) from Cooking for Engineers.

Price: $4.49
Serving: 3 slices, .46oz
Servings per package: ~5
Calories:70 per serving
 Calories from Fat: 50
Fat: 9%, 6g
 Saturated Fat: 10%, 2g
 Trans Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 5%, 15mg
Sodium: 11%, 260mg
Protein: 4g
Carbohydrates: 0%, 0g
Fiber: 0%, 0g
Sugar: 0g
Weight Watchers Points: 3 per serving

Boar’s Head says: The premium taste of Boar’s Head Bacon is ready in just 25 seconds or less! Our fully cooked and naturally smoked bacon has all the taste of our regular sliced bacon, in a lot less time. Fourteen slices have been separated into two individual pouches to keep bacon at its freshest, so it tastes great whether stacked on a sandwich, tossed in a salad, or served at breakfast. Boar’s Head Fully Cooked Bacon – big-time taste, in no time flat.

Abi says: Boar’s Head pre-cooked bacon comes in two packages with a variety of pluses and minuses. One one hand, you can keep one package fresh while you use the other. On the other hand, this bacon is all stuck together and might not come apart in perfect strips. However, if you just need to dice it you’re in luck because it will dice beautifully when cold, which is not the case with the Oscar Mayer version.

These strips are less like faux bacon and more like miraculously preserved thin strips of bacon. Each one looks and tastes like real bacon, with the smokiness and fat you expect. They’re also wavy, just like real bacon. You have to use all of the bacon within 14 days of opening the package, but I dare your household to not consume 14 strips of bacon in 14 days.

Most of my bacon use is for baked goods, such as rip-off Red Lobster cheese biscuits or green beans with bacon and sweet onion. Given enough coffee, I don’t mind cooking breakfast meat for breakfast – but to cook breakfast meat so that I can then bake it? Well, that’s too many types of cooking for my taste. After this experience with Boar’s Head, I definitely have to give them the thumbs up over Oscar Mayer’s Pre-Cooked Bacon. Looking back, its hard to believe that I gave the Oscar Mayer bacon five stars. But I guess they deserve it for being pioneers in the ready-to-eat bacon field.

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A note on Gluten Free – Heat Eat Review does not assume that products are gluten free. We only mark items as gluten free if it also says gluten free on the package. The same goes for vegan items. If it says vegan on the box, then we mark it as vegan.

This is NOT true for vegetarian items. Vegetarian items might contain all sorts of meat-based things like gelatin, rennet and ‘natural flavoring’ that comes from meat. If you really want to make sure that you aren’t eating or harming animals, go for the vegan items. – Editrix

Price: $5.79
Serving: 1/5 of pizza (150g)
Calories: 360 per serving
Fat: 26%, 17g
Cholesterol: 12%, 35mg
Sodium: 35%, 840mg
Protein: 17g
Carbohydrates: 11%, 34g
Fiber: 12%, 3g
Sugar: 6g
Weight Watchers Points: 8 per serving
Weight Watchers Points: 40 per pizza

DiGiorno says: Pizzeria-style crust topped with a thick, rich Italian recipe sauce, hearty chunks of flavorful Italian Sausage, abundant Pepperoni, mushrooms, and julienne strips of red onion, green and red peppers.

Becky says: Our house is very pro-pizza. We’re also very picky about what is lucky enough to grace our TV trays. While Papa Murphy’s holds the top spot for the cheap goods, we do still have a little room in our hearts for the neglected stepchild stuck in the freezer case. That spot just got a little tighter, as this is the first offering by DiGiorno that I actually enjoyed!!!

First and foremost, my biggest pet peeve about frozen pizza is that half of the cheese bakes off of the dang thing while it’s in the oven, and for that very reason, I had invested in one of those holey-bottomed pizza pans. While not 100% effective in containing spillage, it was better than nothing…I could TRY to salvage the rejected toppings. With this pizza, though; I decided to throw caution to the wind and try the ol’ ‘place pizza directly on rack’ trick again…for sake of writing this review, of course! While it was baking, I kept sniffing…waiting…knowing that that telltale scent of burning cheese was soon heading my way. But nothing happened! When the timer finally went off, and I opened the oven, I was truly impressed by what I saw – all of the toppings stayed intact! It’s a miracle!

Okay, so the label says 5 servings. That may work if you’re under the age of 7. I hate how manufacturers use nutritional labeling to their advantage, to make their product look better than it actually is. In all honesty, this was the perfect size pizza for 2 adults, and that changes things. In the end this just ticks me off, and I mentally scold myself for not going to the gym that morning.

In all honesty, though – this pizza was GOOD. The crust was cooked perfectly, and wasn’t too thick or too thin (it was just a tad bit thinner than a typical hand-tossed pizza). There was a nicely flavored tomato sauce, and it was evenly distributed. The sausage was juicy (although the pieces were a tad bit on the big side), and the pepperoni was thick-sliced and not overly greasy. There were plenty of mushrooms, onion, and green pepper; however, I was disappointed by the pitiful soggy little morsels of red pepper…but 1 out of 6 ain’t bad! The cheese had melted evenly, had a good texture, and stayed on the pizza – that’s enough to make me happy!

Overall, I was impressed by this – and will buy it again if the need arises, and I’m not at a store that offers my favorite frozen pizza (Culinary Circle – the Albertsons brand) Supreme with Roasted Vegetables). Thanks DiGiorno, for helping me to believe in frozen pizza once again!

Price: $3.49
Serving: 1 quiche, 6oz
Servings per package: 1
Calories: 430 per quiche
 Calories from Fat: 220
Fat: 38%, 25g
 Saturated Fat: 71%, 14g
 Trans Fat: 0.5g
Cholesterol: 44%, 135mg
Sodium: 31%, 730mg
Protein: 18g
Carbohydrates: 11%, 34g
Fiber: 6%, 1g
Sugar: 5g
Weight Watchers Points: 10 Points

Nancy says: Did you know there are over 750 cheeses officially recognized by the French government? When I’m there I always visit the local cheese shops, or fromageries where I”m able to take a taste tour of France simply by sampling the distinctive regional cheeses. It’s in these fromageries that I discovered the rich flavor combinations perfect for my Three Cheese Quiche. Preparing it as simple as un, deux, trios. Bon Appetit.

Abi says: I’ve always eyed these quiches with suspicion. How could the crust come out of the microwave anything other than soggy? And wouldn’t eggs from the microwave be rubbery? And cheese, I’ve never really enjoyed eggs with cheese. But that’s more of a personal preference thing than a microwaved quiche issue. However, I picked this up because I was hungry and not a single thing from Amy’s Kitchen or Lean Cuisine or Smart Ones looked any good.

Three and a half minutes of microwave time later (okay, that time plus my scooter* ride home – so 15 minutes later), this little quiche destroyed all of those misconceptions. Yeah, you might not find a single one of the major flavorings (Cheddar, Monterey & Pepper Jack with mild green chiles) in France, but you will instantly appreciate that you may never have to wait for quiche again.

The outside crust if eerily flaky and I don’t have the box anymore so I can’t tell you if that’s because there’s a ton of butter in here or because they use oil or shortening or pixie dust. The outside edges of the flaky crust are dry, but the very center of the crust is a bit moist. It will also not slide instantly off of the paper tray, so be aware that you’ll need to use a fork to get the quiche out of its cooking compartment.

The egg-based filling is absurdly fluffy, almost to the point that I wondered whether it was fully cooked. Yes, it is cooked. It is also mildly cheesy with the tiniest tang of spice from the green chiles. We’re talking milder than mild salsa tang. This isn’t a strongly flavored quiche. It isn’t rich with bacon or ham, or crazy meat flavors. It doesn’t have the swampy flavor of broccoli. It is a placid spot in the choppy seas of frozen food sampling.

*Yes, that is the kind of scooter I use to get from my home to the train and from the train to my office in San Francisco. And you thought I was a geek because I run a frozen food review website.