I was on vacation in Florida for a few weeks and while in Florida one shops at a grocery chain called Publix. It is not negotiable. In preparation of our pending three day drive home I went looking for gluten-free dairy-free and corn-free frozen dinners that could be microwaved in our hotel room at night. I know, I crack me up too.
Yet there they were. Four different entrees without gluten, dairy, or corn. I was stunned.
I was expecting something that had the nutritional profile of the box, so I was stunned to find that Artisan Bistro has several entrees that are gluten-free and also dairy and corn free. As a bonus, most ingredents are organic and the meat or fish is sustainably harvested or raised without hormones or steroids. The salmon is wild caught and the beef is grass-fed. I kid you not.
Now, no these are not cheap, and yes they contain enough salt to mummify something. But there are actually two and three digit numbers next to the nutrition facts. These meals and bowls actually contain a signficant amount of actual nutrients.
Sure, I would prefer to get a salad, but the truth is that Cracker Barrel says right on their website that people like me shouldn’t eat anything there because they make the biscuits from scratch every day. And don’t even talk to me about fast food places, so on road trips frozen food is kind of a critical component of our day.
In addition, I think that for all the people out there who are now where I was 20 years ago, these dinners fill a key void. You can do what I did and have a salad for lunch and a frozen dinner for dinner. Also, while none of the meals avoided the entire big eight, most of them avoided most of the worst offenders.
You can find the ingredients for the dinners here
http://www.theartisanbistro.com/artisan_bistro_meals.html
Oh and also they taste good for frozen dinners and they don’t have a lot of calories.
Now, if we could just get some roadside gluten free food….
