Your videos have that timeless charm where I didn't even realise that this was new as binge them from time to time. I've never tried any frozen tv dinners but always find your reviews entertaining. Keep doing what you do, FOR US THE PEOPLE!
@@Sorrowdusk Nah, they don't sell them where I'm from. I do get frozen bags of peas, fries/wedges, chicken nuggets, fish fingers, etc. But I'd be hard-pressed to find a frozen pizza and it's near impossible to find a ready to eat tv dinner.
Isn't TV dinner mostly an American thing? I've never had a TV dinner either. I wouldn't even know what it is if it wasn't for the internet.@@wombat5252
The plastic taste. Typically the plastic trays are made of CPET (Crystallizable Polyethylene Terephthalate). In general, this plastic "should" be good to ~425 F. But, lots of issues in the past three years with plastic "alloys" in a wide range of industries (I work with a lot of them including packaging). Its possible that some of what you are getting is outgassing from recycled content. While PET is generally "said" to be safe for making food packaging, CPET is used for HEATING food. I have been hearing some issues. Because the microwave does not actually heat the PACKAGING (no water in it) the microwaved plastic may not leach plasticizers....but the oven heated one might. Great video!
I was just thinking this and remembering my father telling me to remove ALL plastic and heat foods in a metal pan instead, his reasoning was you can't trust a company to be sincere with your safety.
I ate these when I was a kid cause my dad couldn't (or rather wouldn't) cook. When I got old enough to not be satiated from one meal, I just started eating two, lol. My other favorite meals were half a pack of hotdogs and chili beans or a double-decker bologna and cheese sandwich with mustard.
@@deathhulk8860 he took me out to eat a lot and was good with teaching me other things though. My mom always cooked for me so I didn't miss out on home cooking :)
The dangers of sodium are probably grossly overstated by governments. A journalist with a degree in physics (so at least some scientific background), Gary Taubes, tried over ten years ago to find out what the standard government guidelines on sodium consumption are based on, and couldn’t find any scientific basis. It’s a lot of opinions based vaguely on the fact that salt can raise blood pressure somewhat. The human body is REALLY good at maintaining a healthy level of salt, and will dump it very quickly and efficiently if it gets too much. Obviously there’s a limit - you can’t survive drinking seawater - and reducing salt consumption is wise under some circumstances.
In the 90s, in Japan I consumed soooooo much extra salt, when you are sweating to death you go through a lot of it. There are also multiple consumable salts. Mmmmm msg ❤
Yep; and even the sodium and bp claim is suspect. The study it is based on was all done on a ethnically homogeneous group (re: a study of a people... Not on sodium). I believe the author disavowed its use to claim high sodium is bad for most people.
My sister and I used to eat these all the time as kids in the early 2000s. They were for busy nights when my parents had something to do and weren't able to cook a full family sit down meal. Hell we still eat them as adults.. I usually have them for a snack or quick lunch and they are great for my sister during her pregnancy as she doesn't have much of an appetite for anything lol. Although I do miss the original cartoon version of the KC penguin mascot but I understand they have to keep up with modern times.
I can't believe they changed the model of the penguin mascot. I may of been some 90s kid back in the day. But I use to think the original looked cool back in the day and recognizable from the TV commercials. But now he looks like some happy feet reject. Or some unused caretaker model for Surf's Up. (Two CGI kids movies involving talking penguins that I used to watch)
Victory sprinkles? Sounds like something out of World War II, when (for example) they taught recruits to swim at least the (relatively easy) elementary backstroke, and called it the “victory backstroke.” Of course, George Orwell put a sinister touch on “victory” with various things in his novel 1984 getting it as a sort of prefix: Victory Gin, Victory Cigarettes… (Orwell had worked for the British government in WWII and probably had had enough of gimmicks like this.)😊
And our parents (I'm 66 now) grew up during WWII with "victory gardens". Though both my parents were from farm families, and did real farming even as kids.
The desserts in those frozen meals would usually be the first thing I'd chow down. Not because I liked them but just to make way for the better parts of the meal. Most, to me, were just a waste of space.
Fed rhis to both my kids in their young-youth and they both loved them, but both hated the desserts. For my daughter I used to sneak the nuggets into the air fryer for five minutes to crisp things up (if there was too much water)
When we got our first toaster oven, my sister and I used it for the old Totino's Pizza Rolls. Loved those things, though they probably aren't that "healthy". 😊
Dear Larry, I _really_ appreciate you going to the extra effort to do both microwave and oven cooking. I _live_ oven cooking, because I can do something else while it cooks, and it generally smells so nice. And, it's good for me to see that sometimes, the microwave really _is_ better.
Pretty much the same in the cafeteria. Because your government cheaps out on "nutritious" foods matter a fact All schools everywhere, kids show eat FREE. Shouldn't have to pay for school lunch, is what your taxes are supposed to do? Or is that your government doesn't care and your kid goes hungry everyday in school
The developers must have thought about not only who was eating these, but that many of those children were also cooking them. So they microwave better than cook in the oven. I still love corn as a vegetable, but the adult in me wishes they'd mix it up with some green beans. Way back when TV dinners came in foil trays there were a couple of dessert options. One was cinnamon apples that was pretty good. I think there was also cherry cobbler. They also did the chocolate cake as kind of molten. If you let your dinner cook too long the cake was very dry.
Gen X here and I remember that getting a TV Dinner was a treat, like it was a "Nah, I gotta head home! Its TV dinners tonight!" special. Now a TV Dinner is worse than prison food.
The nutritonal label is all over the place...at least children are getting stuff, if not too much of it. As for adults still eating this?? I think once I have children I'll love them enough to have homemade dinner meals always available. Not a vegetable to be seen here! (corn doesn't count IMHO)
My kids only eat the sprinkles if they haven't eaten them in long enough for them to forget how bad they are. We like to cook the corn dogs, the chicken, and the fries in the air fryer and the rest in the microwave. It all still finishes cooking at the same time. And we haven't had any complaints since we started cooking them this way.
I was surprised you actually liked these. I remember when Kid Cuisine gained popularity in the 90s. I tried a few when I was a kid, but weren't really into TV dinners back then. I was mostly eating Lunchables more, especially when they had their MEGA meals back in the early 2000s.
These are $2.50 at my local grocery store. By far one of the cheapest frozen meals available. They are very yummy, I agree with the brownie but you have to not use sprinkles and also eat them halfway through the cooking process, it's like a thick pudding and it's delicious!
I *the person* have been wanting this topic. I watch when you talk about the labels on canned and frozen food because I'm always watching my sodium. Thanks!
Honestly these meals seem like they’d be redundant for a kid. I mean, could you imagine as a kid playing a whole game of soccer, being that wore out, and really hungry, and your anticipations for a nice hearty meal are high. And mom sets one of these in front of you lol!
I've started eating more sensibly and a part of my diet are low calorie frozen meals, so I need to dig back and see what you've reviewed because Smart Ones mashed potatoes are the worst I have ever, EVER had. Watery and disgusting. Thank you for your reviews.
Café Steamers usually come out pretty well. I usually go with a pasta one. Potatoes just don't freeze well. If I'm especially hungry I find a bag of veggies that match and bulk the meal up that way. Then you get at least 3 servings of veg and are full enough to pass up less healthy things.
Folks, please don’t feed this stuff to your kids. High in salt and fat, and low in nutrition. When I was younger, my folks always made sure there was home cooking every night. They worked very hard to make that happen for us 4 kids. Now that I have kids of my own, I make sure they have good home cooked food on the table every night. It’s not easy, but they’re almost old enough to help. Then they’ll know how to cook when they have kids. Sorry, kinda rambling on now lol. Love the plethora of new vids, Larry! Keep it up!
It seems the engineers that spend their time on the dark arts of 'instant' meals focus on a particular cooking method - microwave being a ubiquitous time saving cooking method so they must have focused on optimizing that. I'd suggest NOT eating or serving any food that has that nasty plasticizer taste, that is literally the 'essence' of the container leaching into the food. Some plastics are fine in the oven though I am not confident in the quality control of these thermoplastics. Microwave only, please! Great video as always, sorry for the rant :P
I never had these growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s. Maybe they didn't exist that early, but I doubt Mom would have bought them. Money was often tight.
Child of the 70s here. No Kid Cuisine then. But the regular TV dinners had dessert in a lot of them. We didn't get them often, but I remember my 2 highest priorities were no peas or peas & carrots and a good dessert. I usually got roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy or turkey dinner. No microwave so you had to put your foil tray in the oven.
I preferred the 1-10 scale. No need to say “to It” in descriptions, but here you are in good company ; others commit this redundancy also. I enjoy your style. Thanks for ditching scooter.
I assume they did a revamp of their products since i remember kid cuisine looking different and tasting very mid. I bought it on my trip to the US to try it for fun since i saw youtube video of it. I remember it was nuggets meal with mac n cheese, chocolate pudding and corns. It didn't taste very good and the mac n cheese was bland. The pudding taste alright but no one like hot pudding, the corn was kinda old and the nugget was on par with supermarket nuggets. I guess they have a entire makeover since i remember they have a different looking mascot.
Growing up in the 2000s, the commercials for this had me begging my mom for me to get one of these kid cuisines. All I remember was the pure taste of disappointment, everything tastes chemically/plastic-e/soggy. Never ate another kid cuisine after that
I grew up eating frozen TV dinners because my mother, God bless her, wasn't a good cook. So I vowed to not feed my kids TV dinners. Then I became a single mom, working full time, trying to complete her college degree and I needed a meal my father could fix for my kids while I was in class. They would come shopping with me and they'd get to pick their dinner each week. They actually liked these things at the time, especially getting to pick the meal they liked.. End of the story, finished my degrees. Got a good job, And I never fed my kids another TV dinner.
Used to eat these all the time as a kid in the 2000’s and early 2010’s. I think the last time I ever had one was in 2011 but they were always good little snacks when I would play xbox and Roblox
Who else remembers as a kid getting a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a brown paper bag for lunch and hot dogs and Mac and cheese on paper plates for dinner yum.
I forgot about these kids cuisine tv dinners! My daughter who was born in 1996 loved these. If they had a toy she would have preferred it over Mcdonalds! Haven't seen them in stores in years! TFS! 😊😊😊
Sup Larry, great episode, great reviews, wouldn't expect less from you bro, one of my daughters sends this with kids, they eat my dinner and let them have these for lunch, microwave only. No idea what plastic is made of? But not good in oven. Obviously feeding younger ones I have to taste and some better than any frozen meals I've had in past🤷. You hit nail on head on all of them, tyvm tc
My cousins use to have kid cuisines and lunchables and I would get so excited and thought they were rich to be buying that because I never had them lol they were a delicacy to me
I'd guess that stuff like this is to prepare north american kids for school "food", just so they're ready to expect crap that is barely passable as anything related to actual food... :P
When my family moved from Yugoslavia to Detroit Michigan and finally our white flight across 8 mile, my bro and I survived off freeze dried food. My parents were working 12 hrs shift had no time to cook. Looking back I wish my mother let me use the stove by myself to actually cook something nutritious.🤷🏻♂️
They must have improved the recipe and quality of ingredients, because I tried a couple Kid Cuisine meals about 5 years ago and they were gross. I remember it tasting like paper boiled in water.
Hints: 1 It was the same corn in all 3 meals. 2. Don't use the celebration sprinkles. 3 Parents lazy enough to feed this crap to their kids aren't going to bother to cook it in the oven so the meals are engineered for the microwave. You're welcome. 😁
Many people forget or ignore the fact that the 2000 calorie guideline is for average sized people and that the number needs to be adjusted depending on our actual size, lifestyle and our actual desired body weight. I am a small person, completely inactive and I would like to lose a few pounds. The Mayo Clinic recommends 1450 calories per day and to deduct 250 calories from that for slow weight loss. That brings my total requirements to 1200 calories a day. It is very easy to see that most "kids" meals are much better portions for my needs but I would leave half of the cake and no sprinkles(Thanks Larry!). Most adult sized meals with 1000+ calories per meal are completely out of reason even for a much larger person. I don't eat much prepared food but as a fast treat I might try the chicken nuggets based on Larry's recommendation. For the people who think they would starve to death on such a small portion, portion is based on what you are used to and has nothing to do with what you need. Thanks for another great review, Larry and camera lady! 🤗😘
I'm 44. This brand has been out since I was young. I always thought they looked delicious in the commercials and wanted them, but my mother refused to buy them, or the Hungry Man dinners. I think it was a money issue, but regardless, I've never had one.
Kids Cuisine was created in 1990 I think. I am 47 but never ate them back then because at the time, I was obsessed with LaChoy mini egg rolls that looks like pizza rolls so I always had those instead. And LeMenu frozen meals which were great. But I remember them all this time.
This has to be a paid endorsement lol (iknow it isnt) ive had the nugget meal and the nuggets are too spongy for me. The mac and cheese is bland beyond saving and the brownies usually taste cakie and flavorless.. like chocolate tasting bread. If you think that mac and cheese is good then you would absolutely love velveeta. Velveeta compared to that mac is like comparing mcdonalds bacon to fine dine pancetta
One of the main reason Freezer Burns quit his journey through the supermarket frozen food isles. I enjoyed watching him, but seeing his disgust in the additional unneeded ingredients in meals targeting children was sad.
I grew up on home cooked meals so i rarely got stuff like this and if i did, it was like the lunchables pizza or something. The few microwave meals i rem were just the standard adult ones. I think id feel weird going into a normal store to buy em to try em so thanks ahaha
I don't quite understand the rating for the nuggets from the microwave. You said it was good all around, and couldn't knock them for the sprinkles cause it's aimed at kids. Yet it only got a slightly above average 3.5? The way you were talking it up, I was honestly expecting at least a 4. P.S. Just finished the video, and you gave the popcorn chicken the same score, despite saying that the Mac and cheese and the brownie from the nuggets meal were much better. So I'm just kind of confused with this scale here.
Our kids deserve better… preservatives, artificial ingredients, sugar, fat, salt and empty calories… growing up our dinners weren’t fancy but they were healthy… heck there were a lot of spaghetti dinners and baked chicken and rice or potatoes… heck even grilled ham and cheese… but even pb and j is better than this crap… my parents both worked full time and they made sure we had a healthy meal…
