I saw an offer on my Sunday paper about HomeBistro.com's meals (a mail-order food delivery service, things are shipped with dry ice.)
Everything sounded delicious (blackened chicken in a champagne cream sauce, shrimp & garlic ravioli with vodka cream sauce) so I decided to give the Web site a look.
To my delight, nutritional information IS available for all their dishes (complete list here) - and most of the complete meals are surprisingly nutritionally sound ~ around 500 to 600 calories for most items so something I easily fit into my daily caloric budget. Ok, I'm sold and signed up for their introductory sampler - $19.95 for four meals. (Intro offer URL here).
After S&H I paid about $27 for four meals, pricey for essentially frozen meals but if they taste as good as they sound for the calories they contain, would be well worth it for me (since I know I could be paying more than $7 to make or eat out something similar.)
So, two days ago I had my first HomeBistro dinner: Salmon filet with chili hollandaise sauce, green beans almondine and mexican rice.
Preparation was amazingly simple, the sauce, salmon & the two sides come in separate pouches, and all I have to do is heat up a pot of water to simmering and just drop the pouches in and heat for about 10 minutes. (I also steamed an extra cup of veggies, just in case I don't get full enough). Afterwards, just open up the pouches, drain as needed, then plate.
And, to my delight again, the dinner turned out to be very delicious. Salmon was buttery & moist, the green beans crisp and the mexican rice fluffy with just enough kick ~ and the creamy/spicy chili hollandaise, that's just icing on top of the cake, who'd thought I can have THAT while trying to lose weight.
And the portions were substantial enough (my separated mixed veggies weren't even needed, but I ate them anyways - only 25 calories... and more stuff for me to lap up the hollandaise with) but also sensible.
So yes, overall, a very enjoyable and fairly healthy frozen food experience, a good thing, especially for a company that doesn't try to market itself as healthy (but they do also offer items that are specifically low-fat & low-carbs too). However, the regular prices (~$12 per meal) are quite a bit higher than what I'm willing to pay, so if interested I'd definitely sign up for the e-mail list and maybe check it out when they have a significant sale.
(the only other thing I have a minor issue with is that they used Atlantic salmon, which is most likely farmed in an "un-green" manner; but that's just the environmentally-conscious part of me.)
But all in all, quite impressed with what this company is offering. Fairly quick way to get a gourmet-like meal portioned for one. I can see health- & food- conscious yuppies all over this already...