Stouffer’s is no slouch when it comes to making frozen lasagna. In fact, sometimes it feels like every time we turn around, Stouffer’s has put out a new variation on the dish. They have your standard variety, vegetarian-friendly versions, Mexican-style, and fancy-pants types of lasagna, for starters, and a vast majority of their lasagna offerings are really good. We want to try every last one.
So when we discovered the Stouffer’s Family Size Cheesy Garlic Lasagna with Meat Sauce at our local grocery store, we were determined to get that bad boy home and find out what it’s all about.
Now, cooking this is a bit of commitment. Even if you go with the microwave, you’re looking at more than a half hour of cook time. If you go with the recommended oven method, you’re at well over an hour. This is definitely not a quick meal to make. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
All that said, we went with the oven here because we figure this leads to a better lasagna overall. Plus, 32 minutes is an eternity for our poor little microwave. We really do think we made the right choice.
You won’t find anything too gimmicky here; this really is a classic-style lasagna for the most part. But that doesn’t mean it’s not excellent — no, this is a fantastic pan of lasagna.
There is a heavenly layer of cheese in between the pasta layers, which is really, really good. It’s actually a straight-up mozzarella, without any of the ricotta (or, heaven forbid, cottage cheese) that you might expect. That means it’s a bit stretchier than your average lasagna filling. Even so, you might be surprised by how well this actually works.
The sauce is pretty basic here, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It doesn’t have the sweetness of some of the red sauces we’ve tried, or the acidic flavor that a lot of tomato pastes have. It’s actually a pretty neutral flavor. That ends up being a good choice here, because it lets the cheese and garlic stand out a bit more.
The sauce also contains chunks of beef, which we expected to be finely ground but actually come in some fairly large chunks. The meat here is soft and rich in flavor, so it feels like a genuine part of the meal rather than like something that was just thrown in at the last minute. Too many of the frozen lasagnas we try would actually be improved by removing the meat portion entirely; that’s not the case here.
And, of course, the whole thing is topped with a thin layer of mozzarella.
The box claims there are about five servings here, though we’re skeptical. If you stick with 1/5 of the pan, you’re looking at 250 calories and 740 mg of sodium. That’s not bad, but we’re not sure you’ll be sticking to 1/5 of a pan. We think it’s more likely you’ll be eating maybe 1/3 of the pan, which causes those numbers to grow considerably (you can see what 1/3 looks like in the image above). Keep in mind that no matter how you slice it, lasagna isn’t a diet food.
The Stouffer’s Family Size Cheesy Garlic Lasagna with Meat Sauce is another home run from the lasagna-making folks at Stouffer’s. This doesn’t attempt to do anything fancy, but the garlic and layer of mozzarella cheese make it stand out from the pack — even if it’s just by a little bit.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen lasagna, check out our package scans below.
