Frozen Meal Friday

Sometimes, I just need a night off from cooking.  I used to feel that way pretty frequently when I had a full-time teaching job, but now that I am a stay at home mom, I feel like I should be cooking for my family most nights, since I certainly have the time.  Tonight though, it's Friday, I had cooked Monday through Thursday, and my husband wasn't going to be home to eat dinner with us, so I decided that tonight was Frozen Meal Friday.  That name is definitely worthy of The Chew, though I am sure they would never have a Frozen Meal Friday segment.  :-)

After being bombarded on social media by the news that Aldi had introduced a new line of gluten free foods, I did something I hadn't done in years.  I went to Aldi.  My father in law went to Aldi last week and picked me up a box of the pizza crust mix, which I haven't used yet.  He has tried the liveGfree penne, and said it was as good as Barilla gluten free pasta.  My girls ate it at their grandparents house, and thought it was good, but still prefer the pastas we eat at home.  I didn't have any luck buying the penne, which is shockingly only $1.29 per bag, but I purchased gluten free cornbread mix, Cocoa Loco and Very Berry baked chewy bars, and southwest veggie stuffed sandwiches from the freezer section.  On a side note, my daughter Kate liked the Cocoa Loco bars, and took them for a lunch treat several days this week.  The Very Berry bars were a little sweet for me, and neither one of my daughters liked them, so we won't be buying them again.  

While my daughters were playing, I cooked one of the southwest veggie stuffed sandwiches in my microwave.  It is described as brown rice, black beans & veggies, with a salsa sauce in a crust.  I liked it so much, I cooked the second one and ate that too.  At only 270 calories, I knew that one would not be enough.  I didn't let my daughters try them because they had a nice spicy kick, which I didn't think they would like.  The box of two stuffed sandwiches only cost $2.69.  I will definitely be going back and buying more this weekend.  Aldi also sells pepperoni pizza stuffed sandwiches, which I might purchase for my daughters.  

For my girls, I prepared a bag of EVOL chicken tikka masala, which I purchased from the Sodo Super Target on West Grant Street.  EVOL Meals for 2 are also available at Publix.  You can view EVOL's full line of gluten free products here.  

This bag is labeled "Meals for 2," and it was plenty of food for my girls.  

The bag had both microwave and stove top directions.  I opted to cook it in a skillet, thinking it would probably taste better.  

In about 10 minutes, I had an amazing meal ready to go for my daughters.  EVOL's chicken tikka masala is described as grilled white meat chicken, carrots, peas, and white rice, all combined with an insanely tasty tikka masala sauce.  I absolutely loved this dish!  On the stove top, everything cooked evenly, the sauce was ridiculously good, and it had a little hint of spice.  The ingredients list is pretty simple -- rice, grilled seasoned white meat chicken, tomatoes, carrots, peas, onion, cream, nonfat yogurt, water, extra virgin olive oil, jalapenos, garlic, ginger puree, tomato paste, sea salt, spices, cilantro, and sugar.  It was a little spicy for my daughters, but I would definitely purchase it again for myself and my husband.  

We had tried EVOL's chicken tikka masala before tonight, but in a single serving bowl that we cooked in the microwave.  I much prefer the meal for two in a bag, because it cooked up so much better on the stove top than in the microwave.

We don't eat frozen meals very often, but I always like to have a few in the freezer for nights like tonight.  I fed the three of us for about $10, a significant savings over going to a restaurant.

What are your favorite gluten free frozen meals?