Devour meals, available at a suggested retail price of US$3.99, aims to turn that around, the company said. Twelve Devour varieties on offer include white cheddar mac and cheese with applewood-smoked bacon, as well as chicken enchiladas suiza.

While frozen meals are a convenient way to eat a balanced meal, it's easy to be led astray–they're also known for being packed with sodium, calories, and saturated fat, making moderation important. With the correct guidance, however, frozen meals can be part of healthy eating plan!

The concept really took hold in 1954 when Swanson's frozen meals appeared. Swanson was a well-known brand that consumers recognized, and Swanson launched a massive advertising campaign for their product. They also coined the phrase TV Dinner, which helped to transform their frozen meals into a cultural icon.

This may seem too good to be true - and for good reason. For years, frozen dinners had a reputation as junk food filled with preservatives and weird textures that didn't seem like real food. However, today's frozen diet meals can be part of a healthy diet.

TV dinner. noun. ˌtē-ˌvē- : a quick-frozen packaged dinner that requires only heating before it is served.

The name "TV dinner" was coined by Gerry Thomas, its inventor. At the time it was introduced, televisions were status symbols and a growing medium. Thomas thought the name "TV Dinner" sounded like the product was made for convenience (which it was), and the Swanson executives agreed.

According to the most widely accepted account, a Swanson salesman named Gerry Thomas conceived the company's frozen dinners in late 1953 when he saw that the company had 260 tons of frozen turkey left over after Thanksgiving, sitting in ten refrigerated railroad cars.

Many of these meals contain way too much sodium. You can easily exceed one fourth of your recommended daily sodium intake in a single meal. These meals also have preservatives and unrecognizable ingredients that give them an odd odor and flavor. Frozen dinners aren't always an affordable option.

The name "TV dinner" was coined by Gerry Thomas, its inventor. At the time it was introduced, televisions were status symbols and a growing medium. Thomas thought the name "TV Dinner" sounded like the product was made for convenience (which it was), and the Swanson executives agreed.

The TV dinner's promise of a hot-and-ready meal in under 25 minutes laid the groundwork for convenience-centric meal options to become the norm today. "Convenience foods are always going to be important for the consumer," said Phyllis Levy, the former executive director of new ventures at Campbell Soup Company .

TV Dinners Are Born Thanks to So much so, families often multitasked by eating their meals in front of it. These meals, because they were confined to an aluminum tray, were easily portable and thus easy to eat in front of the TV on specially-designed trays.

The TV dinner's promise of a hot-and-ready meal in under 25 minutes laid the groundwork for convenience-centric meal options to become the norm today. “Convenience foods are always going to be important for the consumer,” said Phyllis Levy, the former executive director of new ventures at Campbell Soup Company .