tisha - i have tried healthy choice, wasnt too happy with them but i never had the lean cuisine. stouffers and hungry man are okay tho. thanks for the link to hormel. i will have to give those a shot. susy - i dont know how you do it. you are the busiest person i know and still have time to look so good! it is plain not fair! LOL, i have tried those "just meats" your talking about and that is exactly what i got, too. 4 slices of turkey and tons of greasy, yuky gravy. have you tried the prepared meats in the meat section? now they arent too bad. i got a rolled pork honey mustard roast already that was pretty tasty. that was an easy meal. just shove it in the oven with some potatoes and a pot of corn. i made it so much we sort of got sick of it... i do cook larger roasts and than freeze some for another meal, meldy. trouble is that doesnt happen to often in this house. i like making stews and pot pies in the winter, but i am not a fan of left overs. hub likes them, so nothing goes to waste but like you said, who wants to eat stew all week? mj, i bet you are like me in that you could make a meal out of raw veggies and fruit? when hub works late i just love it. i dont have to cook ( even frozen meals) and i can make a meal out of a piece of cheese, some crackers and a bowl of blueberries. there is certainly a lot of votes for lean cuisine. i must try some. we arent talking diet meals here now are we? because i surely am not on one nor do i worry too much about my salt intake ( maybe i should?) so the meals dont have to be 'special diet" meals. i agree tho, that the portions arent big enough for me in any meal that is in the frozen section. i have to laugh at those 'family' size meals that say serves 4 or so. ha! that just about feeds hub! the deli chicken at wally world is tops and we get one of those about 2 a month. it is lovely with rice and a veggie. marie calendar is one of our favs too, gabriell. it sounds as tho you have the same problems i have. there are days when my back plain up and refuses to allow me to cook. those days hub has to fend for himself. geez, dare i say i dont iron either? g

My mom always bought the largest turkey she could find -- had to be over 20 lbs and was 24 lbs one year. For Thanksgiving, I have tended to follow suit because I now have the gang, and the saddest thing ever at Thanksgiving is not having leftovers (it happened one year. I was really upset and cooked another turkey that weekend. :D This year, we had a 20-21 lb turkey but only had 10 coming. We had more leftover than usual, but it wasn't too much. The turkey was free in a grocery store promotion, so it is a lot of good eating for very little money (some with the rub and brine), it's easy to cook and everyone loves it. I have cooked 2 smaller turkeys side by side in a very large roasting pan. That works too. If it is just for us, I will cook a 12-14 lb turkey. Rhome, have you used the convection roast cycle on that Wolf oven of yours for roasting turkey or whole chickens? Fabulous! We brine our turkey, but not the chickens. I use a dry rub, may stick some lemon or orange in the cavity (the rub we use most often has citrus in it too) and pop them in on the preset convection roast cycle. The hot air of the convection sears the skin, seals in juices and it cooks fast. I think our 21 lb bird took about 3 hours - and it was moist, juicy and the flavor was fantastic. We may do turkey at Christmas or New Year's and experiment, but I doubt we will every make our Thanksgiving turkey any other way. I love that convection roast cycle.

@Bunny Texas Toast is garlic bread. Well I think it is just toast too but if you google texas toast it comes up with garlic bread and even recipes for how to make "texas toast". I don't think a holiday meal, etc. or picking up something to take to a dinner when you don't have time to cook, is like buying "convenience" foods routinely. Of course, each to their own. I can see the time-saving benefits. The reason we buy very few convenience foods is because many times they are not as healthy as the real thing, so many additives, too much sugar, too much salt, etc. That kind of thing. But the thought of boiled eggs kept in a bag or container of some kind - well I just can't. I think they would smell and I think the texture would be affected. Jojo, that may be true, but it blows my mind to think that someone doesn't know how or can't make a boiled egg. Every generation is different though! PS I just had my boiled egg and toast!

I think so much depends on the kitchen and how it is used. I runa catering biz from my home so we have 32" all fridge all freezer columns with a buit in kit and have 54" from front of fridgr to counter since that is a very busy side of my kitchen. I will say SZ is IMO an overpriced item and my fridges cost less than 3K 16 yrs ago and not one service call So they owe me nothing and now they are 5K and would last as long again but that is my opinion. So I think in a normal use kitchen you still wnat to be able to open the door fully and still be able to stand in front if fo no other reason than to clean it properly So think about how you use the space .Since you are asking why not post your plan here too and get any other help you might need. Post here ina comment , to scale on graph paper . Post in jpeg format DO NOT start another post.