Product Review: Made For You frozen dinners

A frozen meal tucked away in the freezer is the ultimate quick dinner or hot lunch at work. But what if you have type 2 diabetes? Just how healthy are they for you? Should you be eating them at all? Or are there any that give you the vegetables you’re meant to eat AND that are low in saturated (bad) fats and salt without drowning you in carbs?

What should you eat if you have diabetes?

When I started my working life as a hospital dietitian, the ‘diabetic diet’ was a special medical diet. It was strictly focussed on no sugar AT ALL (sweetener instead), rigidly counting carbohydrates whilst spreading them evenly throughout your meals, and helping you lose weight if you needed to.

These days, a diabetes diet is really just a healthy eating plan that anyone in the family can follow. However, diet still is the cornerstone of managing diabetes – in fact many people with diabetes keep their blood sugar levels steady without insulin because their diet is healthy and they exercise regularly.

In order to do this though you need to increase the quantity of vegetables you eat; switch to healthier carbs which are low GI and either wholegrain or high fibre; keep away from bad saturated fats (to reduce your risk of heart disease); reduce your salt and go easy on sugar. Sugar isn’t banned anymore but its use should be limited. Weight loss is still as important as ever, as are regular meals and snacks. Portion size is very important – they should be modest in size with no going back for seconds and no bottomless smorgasbords.

A Review of Made For You Frozen Meals

1. Vegetable Lasagne
2. Beef Lasagne
3. Thai Green Chicken Curry (with Basmati rice and veg)
4. Thai Red Beef Curry (with Basmati rice and veg)
5. Supreme Pizza with wholemeal crust.

Here’s how we rated them for taste, nutrition and convenience out of 10.

Taste

Made For You Vegetable Lasagne 6 to 9/10

This Vegetable Lasagne had a very good appearance with lots of vegetables and some large lentils in a tomato-based sauce. Unusual for any frozen meal! Some of us liked it more than others so the taste scores ranged from 6 to 9. The lower score was due to the slightly sour flavour of the tomato sauce (which one of us didn’t like) and the fact that the pasta was a little thick and gluggy. Otherwise excellent and one of our top picks.

Made For You Beef Lasagne  9/10

At 9/10, this was an attractive-looking lasagne. Upon heating, it looked true to the photo on the box (other frozen lasagnes often don’t – trust me!). We liked the pleasant herb flavour and the lower salt concentration without having that salt-free blandness. The generous amounts of tomato sauce coating the lasagne sheets kept the product moist and tasty. 

As with the other Made for You meals, the pack lists the number of carbohydrate exchanges and the fibre value. It rates well for being low in saturated fat and lower in sodium (salt), while also being high in fibre and protein. A winner.  

Made For You Thai Green Chicken Curry with Basmati rice and veg 8/10

This Thai Green Chicken Curry had lots of veggies including peas, carrots, beans and red capsicum, living up to its on-pack claim of two serves of vegetables. The flavour was divine – we noted coconut first, followed by lots of lemongrass. However, we felt there was not enough chicken and what was there tasted a little ‘manufactured’. The Basmati rice turned it into a lower GI option and the size of the meal was good. Enough to satisfy but not enough to overload you.

Made For You Thai Red Beef Curry with Basmati rice and veg 7/10

Made For You Supreme Pizza 9/10

Pizzas are generally a nutrition disaster but this Pizza Supreme was the perfect healthy pizza and our clear winner tasted against the market leader (see picture on the right). It sported a heap of vegetables - mushrooms, onion, green and red capsicum and tomato with a small amount of pineapple.

The ingredients were not distributed evenly giving it a home-made rustic look. The base was crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. Amazingly it was wholemeal! 

By way of contrast, most Pizza Supremes have tiny strips of ham, way too much cheese with virtually no vegetables in sight and are heavy and salty with a thick, boring white base.

Nutrition 9/10

These meals are billed as ‘healthy options for people watching their blood sugar’ so they’re aiming to help the 3.5 million Australians watching their blood sugar levels due to diseases such as diabetes or pre-diabetes.

Diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease in Australia with its prevalence increasing at a rate of 10 per cent per annum so it's great to have meals tailored specially for this condition.

One of the founders Peter Howard has diabetes himself and knows how hard it is to eat right. In a former life, I knew him as a food lover, wine buff and TV presenter . He’s lost 20 kg and now walks daily and has modified most of his former-high fat recipes. I loved one of his great cookbooks Delicious Living and he told me those recipes were used as inspiration for these dinners. Great!

Convenience 9/10 

It’s easy to keep a couple in your freezer for those busy nights when you need to eat before you head out or are too tired to cook. Just microwave or heat in the oven and serve. What’s more it’s good to know it’s a complete meal – you don’t need to think about cutting up vegetables or making a side salad as most of the meals have at least one serve included. Some even have two serves which is a real help to anyone with diabetes. 

The bottom line

These meals tick all my boxes for taste, nutrition and convenience. Yes, home cooked meals are the best for anyone with diabetes. When you cook for yourself you can control the portion size, add less or no salt, use lean meat and large serves of vegetables but when you’re in a hurry, it’s good to know you can simply heat up one of these convenient healthier frozen meals and you’re looking after your body at the same time. I’ll always have one or two in my freezer. 

   Thanks to my fellow dietitians with good palates - Josephine Mollica and Airlie Lacy. We received samples of the dinners from the manufacturer and bought additional ones for this review.