Schwan's

[lindag]

My friend has been telling me about this company and how terrific the quality is of their products.

So last night I caved and placed my first online order which will be delivered in about two weeks.

I went for things like the frozen corn, a small pizza, fried rice, Italian meat balls, etc.

Has anyone out there had any experience with this service?

[ChocoMom]

Yes.  Years ago, before the prices got too high for our budget, we used to do this.. The guy would stop at the end of the culdesac, and all the neighbors would come out and "shop". It was kinda funny to watch. Some of our favorites were the thick-sliced bacon, ice-cream treats- like push-ups, and the beef-broccoli tray and a chicken-something tray.  At that point, I had 4 kids under the age of 10...so having a pre-made meal and snack on hand was pretty nice. Having it delivered right to the door was even better!   The bacon was FABULOUS!

[GlorifiedRice]

I used to love their stuffed cheeseburgers and catfish fingers

[kayb]

Their convenience foods were great when I had teenagers in the house. I like their bags of frozen fruit and vegetables, and some meat. Didn't care as much for their prepared entrees -- a question of seasoning preference. They seemed to season everything with the same seasoning blend.

[lindag]

Thanks for the comment about their bacon, I don't use much of the stuff but I will buy some next time to use in recipes!

[Smithy]

We had a few opportunities to try them, thanks to some gift certificates.  We liked their crab cakes very much, because they seemed closer to the true Maryland crab cakes that we'd had in Baltimore than anything else we'd tried.  I don't remember which other foods of theirs we tried; apparently they were good enough to eat once but not memorable enough to pursue.  

 

Our problem was with delivery: driver didn't show up in the promised time slot, and sometimes the delivery date was missed altogether because of it.  To be fair, we live out in the sticks and drive times may be an extra complication, but the last straw came when the promised crab cakes turned up hours late, in the middle of the dinner party at which we'd planned to serve them. I might try a purchase again someday if I happen to see their truck parked at a convenient location, but I doubt I'll try delivery again.

[Shelby]

Schwan's even comes to the tiny town that's way up in the Colorado mountains where my mom lives.  I think they come once every two weeks?  My mom raves about their scallops.  My grandpa used to get ice cream that he really liked.

[Jaymes]

 Lots of folks here in my senior complex regularly get things from Schwan's. Many order online. If they're not going to be home at delivery time, they leave a small cooler with some of those frozen cool-packs on the front porch. It works out particularly well for those that are either not fond of, or no longer can, drive, or cook. 

 

For me, since I still do both, it's not worth the cost, but some of the most popular things seem to be the ice cream and frozen treats.

 

And the roast beef - which I was even served at a neighbor's small dinner party: 

http://www.schwans.com/products/product?id=58043

Edited January 17, 2016 by Jaymes (log)

[gfweb]

On the one hand it is much less expensive than other pre-cooked services.

 

On the other hand, it ain't cheap. Cannot one do better with traditional cooking?

[Jaymes]

13 hours ago, gfweb said:

Cannot one do better with traditional cooking?

 

Well...

 

That depends entirely upon exactly who the "one" is.  And which Schwan products we are discussing.

 

Not everybody likes to cook, or wants to cook, or has time to cook, or knows how to cook, or is a good cook.  I certainly know people that can't produce an edible meal.  And others that can but never wanted to.  And even more that can, and wanted to, and did, but are tired, or incapable, of doing it now. 

 

Not to mention that, in my experience anyway, few of even the most competent and enthusiastic cooks are turning out chocolate-covered ice-cream bars, a Schwan's staple.

 

http://www.schwans.com/products/category?c1=9403&c2=10445

 

Schwan's got its start, and its early fame, as a dairy, back in the '50s.  I remember my grandmother always having a freezer full of assorted Schwan's treats.  She was a legendary cook but, like most cooks, there were some items she'd rather just buy.

 

Also, many, many people take advantage of a myriad of options other than cooking - they buy convenience foods in grocery stores, they eat in restaurants, they bring home takeout.

 

Schwan's is just another one of those options.

 

And they deliver.

 

As I said above, I still drive, and I still cook - and god knows I don't need a freezer full of ice cream. So Schwan's is not yet appealing to me.

 

But I definitely can see a time approaching when it will be.

 

 

 

Edited January 17, 2016 by Jaymes (log)

[kayb]

Can I cook better than Schwan's? In most cases, yes, although I will yield to them on their mini corn dogs, which are a perfectly seasoned, perfect ratio of corn to dog, and I love them dearly. Do I always have time? No. Did that make Schwan's an attractive alternative when I was feeding starving teenagers whose work and sports schedules meant no one ate at the same time? Definitely.

 

[Martin Fisher]

I'm not ashamed to say that back when I was farming full time and single, and rarely had extra time to devote to "proper" meal preparation, I regularly bought a few products from Schwan's (very rarely ice cream.)

The quality was reasonable relative to other "convenient" alternatives. But that was several years ago so I can't speak as to the level of quality now.

[Jaymes]

6 hours ago, kayb said:

I will yield to them on their mini corn dogs, which are a perfectly seasoned, perfect ratio of corn to dog, and I love them dearly.

 

As I said above, I definitely can see a time approaching when the notion of becoming a regular customer of Schwan's will appeal to me.

 

Thanks to this post, it appears to be approaching rather more rapidly than I envisioned.

[kayb]

1 hour ago, Jaymes said:

 

As I said above, I definitely can see a time approaching when the notion of becoming a regular customer of Schwan's will appeal to me.

 

Thanks to this post, it appears to be approaching rather more rapidly than I envisioned.

With honey mustard. Don't forget the honey mustard!

 Ahhh, another convert to the cause...

[Jaymes]

18 minutes ago, kayb said:

With honey mustard. Don't forget the honey mustard!

 Ahhh, another convert to the cause...

 

So it seems I've already set up an account.  And ordered a couple boxes of those mini-corndogs.  As some folks here might know, I do a lot of cooking and babysitting for my grandchildren.  On my list of responsibilities is after-school snacktime.   One of those boxes will definitely come in handy for that. 

 

Of course, as long as I was at it, decided to try the crabcakes, scallops, shrimp scampi, broiled mixed vegetables...

 

But lordy keep me away from the frozen English toffee bars...$6.99 for a box of twelve.  If I remember correctly, I can clip through a whole box in just a day or two.

 

http://www.schwans.com/products/product?id=53214&c1=9403

Edited January 17, 2016 by Jaymes (log)

[kayb]

1 hour ago, Jaymes said:

 

So it seems I've already set up an account.  And ordered a couple boxes of those mini-corndogs.  As some folks here might know, I do a lot of cooking and babysitting for my grandchildren.  On my list of responsibilities is after-school snacktime.   One of those boxes will definitely come in handy for that. 

 

Of course, as long as I was at it, decided to try the crabcakes, scallops, shrimp scampi, broiled mixed vegetables...

 

But lordy keep me away from the frozen English toffee bars...$6.99 for a box of twelve.  If I remember correctly, I can clip through a whole box in just a day or two.

 

http://www.schwans.com/products/product?id=53214&c1=9403

Those things are a creation of Satan. I know this.

 

I can testify, though, to the chicken egg rolls, too. Now I've spent 15 minutes looking at their site, and about to have to order some scallops and cod. Since there's no getting good fresh seafood here in the middle of the continent, I've found Schwan's frozen makes an acceptable sub. And I've been jonesing to try some scallops, which I love but have never cooked.

 

As best I recall, my daughter used to be enamoured of the breakfast pizzas. I seem to recall the lasagna was respectable, as were the tamales, when I lived somewhere I didn't have a good local source for them. The frozen fruit is all pretty good; I never bought much of the frozen veggies. And I used to get the hamburger patties; handy for tossing on the grill in a hurry.

 

Looks like Schwans and I are back in business.

 

And of course, I have to get a box of those damned mini dogs.

 

[Jaymes]

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2016 at 5:06 PM, kayb said:

Those things are a creation of Satan. I know this.

 

I can testify, though, to the chicken egg rolls, too. Now I've spent 15 minutes looking at their site, and about to have to order some scallops and cod. Since there's no getting good fresh seafood here in the middle of the continent, I've found Schwan's frozen makes an acceptable sub. And I've been jonesing to try some scallops, which I love but have never cooked.

 

As best I recall, my daughter used to be enamoured of the breakfast pizzas. I seem to recall the lasagna was respectable, as were the tamales, when I lived somewhere I didn't have a good local source for them. The frozen fruit is all pretty good; I never bought much of the frozen veggies. And I used to get the hamburger patties; handy for tossing on the grill in a hurry.

 

Looks like Schwans and I are back in business.

 

And of course, I have to get a box of those damned mini dogs.

 

 

Did you order?  How was everything?

 

As for me, ordered chicken & wild rice soup - just okay, won't order again; tomato basil soup - thought it was very tasty and handy to have, will order again; tortilla soup - also pretty tasty, added fresh tortilla strips and cheese, will order again; shrimp scampi-style - kind of surprisingly good, will order again; mini-corn-dogs - guilty pleasure, got two boxes, took one to grandkids, entire box gone in one sitting, ordering three more boxes today; crab cakes - pretty good and I enjoyed them but not great and I can definitely do better easily enough that don't think I'm going to order again.  Still haven't tried the sea scallops and the "Fire Roasted Mixed Vegetables."

 

All in all, a success.

[kayb]

I can get better frozen scallops at Sam's. But the king crab legs were excellent. Mini-dogs were as good as I remember.

 

Haven't gotten into my cod yet. Having raw ahi tuna poke with pineapple and cucumber tonight. Have another box of crab legs coming next week.

 

[lindag]

I'm guessing that due to the lack of response from Canada, that Schwan's doesn't operate there.

Too bad.  For me, as a single, it makes more sense than the subscription meal delivery services.

I like to cook but not every day; and when I do cook I often end up with way too much food that goes to waste (I scale the recipes down but it still can be a lot more than I need or end up using - sometimes I just get bored with it before it is used up).

So Schwan's has worked really nicely for me.  I just got my order (every other week here) and this time it was for grilled salmon, chicken cheese quesadillas (these are addicting for an easy lunch), choc. brownies and ice cream bars.  Most everything I've ordered has been very good and is hand-delivered at a predictable day and time.  I like that I get food that I can plan around rather than whole meals that may have parts that are not appealing.  And, because everything comes frozen, I can use it when I want.  I'm only limited by my available freezer space.

I'm finding that as time goes on I use their foods more and more and because their product line keeps expanding there are new and interesting items all the time.