There are few things better than a heaping plate of lasagna, and we’ve certainly found some lovable lasagna dishes in our time writing frozen food reviews. Devour’s Lasagna Alfredo with Bacon and Sausage is a dreamboat, and Evol’s Butternut Squash Lasagna isn’t bad either. Smart Ones has their own take on this classic dish with the Traditional Lasagna with Meat Sauce.
Since this is a Weight Watchers product, you can find the SmartPoints value right on the box. This frozen meal is worth 11 SmartPoints. That’s one of the higher numbers we’ve seen on a Smart Ones box, and it’s undoubtedly because this one pushes the calories above that sacred 300 line.
This takes quite a while to heat up — 6 minutes and 15 seconds for a 1,000 watt microwave or 9 minutes and 15 seconds for a 700 watt microwave — but that’s not particularly unusual for a frozen lasagna. Devour’s Italian Sausage Lasagna, for example, takes a full 8 minutes. Even so, this maybe isn’t the best pick if you need something ASAP.
Now, we’re not afraid to ding a lasagna for being too soupy here at Freezer Meal Frenzy, and this meal comes out looking like an upside-down pirate ship sinking in an ocean of red sauce.
It wouldn’t be quite as bad if this sauce tasted really, really good, but this is some pretty mediocre tomato sauce. It’s not helped by the meat, which has a leftover-meatloaf taste, or the fact that there’s not enough ricotta cheese filling to really make up for that.
There are just two gigantic pieces of pasta here, so it’s a bit like eating a messy, soggy sandwich that keeps falling apart, even when you use a fork. And the pasta is a little rubbery, so it’s not even pleasant to eat that part.
Most of our favorite frozen lasagna dishes have more calories than this one. Still, the Smart Ones Traditional Lasagna with Meat Sauce is a pretty mediocre attempt at a lightweight lasagna. No isolated part of this meal impressed us, and as a whole there’s not a lot to praise. We’re pretty sure Garfield would be offended to see the word “lasagna” on this box.
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this frozen lasagna dish, check out our package scans below.
