I hear all the time about how awful the shelf stable foods are. YUCK! Gross! BARF!!! Cat food! Well, I like them! Many of them are on my list of favorites. So this is a post to talk about our favorite shelf stable foods.

My list of drool worthy dishes:
Turkey Chili
Cajun chicken & sausage
Lentils with beef
Swedish meatballs (with a spoon of FF sour cream... SO YUMMY)
Southwest Chicken w/ rice & beans
Rotini w/ meatballs
Chili

List of OK entrees:
BBQ chicken & beans
Chicken Pasta Parmesan
Cheese ravioli
salad kits
most of the soups

Wont order again:
Homestyle chicken noodle
Pasta Fajioli (only because its not very filling)

So what are your favorites? Positive comments only, please.

Angela

Funny, I never considered the soups and salad kits as 'shelf stable' ... only the box foods.

So, with that, my faves are:

Lunch--Swedish Meatballs & ALL the soups

Dinner--Cookout Chicken & Chicken Pasta Parmesan

Ho-hum--Pasta Fagioli & Mashed Potatoes Beef Gravy Meal. Same for the salad kits although I eat them more in the Summer and Spring.

I pretty much like all the shelf stable foods except for the potsticker meal. I neeed to rework that as a meal, LOL.

I forgot about the beef & mashed potato dinner! It ranks somewhere between OK and wont order again. I also forgot about the Sweet & Sour chicken. I'd rank it as OK.

I haven't had either of those meals in a long time. I do the planned menus and a lot of these things are not on there.

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QUOTE(wldgrl @ Oct 23 2008, 06:53 PM)

I like all the shelf stable foods except for the potsticker meal. I neeed to rework that as a meal, LOL.

This one's not a shelf stable. If you didn't keep it in the freezer, maybe it went bad, before you ate it???

Anyway, back to the rating of the shelf stables.

I agree - Homestyle chicken and noodles? Not so much. Too soupy. Should be in a bowl.

I like the cookout chicken, SW chicken & rice, rotini, ravioli, turkey chili. Salad kits are fine. Soups are okay.

OMG - can't believe I didn't think of the sour cream on the Swedish meatballs - that will be good. Someone mentioned adding fresh mushrooms and garlic - I think that would be good too. Ya gotta spruce up these meals when you can - both for taste and for variety. It's WAY too early for me to get tired of any food or meal.

poozieny, you are so right...the potsticker meal isn't shelf stable. In all fairness, I have had it once and I purchased another to give myself a 2d chance with volumizing it.

I don't have the space in our kitchen shelves for my JC shelf stable foods; they are on a shelf in my room. I overbought a few months ago so I know exactly which ones I prefer over the other, and which ones have been there for TOO long. I have my candy snacks and cookies in a large Halloween bowl, too. I debated giving some of them out for treats...but thought better of that.

I made up my menus for the next month so I could utilize this overstock. I want my shelf back. If you look at the avatar picture you can see JC soup bowl soups stacked on the shelf above my computer monitor. One of my siblings thinks it's weird.

Forgot to mention--see the discussion at Food and Dining Out > Recipes "Soup Extravaganza, JC Entree + Soup = ?? " for more ideas. Some of the combinations of 'free' vegetable soup and JC entree sound pretty satisfying and filling.

The ones I like are:

Lunch: Swedish Meatballs, Rotini with Meatballs, SW Chicken with Rice, Chili Con Carne
Dinner: Turkey Chili, Cheese Ravioli, Cookout Chicken

Hi. I only like the Chili, I put that ona big ole' sald with tomatoes,cucumber orange bell pepper, "HOT" salsa, and top it off with JC Cheese Curls,with a tablespoon of RF Sour Cream...
I do not like the shelf food..they remind me of Nutri-System...eeeeewwwwwhhhhh..gross!!!!
Hope everyone is having a great day!

I LOVE the cookout chicken and beans!! I also like the potato soup (even though the garlic isn't always consistant) add a little 2% cheese instead of a milk serving and a little FF sour cream and its Baked Potato soup. I have even tossed in a few fresh clams for chowder! I like the chocolate chip bar and Bruschetta chips too!

I really like the Rotini with meatballs. LOTS of little meatballs!

Lorraine

Soups - I really enjoy the Chicken Gumbo soup. The Italian Wedding was my previous favourite-if you added a little salt, pepper & parmesan cheese. I have added spinach to the potato soup and 1 oz LF cheese - very good.

Now that the weather is colder, I will go back to making "stew" with the Lentils & Beef - so yummy and filling (use low sodium beef broth to cook whatever stew-type veggies you like; I use carrots, onions and cabbage usually - then partially heat up the entree and add it to the pot!).

I also like the SW chicken & beans/rice - add masala or curry spice and pretend it is an Indian dish!

Cookout chicken is nice once in a while - the beans are pretty tasty & the chicken is really tender. I also add sour cream to the swedish meatballs, and cooked mushrooms if I have some ready for lunch.

I think everyone on the board should know that there are (and be a little sensitive to) Jenny Direct clients who cannot get frozen food, because it can't be delivered everywhere. We need to support them too, and I'm sure it must hurt to see the shelf stable foods slammed so often.

Oh - and the chili! I add salsa to volumize, heat it up & add a tbsp sour cream - quick & easy & very satisfying.
Thinking about it, it seems most of the shelf stables that I like tend to be more "winter food" so if I order more at this time of year, maybe my bill will go down??

I love the snack foods ie: cheese curls/toffee bites yum!! The Soupatizer Thai was not that great.....

I only like the chili and thr JC Cheese Curls.Christine