Review: Marie Callender's Turkey Breast Meal

Let's face it - frozen dinners don't always offer much flavor, but I have come to find Marie Callender's meals very flavorful. I was in the mood for turkey the other day but didn't feel like going through all the work to actually prepare a turkey, so I picked up Marie Callender's Turkey Breast meal to see if it would fit the bill for me. Marie Callender's Turkey Breast meal offers thick, white meat turkey medallions, a celery and herb-flavored stuffing, a cranberry and green beans side dish, and mashed potatoes and gravy.

You can find Marie Callender's Turkey Breast meal offered in a 14-ounce package in your local grocer's frozen section for about $3.50.

Preparation

You can cook Marie Callender's Trueky Breast meal in a microwave or conventional oven.

Microwave

After opening a slit over the vegetable section of the meal tray, place the dinner into your microwave and begin cooking on HIGH for 4 minutes. After your meal has cooked for 4 minutes, remove the tray from the microwave, stir everything except the green beans, and then put the meal back into the microwave, cooking the platter for another 3 to 4 minutes on HIGH. You can enjoy your meal after it allowing it 2 minutes to stand.

Conventional Oven

Slit a hole over the green beans and then place the meal into your oven on a cookie sheet for 40 to 42 minutes after preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Once your meal has finished cooking, let it stand, and then enjoy your Marie Callender's Turkey Breast dinner!

Flavor

As I mentioned earlier, Marie Callender's meal offers flavor - and in the case of the turkey meal a few other things I haven't found in other turkey frozen meals.

For starters, I like the thick-cut, white meat turkey medallions. They tasted very moist (not processed moist, quality moist - as in not dried out!).

The green beans and cranberries was a nice surprise. I have to say I didn't know if the flavor of that was going to be tart or sweet, but I enjoy the crisp, sweet flavor of the two combined; the green beans are not at all mushy.

The herb and celery dressing was the best stuffing I have found yet in a frozen turkey meal. It has real flavor, and there are distinct cubes of stuffing in this meal - not a bready slop.

The potatoes are good but high-end average fare for a frozen meal.

Nutrition

The worst aspect of this very tasty Marie Callender's Turkey Breast meal is the high sodium content - the nutrition label on the carton states it has 1200 milligrams, or 50% of the average person's daily recommended intake. However, other than the sodium level, there is nothing remarkably glaring on the nutrition label. In fact, you get a full 9 grams of dietary fiber, 23 grams of protein, and consume just 350 calories overall.

Here's a breakdown of the other nutritional numbers from the Marie Callender's Turkey Breast carton:

Calories from Fat 90
Total Fat 10 grams
Saturated Fat 2.5 grams
Trans Fat 0 grams
Cholesterol 35 milligrams
Potassium 840 milligrams
Total Carbohydrates 43 grams
Sugars 6 grams
Vitamin A 15%
Vitamin C 4%
Calcium 10%
Iron 10%
Riboflavin 10%
Niacin 20%
Folic Acid 10%
Vitamin B12 10%
Phosphorus 25%
Magnesium 10%
Zinc 15%
Manganese 30%

Resources

Personal and first-hand knowledge and experience
Marie Callender's Turkey Breast meal carton