Five Best Microwaveable Frozen Foods

With apologies to nutritional purists who would never use the descriptive "best" with the term "frozen food," here are four more or less healthy microwaveable frozen foods, plus a healthy snack that doesn't have to be microwaved.

The Best Frozen Snack

Sometimes you are in the mood for salty snack and only a salty snack will do. But why not get a pick-me-up with fruit?

Blue Bunny Chunky Strawberry Gourmet Frozen Fruit Bar has the "mouth feel" of a chunky snack (and if it is cold enough, a crunchy snack), with just 80 calories per bar, and only a single gram of fat. Sure, those 80 calories are mostly sugar calories, but your body can handle small amounts of sugar if you limit yourself to one snack between any two meals. The potassium in the fruit also gives you an energy boost.

The Best Microwaveable Frozen Breakfast Meal

The Jimmy Dean Sausage Company makes the worst microwaveable frozen breakfast meal, but it also makes one of the best. The Jimmy Dean muffin sandwich offers egg, cheese, and bacon on a microwaveable muffin, and only sets you back 230 calories with 9 grams of fat and 670 milligrams of sodium, or about 1/3 of a day's allowance. Plus it contains most people's favorite food group, bacon.

The Best Microwaveable Frozen Meatless Entree

If you are looking for meatless, vegan entrees that actually taste good and look appealing on your table, try any of the frozen Indian dinners by Amy's Kitchen. Their combinations of seasoned rice, toothsome lentils and beans, and spinach or greens come in vegan and dairy versions, and all cost you 450 calories or less even though they are packed with flavor. Amy's entrees are organic, and the company supports the Just Label It program, which supports consumer rights to be warned of GMO ingredients--which aren't used by Amy's.

The Best Microwaveable Frozen Beef Meal

Pot roast usually comes with more than just beef. It's accompanied by potatoes, carrots, and English peas in a beefy gravy. Flavorful pot roast, however, doesn't have to be fat-laden, salty pot roast. One of the best brands is Banquet, which offers individual microwaveable servings of pot roast for just 220 calories. Buy in bags of 8 individually packaged servings for lowest cost.

The Best Microwaveable Frozen Pizza

I have a prejudice. I find it hard to use the term "best" with "frozen pizza," but I make an exception for Palermo's Primo thin margherita pizza. There's a catch, of course. If you want to keep your meal to 260 calories, you have to share the pizza with two other people. Otherwise, it's actually got 10 calories more than the "worst" pizza. But this pizza tastes so good that the rest of your family will want some, too, keeping the calories and sodium down for you.