With food and fuel prices rising, Healthy Choice says "take in" is in, and take out is out. A frozen meal is certainly more affordable than $6-$10 for a gut-busting little box of Chinese food, but is it more convenient? The trick is to stock up on "take in" dishes so you don't have to drive to the supermarket when a craving hits, thus minimizing the risk of dialing up for delivery.

Healthy Choice has four new Asian Inspired Café Steamers, sold for about $3.59 each. With between 290 and 330 calories, they have 6 grams of fat or less.

What Healthy Choice says:
"Steaming is one of the healthiest ways to cook. Each Asian Inspired Café Steamer features a one-of-a kind SteamCooker, which circulates steam during cooking, heightens flavors, maximizes the crispness and crunch of colorful vegetables and retains the optimum texture of rice."

"To meet American Heart Association guidelines, all Asian Inspired Café Steamers have a controlled amount of sodium and no trans fat or MSG."

What we say:
General Tso’s Chinese Café Steamer
This meal was a victory in satisfying my taste buds. I was craving rice and chicken--and considering something way less healthy. I love Chinese food, and the brown sauce was just the right tangy flavor (not syrupy). The vegetables still had taste, and the chicken was not soggy. I think the steaming feature made this meal ten times better than the average frozen meal. I would buy these and will buy these for myself more often. I looked online and at $3.59 a piece, that’s not bad.

Sweet & Spicy Orange Zest Chicken
Easy to prepare, good taste and texture for vegetables - not mushy but crisp and firm.There was a bit more sauce than I prefer but overall it was a healthy and quick lunch option.

Five Spice Beef and Vegetables
This was pretty good. The vegetables were crisp enough and the beef was adequately tender. I don't know what "five spices" were used, but I liked them. This isn't really as good as takeout (oh, how good and yet so bad all that MSG is!), but it's definitely better for me. If I were craving takeout I wouldn't go out and buy this, but if I already had it in the freezer, it would satisfy me.

Five Spice Beef and Vegetables:
Calories: 310
Amount/Serving %Daily Value
Total Fat (5 g) 8 %
Saturated Fat (1.5 g) 8 %
Trans Fat (0g) 0%
Cholesterol (30 mg) 10 %
Sodium (600 mg) 25 %
Vitamin A 35 %
Calcium 6 %
Total Carbohydrates (49 g) 16 %
Dietary Fiber (7 g) 28 %
Sugar (17 g)
Protein (15 g)
Vitamin C 10 %
Iron 8 %

Sweet Sesame Chicken:
Calories: 330
Amount/Serving %DV
Total Fat (6 g) 9 %
Saturated Fat (1 g) 5 %
Trans Fat (0g) 0%
Cholesterol (30 mg) 10 %
Sodium (400 mg) 17 %
Vitamin A 30 %
Calcium 4 %
Total Carbohydrates (50 g) 17 %
Dietary Fiber (6 g) 24 %
Sugar (19 g)
Protein (17 g)
Vitamin C 2 %
Iron 4 %

Sweet & Spicy Orange Zest Chicken:
Calories: 290
Amount/Serving %DV
Total Fat (4 g) 6 %
Saturated Fat (1 g) 5 %
Trans Fat (0g) 0%
Cholesterol (30 mg) 10 %
Sodium (480 mg) 20 %
Vitamin A 10 %
Calcium 6 %
Total Carbohydrates (46 g) 15 %
Dietary Fiber (6 g) 24 %
Sugar (16 g)
Protein (17 g)
Vitamin C 15 %
Iron 8 %

General Tso’s Spicy Chicken:
Calories: 310
Amount/Serving %DV
Total Fat (3.5 g) 5 %
Saturated Fat (1 g) 5 %
Trans Fat (0g) 0%
Cholesterol (30 mg) 10 %
Sodium (500 mg) 21 %
Vitamin A 25 %
Calcium 2 %
Total Carbohydrates (50 g) 17 %
Dietary Fiber (5 g) 20 %
Sugar (10 g)
Protein (18 g)
Vitamin C 10 %
Iron 6 %

A standard serving of General Tso's Chicken (deep fried with a sticky sauce) has 844 calories and 40 grams of fat, plus 2,157 milligrams of sodium!

(Sorry for the lack of photos. When lunch time rolls around, our grumbling tummies make us forget things… like photographing our food before eating it!)

Have you tried these? What do you think? What's your favorite Healthy Choice meal? (Or tell us about another product we should review!)