Foodsday Tuesday: Tasting the Worst So You Don't Have To

The diet's more or less over, but I'm still trying to watch what I eat so that I don't have to start dieting all over again come this time next month. But whether you're trying to lose weight or just trying not to gain it, when you're weight watching, lunchtime meals of pizza and cheesesteaks from the place downstairs from your building just aren't the best idea. But you can only eat salads so many times in a row before you get bored (or your colon rebels), and sometimes you just want a hot meal. Lean Cuisines and SmartOnes both offer relatively satisfying, low-calorie meals with Weight Watchers points printed right on the box (Healthy Choice is a bit hit-or-miss in my opinion, although they've recently introduced a number of new recipes) that can sometimes even be really tasty—but tasty or not, one thing's for certain: once out of your microwave, none of your frozen meals will ever look like the boxes make them look.

So what to do when you can't judge a meal by its cover and you'd rather not spend your $3.49 on something that tastes like warmed-over cardboard? Check out Heat Eat Review, a repository of reviews of all things microwaveable. (On top of frozen "TV" dinners, they also tackle canned soups, frozen veggies, ramen noodles, and the occasional burrito or breakfast sandwich.) We don't always agree with them, but they're a good first stop when we're wondering whether that SmartOnes Mac and Cheese is as good as it looks on the box. (It is, and H-E-R agrees!)

One word of warning, however: H-E-R is headquartered on the West Coast, and sometimes, they end up reviewing a delicious-sounding store-brand microwaveable meal that we Philadelphians won't be able to track down in these parts. But hey, they're always looking for new writers, so maybe you can start posting about something glorious you picked up at the Acme down the street* and make the jealousy bi-coastal.

*Yes, I know this doesn't seem likely at first. But for the sake of debate, let's entertain the notion as a possibility.

The least appetizing frozen dinner ever by Flickr user Herr_Bert.