Price: $2.50
Serving: 1 Pot Pie, 8oz.
Calories: 160
Fat: 6%, 4g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 20%, 490mg
Protein: 17g
Carbs: 9%, 27g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Weight Watchers Points: 3 Points

Amy’s Kitchen says: We’ve created a meatless, dairy free and lower fat version of this traditional meal. Organically grown vegetables are simmered in a nourishing broth and blanketed with fluffy mashed potatoes.

Jess says: The name Shepherd’s Pie invokes, for me, cannibalism. This is very likely due to my too early exposure to Sweeney Todd as a youth. Really, what was my elementary school teacher thinking?! Now I’m always left to wonder if the spirit of some innocent tradesman is lying restless in my meat pies. But thankfully, the Amy’s brand caters to the more easily scarred, or morally/psychologically meataphobic among us. Amy’s shepherd’s pie box assures me that there is nothing that once had a heartbeat lying under that lovely thick layer of mashed potatoes (vegetable carnage/violence is a-ok with me and Amy). And lovely you are potatoes as you provide gentle starchy exfoliation to my tongue while still going down so smoothly! And how easily the potatoes absorb the gravy resting below for an extra oomph of salty savoriness (Amy calls the gravy “broth” but that is misleading and does not describe its heartiness).

Like an experienced ice-fisherman, I poke a whole through my potato layer to find a school of vegetables in that gravy sea. Carrots, and yes more potatoes, abound. Garbanzo beans too, chock-full. Who knows what a chock may be? But chock-full of veggies you are, Shepherd Pie. Delicious. Different. Nothing of the Hannibal about you! And maybe even good for me?

Despite the meager appearance of the Shepherd’s Pie it does an adequate job of holding off hunger. I think the potatoes might expand somewhere along the road to digestion. But holding off hunger should not be confused with filling. You’ll be hungry again soon enough:. I’d say 2 to 3 hours after consumption. I wish that there were someway to slightly brown the top of the potatoes which I think would add much to the eating experience so everything you’re eating is not just mushy and babyfood-esque in texture. There is this thing, an oven they call it, which might do the trick. I’m hoping to give this a try next time when heating up this item at home. I think that would boost this pie up to a 5. After all, fullness is always going to be temporary. Taste is paramount.

Price: $3 (on sale)
Serving: One package, 9.5 oz.
Calories: 260
Fat: 12%, 8g
Cholesterol: None
Sodium: 28%, 680mg
Carbs: 12%, 37g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Protein: 12g

Amy’s Kitchen says: A non-dairy variation of the traditional Mattar Paneer, using tofu along with organic peas in a light, delicately seasoned sauce. On the side are fragrant basmati rice and what we call “Swarn’s Golden Lentil Dal,” which is simmered with organic tomatoes, onions and hand-roasted spices.

Andrew says: When I was a student at a preparatory academy during my junior and senior years of high school, I was "adopted" by some true-school Indian guys. One of them, a residence assistant on my floor, was like the brother I never had, and fed me like I was a member of the family. From samosas filled with curried peas and potatoes to chunks of delicious paneer (Indian cheese) slathered in exotic spices, I was awash in a new world of culinary delights for the better part of two years. And these were homemade meals, so they were accurate, fresh and lovingly made.

The experience kind of spoiled me. Now I live in northern Indiana, in a place where Indian restaurants are, for all intents and purposes, a fantasy. My Indian brothers have moved on to other areas, and so my exposure to the delights of Indian cuisine are far and few between.

I've known Amy's Kitchen makes frozen Indian meals for a while, but I've always been afraid to try them, lest they suck immensely. After all, I've only been exposed to the finest stuff; how could I expect a frozen meal to live up to that standard, or even come near it?

Well, I love frozen food. The advances made in frozen food since I've been born are absolutely astounding. Vegetables stay crisp and flavorful, meat no longer HAS to turn into a gelatinous mess, and even frozen mashed potatoes turn out pretty good more often than not. So, with that in mind, I took the plunge and invested my faith in some Amy's Indian meals.

They were all pretty fantastic. I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, but the quality of these meals, when prepared properly actually approaches what I had before. In this version of mattar paneer (with tofu chunks standing in for the soft Indian cheese), there's a good, sweet curry flavor that actually reminds me of stuff my friend's mom used to make. It's not quite as spicy as I remember, but it's tasty.

And the tofu works well as a vegan replacement for the paneer. Texture-wise, they're almost identical, and to be frank, paneer's main utility in dishes like this seems to be texture, so there you go. Alongside the curried peas and tofu is golden lentil dal, which is good and spicy as well, but makes me wish I had some naan (flatbread) to sop it up with. Instead of bread, though, we're given the organic rice blend, which I'm sure turns out better in a microwave than flatbread would. And it's easy enough to spork up some rice and then spork up some dal and/or mattar tofu and then spork it into your mouth and say, "that Amy's sure can cook up some mean frozen Indian food!"

I'm giving this five stars mainly because I didn't think it was possible to create something frozen (and totally natural and totally organic) that could even approximate homemade Indian food. It's not quite restaurant or homemade quality, but for frozen food, it's basically the most fantastic thing ever.

[The tofu and cheese versions are loved by all who have consumed and written about them, including Jess of HeatEatReview.com (paneer review) and Tanya at Iateapie.net (tofu review) - Ed.]

Price: $0.80
Serving: 1 entire bag, .26 oz.
Calories: 30
Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 0%, 0mg
Protein: 1g
Carbs: 2%, 6g
Fiber: 6%, 1g

Brothers International Food Corporation says: We start with luscious fruit, straight from some of the best growing regions in the world. We then send it directly to our state-of-the-art FREEZE DRIED process that gently removes the water from the fresh fruit, and transforms it into a delicious, delightfully light, and flavorful CRISP. As always, we simply use fruit, nothing artificial, definitely no added sugar…just fruit, THE BEST FRUIT.

Abi says: These berries were one of the many food items I foisted on my colleagues this spring. They were also my first experience with freeze dried food. Somehow, I managed to resist the freeze dried ice cream during my childhood trips to OMSI and the Pacific Science Center. In the gift shop was generally more enamored of the hand boilers.

I considered consuming the entire .26 ounces of fruit myself, but then I would have missed seeing Chad, Kate, and Josh realize that they’d just consumed strawberry-flavored styrofoam. I kid. These are not made of styrofoam, they just taste the way styrofoam would taste if it was made very sour and produced in the color of dried blood. I do not kid about the dried blood part.

Brothers All Natural’s freeze dried fruits aren’t just a flavor explosion, they’re also a textural experience. Each little berry will suck all of the saliva out of your mouth and into the product, thus making it possible for you to experience desert-like thirst and an uncomfortably full mouth at the same time.

Only after exhorting my colleagues to consume these berries did I realize that they were from China. Holy crap, I’m eating freeze-dried strawberries from China? Isn’t that a little ridiculous? I mean, I can see purchasing other things from China, like silk, catfish, and toothpaste, but strawberries? From now on, I’m not willing to go any further than Chile to get my red, sour, styrofoamy fruit.

Price: $1.79
Serving: 1/2 can, 9.5 oz.
Calories: 150
Fat: 3%, 2g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 36%, 870mg
Carbohydrates: 21%, 28g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Protein: 9g

Progresso says: A traditional Italian combination of lentils and spinach gives this naturally flavorful soup an authentic Italian taste.

Rebecca says: According to their website, Progresso's slogan is "A Taste of the Good Life." Indeed, Progresso's Vegetable Classics Lentil soup was quite tasty. It had the salty, onion-y flavor of restaurant lentil soup and didn't seem to miss anything by absence of onion pieces, carrots, or tomatoes which were suggested in the recipe I found for lentil soup online.

As one can see from the picture, the lentils sunk to the bottom, which gave the illusion of too much broth. However, unlike the Gumbo I previously reviewed, a quick stir resulted in a nice mix of broth and lentils. The lentils themselves were flavorful and neither too mushy nor too crunchy.

There were pieces of spinach and celery throughout the soup which were, amazingly, the same size as the lentils. This attention to detail must be evidence of the "good life" Progresso reveals to us. As I ate the soup in full spoonfuls, I could not identify the taste of these vegetables as they were outnumbered and out-textured by the lentils. Mostly, I just tasted the lentil-onion combination.

The only thing missing from this meal was a crusty piece of bread which would have been great to help scoop out the lentils. I'll have to make sure to get that for next time. Although the soup claims to be an excellent source of fiber (especially because I consumed both servings), I needed my afternoon snack earlier than usual. Perhaps some bread would have postponed the hunger a bit longer.