Gwynedd Stuart
If you’re looking for the best low carb frozen meals, we have good news and bad news. The good news is there are a lot of options in the frozen aisle, including a whole line of Atkins frozen meals, which you can rest assured are low carb without having to stand with the cooler door open scanning the nutrition info on the box. The bad news? A lot of low carb frozen dinners have…quirks. You’re entering a realm of “crustless” pot pies, zucchini pasta, cauliflower “risotto,” and other things that probably shouldn’t have been attempted in the first place. When we sat down for this taste test the first time, we had to kiss a lot of low carb frogs to find just three low carb princes. I had a little more luck in our second taste test—and I was even able to add a pizza to this ranking. Yeah, I know!
Of all the Atkins frozen meals, RealGood frozen meals, and Healthy Choice meals we tried, these are the five best low carb frozen meals you can buy.
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- RealGood Foods Co. Lasagna Bowl (4g net carbs per serving)
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Before you dig into a RealGood frozen meal, you should always read the box. They’re made with weird things you would never expect to consume. For instance: This “lasagna bowl” is made with thin slices of chicken in lieu of pasta. It’s not bad or gross—unless you thought you were eating some sort of pasta concept and then it’s like whuuuuuut is happening. But once I knew about the deli chicken-adjacent pasta sheets, I was okay with them! This is watery out of the microwave—you have to bail out the bowl a little—but the sauce tastes nice and there’s LOTS of ricotta in the mix, which we loved. The best low carb frozen meals know their strengths and lean into them, and that’s what this does. It’s cheesy, saucy slop, and that sure distracts from the fact that you’re eating a pasta-less pasta dish.
Credit: Liv Averett / Ralphs
- Atkins Crustless Chicken Pot Pie (6 grams of net carbs)
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Nothing sounds more depressing than a crustless pot pie. I mean, it’s not even really a pie anymore, it’s just creamy chicken soup. But once I got past the semantic shenanigans, I had to admit that this Atkins frozen meal is actually pretty good. It’s described as white meat chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, and carrots in a sherry and herb cream sauce. I couldn’t taste sherry or herbs in the sauce, but the veggies are nice and the chicken is surprisingly good for the format—firm and tasty rather than mushy or spongy. Sure, it’s pretty much just creamy chicken soup, but creamy chicken soup sounds pretty good, especially if you’re on a diet.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Quest Thin Crust Pizza Uncured Pepperoni (7g net carbs per serving)
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Is this the best thin crust pizza you’ll ever eat? No. The crust is pretty flavorless—but in the realm of low carb frozen pizza, flavorless is preferable to “bad flavor.” And I didn’t realize it until I started writing this up, but this pizza is totally flourless! The crust is made with milk protein, etc. and, frankly, when you look at it that way, it’s really good. It’s crackery but not stiff. The cheese goes all the way to the edge of the crust so the crust isn’t the focus. The sauce is savory and there’s actually a decent amount of it. The pepperoni is good, too, but we couldn’t say the same for the sausage on the combination version of this low carb pizza pie. With all the REALLY GOOD frozen pizza options out there, people who consume carbs won’t be clamoring for this, but if you’re on a diet, it’s a damn treat.
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Atkins Chicken Margherita (7 grams of net carbs)
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This low carb frozen meal—grilled white meat chicken, spinach, tomatoes, and basil in a balsamic sauce with mozzarella cheese—is a little cheesy, very saucy, and full of spinach and chicken. It’s got some herbaceous notes, too—oregano and other pizza-leaning spices that make it taste like a pizza bowl, but less greasy and disgusting. We’ve had a few pizza bowl-style frozen meals in our taste tests, and they’re always SO OILY. This is a little oily, but it’s not totally dependent on cheese for flavor, so it’s much more edible. The chicken comes in little rectangular strips and it has a nice quality. The sauce is flavorful and you can kind of scrape cheese off the inside of the plastic container. It works! The sauce doesn’t taste like balsamic vinegar, but this is one of the best low carb frozen meals all the same.
Credit: Merc / Instagram
- Atkins Beef Merlot (6 grams of net carbs)
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I’ve complained a lot in recent rankings about beef and steak in frozen meals. Unless it’s ground, like a Salisbury steak, beef is typically really dreadful in frozen dinners—dry, chewy, and flavorless. I don’t know if this goes for all Atkins frozen meals, but the beef in this particular low carb frozen dinner is surprisingly good. This actually looks and eats like stew beef. Plus, this meal has a lot of broccoli, and the sauce is brown, savory, and tastes just a touch like cooking wine. This is not going to be the best thing you’ve ever eaten, but it’s downright gourmet compared to some of the other low carb frozen meals we tried.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
Low Carb Meals!
Low Carb Meals!
Low Carb Meals!
Low Carb Meals!
Best of the Best
Other low carb frozen meals we tried
Healthy Choice Chicken & Broccoli Simply Seamers, Healthy Choice Power Bowls Greek Chicken, Healthy Choice Power Bowls Spicy Beef Teriyaki, Atkins Cheesy Chicken Risotto, Life Cuisine Meat Lovers Cauliflower Bowl, RealGood Foods Co. Orange Chicken Bowl, Healthy Choice Power Bowls Basil Pesto Chicken, Kevin’s Parmesan Basil Chicken
Naajia Shukri
Justine Sterling
