What could be better than stuffed shells? How about stuffed shells that are low in calories? Trader Joe’s attempts to pull of this miraculous combo with their Reduced Guilt Spinach & Cheese Stuffed Shells. We decided to try it for ourselves to see if it could possibly maintain the awesome taste of stuffed shells with so few calories.
That’s right, this whole meal only has 270 calories (60 from fat). That’s really low for a frozen pasta dish.
Now, part of that low calorie count is due to the small portion size. There are only two shells in this meal, so don’t expect something super robust or filling. In fact, you might want to pair this with a salad.
But the flavor is great. The sauce especially is incredible; it has that sweet flavor that we really love in a frozen pasta dish. Plus, there’s way more mozzarella cheese on top than you’d expect from a low-calorie meal.
Inside you’ll find a rich blend of spinach and ricotta. This spinach is incredibly potent — if you’re brave enough to grab a bite of just the filling, you’ll be overwhelmed by the spinach flavor. That’s not a bad thing for spinach lovers, but if you don’t like spinach, you might want to skip this meal.
We have one weird complaint. Well, it’s more of an observation. The sauce and cheese at the edge of the dish tends to relentlessly stick to the tray. In fact, it sort of crusts over, creating this impenetrable wall of cheese and sauce. The directions do say to take the shells out of the microwave after the first minute and stir that part of the meal in particular, but we did this and still ended up with the problem.
All things considered, Trader Joe’s Reduced Guilt Spinach & Cheese Stuffed Shells are pretty great. They may not fill you up as much as you’re hoping for, but they do taste incredible.
To learn more about the ingredients or nutrition content of these Trader Joe’s stuffed shells, check out our package scan below.
