Place: Taco Bueno
Lunch: 3 deluxe tacos (no tomato), 2 bean burritos, Dr. Pepper
Recently at Walmart, I spied a Banquet Mexican dinner selling for 69 cents. Really? Not only less than a buck, but SIGNIFICANTLY less than a buck?
So even though Banquet has never ever even once made a TV dinner that I liked (much less one that didn't actually make me sick), I tried one. It was a single enchilada, a single tamale, a very small amount of sauce (so small, the instructions have you stop the cooking at some point to spoon the sauce over the enchilada and tamale), and some really weak beans. It makes the Patio brand dinners look luxurious.
(I like the Patio dinners, by the way, but I don't like to shop at the only chain in town that sells them. And they're usually out of them anyway.)
Years ago, Van de Kamp's (the frozen fish stick people) had a line of Mexican TV dinners under the label "Van de Kamp's Mexican Holiday". These included a single enchilada entree...no beans, no rice, just a big fat single enchilada. The cheese enchilada was one of my favorite things in the world. The cheese filling actually tasted like cheese. And olives, which were part of the mixture. They were just awesome. They cost about a buck and a half. They also had a line of regular dinners with rice and beans.
In the eighties, the line was apparently moved to the Don Miguel label, who continued producing the individual enchiladas for awhile, but they eventually disappeared from the market place.
Today, Don Miguel is a byline of the El Charrito label. They have a few regular Mexican style TV (sorry...I guess today they're called 'frozen') dinners and some ala carte offerings of stuff like mini tacos and taquitos. But nothing like those enchiladas (although the red sauce is basically the same). The El Charrito "enchiladas" have a thin amount of filling that appears to be spread on an open tortilla like a condiment before rolling. (They have a "Grande" size verson of the same dinner that seems to be better on the filling.) Sadly, it's the best of the mainstream Mexican dinners I know of. I have one for breakfast every once in awhile. I really enjoy gutbomb breakfasts, for some reason. QuikTrip chili dogs also make for a good breakfast.
The only thing I've found that even comes close to the old Van de Kamp's enchiladas is Amy's cheese enchiladas, which come in pairs as a single entree about the same overall size as Van de Kamp's did for $3-$5 depending on where you shop. But short of Amy's, the whole Mexican TV dinner concept has headed in a "who can make this crap cheaper" direction.
Swanson used to make a good Mexican TV dinner. The one they put out today isn't it. The "Hungry Man" version, which used to be a four-compartment tray with two beef enchiladas and two tamales with rice, beans, and pudding, is now a three-compartment meal with three really skimpy beef enchiladas served on TOP of the rice. It's not even the same recipe. And there's no more tamales.
By the way...Have you noticed Swanson has taken their name off the "Hungry Man" line? They're now just branded "Hungry Man".
It seems the only frozen Mexican food people are willing to spend more than a couple bucks on are the things like taquitos, tornadoes, flautas, and the like. Often sold in bulk. Want a complete platter? Find a Mexican restaurant.
I suppose this is also true about the other TV dinners out there, but I haven't had that craving.
Yet.
