Frozen veggie brands

[Jessica]

We're trying to move away from canned and use more fresh or frozen veggies. I'm sick of the flavor of canned and dh is too. So the stores here mostly have Freshlike and Birdseye (both owned by the same company). All of the Green Giant brand has a bunch of extra ingredients in them and I'm hoping to use plain old veggies and add my own extras. I'm looking at frozen because I can't always find domestic fresh produce and also, I like that I can buy frozen in advance and store it. Do you trust Freshlike brand? or Birdseye? Some also have Pictsweet-they make a green bean w/ almond product.

[maeve]

I have used the Birdseye SteamFresh veggies, Hanover, and Wegman's veggies.  Lately I have also used Giant (local to the DC area) brand veggies.  I usually get the veggies you can microwave in bag.

[Jessica]

Thanks. That's what the one Green Giant bag I got was-you steam in the bag. It had a lot of ingredients (way more than frozen corn needs. lol) and was kind of mushy and bland. The kids didn't like it much and I didn't either. I put it in for the least amount of time (it said 8-12 min and I put it in for 8). Some Great Value brand has nut warnings so that's one reason I hesitate with generics.

[YouKnowWho]

I buy the steam in bag veggies - store and brand name that have no ingredients other than veggies (we hate the sauced and butter varieties and they often have ingredients that I cannot pronounce or understand).

I skip frozen corn unless I fork out for Cascadian Farms - I used a canned organic variety.

I hate PictSweet just on taste and texture alone.  I know it's cheaper just not worth it.  My grocery store usually has BOGO on the steam in bag veggies once a month so I stock up then because it's the right amount of veggies for our family.

[Jessica]

I emailed pictsweet and they don't use anything with peanuts or tree nuts so apparently the almond variety is no longer made. I don't see it on their website. I'm willing to try them over birdseye, which does use nuts (almonds).

eta: the steam in bag-do you mean the fresh? I've found that one bag of that isn't enough for our family of 5 but two bags ends up with leftovers that get forgotten and thrown to the chickens. And they don't seem to go on sale much so I don't buy them often.

[becca]

We only deal with PA/TNA, and I buy any frozen, plain veggie(no sauces).  I do check for any nut warnings, but never see any.  I most frequently use Birdseye, Green Giant, or the Stop and Shop brands.  Usually broccoli, green beans and a few of the vegetable blends, but never any sauced or seasoned ones. 

[Jessica]

I've only ever seen warnings on great value brand. Out here, the broccoli has almond warnings but when we were out on the west coast recently, it didn't. There was another variety that had a warning but I can't remember now which one it was.

[Princess Cheese]

I'm probably no help but we use the Green Giant ones.. but then  again I like the cheesey sauce.

[Jessica]

Wanted to report that I bought the pictsweet frozen chopped broccoli and instead of the usual steaming or boiling, I stir fried it. I used a tiny bit of olive oil plus some penzey's fox point seasoning and stir fried until it was done enough, then sprinkled on parmesan cheese. YUM. So much better than plain old steamed broccoli.