I normally avoid those super cheap Banquet TV Dinners, since they have generally been really low quality and skimpy portions - you get what you pay for. But recently I decided to stock up on a few since I was without a full size stove for a couple months and only had a counter top portable electric burner and a small microwave to work with. Recently, Banquet has been promoting their TV dinners as being 25% larger in portions, which was another reason I was willing to try them out. I was actually surprised to find that two of them at least were much better than they used to be. I haven't tried all of them yet though. Their chicken fingers dinner with macaroni and cheese and corn has so far been my favorite of the bunch. They not only made the portion sizes a bit bigger, but they revamped their chicken fingers in particular. They now have a nice crispy panko breading on them that stays relatively crunchy for it being microwaved. They're also 3 large chicken fingers, and they are well seasoned and browned a bit, unlike the soggy pale "breading" that used to be on them. The spaghetti and meatballs dinner was also decent, considering the price (usually around 88 cents each). Though it didn't change much, it now has more meatballs in it. The other ones sitting in my freezer are the meatloaf and salisbury steak dinners, which I'm not getting my hopes up over just yet.
Are you talking about the TV dinners that come in a red box? There is a box of banquet fried chicken at the dollar store selling for $7. The box is a decent size so I think there might be some good size pieces of chicken in there. It has been years since I have had banquet TV dinners but I see it all the time. I'm really tempted to but the fried chicken dinner just to see if it is still good like I remembered it last.
We do not have tv dinners here but my husband had experienced eating that when he was working in the US. He said that the tenderloin tips was his favorite and it comes complete with garnishings of carrots and other vegetables. When I asked if it was fresh, he said he didn't notice because at the time he was busy with work and would come home tired with no energy to cook thus the tv dinner is a savior in that situation.
They aren't bad. My only problem with TV dinners is they are so high in salt. I try not to eat them much just for that reason. When I am eating something like that I like to eat the Pot Pies because they are delicious and even cheaper than the TV dinners usually. Banquet is a Conagra foods product...and they have a frozen Italian pie that is delicious.
I'll have to check it out! I haven't had tv dinner in years and I saw one on sale the other day. It looked like a big box, but when I made it, I couldn't believe how small the portion was! It was absolutely ridiculous that they consider that a full mean. If I would have given it to my 5 year old she probably could have eaten 2-3 of them.
I used to buy one of the Hungry Man type dinners per month, for the day I did my grocery shopping, because it was such a chore and I would be way too exhausted to cook a meal afterwards. 70+ pounds of cat litter and around 50 pounds of dry kibble, on top of canned food plus my own groceries, paper goods and cleaning supplies, ugh. I found the Hungry Man servings a bit much for me, but sometimes the smaller meals that are around a dollar aren't enough. I try to shop about 3x a month these days, so it's not quite as overwhelming, but I agree, the quality of the meals has improved. I think they're trying to be more competitive with the other brands such as Boston Market and Marie Callendar's, which are more expensive, so I give them props for their effort.
