Healthy Choice frozen meals are very hit or miss. I should know. I taste tested 13 of them, and while that sounds like a lot, it barely covers the full line of Healthy Choice meals, which is surprisingly vast. Healthy Choice is really living up to the “choice” in its name.
For our inaugural Healthy Choice taste test, we bought 13 Healthy Choice frozen meals, focusing on their Café Steamers and plated meals; we’ll get to the Max Bowls, Power Bowls, and Zero Bowls in another taste test.
These meals are pretty varied, but we were looking for flavor, first and foremost. As my colleague Jordan Myrick pointed out, seasoning is generally free of fat and calories—season your damn diet dinners, people! We were also looking for a protein, be it steak or chicken, that isn’t chewy and actually tastes like meat. These don’t seem like big asks, but out of the 13 Healthy Choice frozen meals we tried, we only found six Healthy Choice frozen meals we could honestly recommend. The next time you’re in the frozen aisle and you’re having trouble choosing your Choice, be sure to reference this list of the best tasting Healthy Choice meals.
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- Healthy Choice Creamy Marinara Chicken (300 cal, 3.5g fat)
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This Healthy Choice frozen meal consists of white meat chicken in marinara sauce with orzo, spinach, and seasoned broccoli. The chicken comes as a breast-shaped patty and tastes like almost nothing. Likewise, the marinara isn’t terribly flavorful—you’re going to want to add some salt or even a sprinkle of parm to give this a little more flavor. But the orzo is the star of the show here. It’s plump, tasty, and filling. We also appreciate that there’s spinach in the mix and that the broccoli is actually seasoned—the best Healthy Choice frozen meals include a vegetable you actually want to eat.
Credit: Merc / Target
- Healthy Choice Café Steamers Sweet & Sour Chicken (390 cal, 9g fat)
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This meal looks like junk—the chicken “fritters” are soggy and the rice is absolutely drenched in goopy sauce—so we were pleasantly surprised that it doesn’t taste that bad. The chicken pieces aren’t crispy, but flavor-wise, they taste like Chicken McNuggets dipped in McDonald’s sweet and sour sauce. The rice is a mess and there aren’t nearly enough mix-ins—I spotted a few pepper bits, one carrot, and a couple of pineapple tidbits—but overall this tastes pretty decent. In a perfect world, you’d cook the chicken in the air fryer and then add it to the bowl with sauce and rice, but that starts getting complicated. The best Healthy Choice meals are, if nothing else, easy to prepare.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Healthy Choice Café Steamers Spaghetti & Meatballs (280 cal, 7g fat)
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Healthy Choice enjoys referring to their pasta as “freshly made,” and we simply do not know what that means. Freshly made by a machine in a factory? Sure, great. Anyway, this Healthy Choice meal is made with a marinara sauce that actually tastes like something and isn’t overloaded with the bitter taste of oregano. The little meatballs in this dish are very dense, but they taste pretty good. They’re like a bigger, better version of the meatballs in a Chef Boyardee meal.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Healthy Choice Balsamic Garlic Steak (230 cal, 6g fat)
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We taste tested a few new Healthy Choice frozen meals, and this was the best of them. You get steak in a balsamic sauce with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. The mashed potatoes actually smell like garlic, which is a good start. They don’t have enough salt, but if you salt them yourself, they’ll taste better. They’re a little gummy, but totally tolerable (I kind of like the consistency of microwave mashed potatoes, to be honest). The sauce is a little tangy and a little savory, but we don’t hate it. And even though the beef looks like dog treats, it doesn’t taste bad. If you get a bite with all the elements together, it tastes good. And the green beans even have crunch. Impressive!
Credit: Merc / Target
- Healthy Choice Café Steamers Beef Merlot
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Of all the beef-centric Healthy Choice frozen meals we tried, this was the best. The beef is tender and the Merlot wine sauce tastes very much like it belongs in a frozen meal, but there’s also something pleasantly nostalgic about it. It’s just a nice, savory gravy with a little bit of a tannic backbone. This tastes good, but, man, frozen dinners really shouldn’t be made with cubed, “roasted” potatoes like this. They’re always so mealy! Mashed potatoes would have tasted so good with the gravy! Consider a revamp, Healthy Choice?
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Healthy Choice Café Steamers Grilled Chicken Pesto with Vegetables
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If you’re turning to Healthy Choice because you want a light lunch that only takes around three minutes to make, the Grilled Chicken Pesto with Vegetables is the best Healthy Choice frozen meal out of the options we taste tested. The sauce is a little gloopy, but it has a bright fresh flavor we liked. Also, why don’t more of these meals include squash? The yellow squash and zucchini taste really good and absorb the sauce nicely. The chicken isn’t great, but the other elements make up for it. The “freshly made” rotini pasta has bounce and chew. Of all the Healthy Choice meals we tried, this was the most enjoyable overall.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
Healthy Choice!
Healthy Choice!
Healthy Choice!
Healthy Choice!
Healthy Choice!
Best of the Best
Other Healthy Choice Meals we tried: Barbeque Seasoned Steak with Potatoes, Beef Teriyaki, Honey Glazed Turkey & Potatoes, Salsa Verde Chicken, Lemon Parmesan Chicken, Grilled Chicken Marinara with Parmesan, Sweet Sesame Chicken
just a little thing – no calorie/fat data on the top two choices?
Interesting