Michelina’s makes budget-priced frozen meals. And when we say budget priced, we really mean it — we tend to get these on sale for about a dollar a piece. So while it’s easy to go into any Michelina’s meal with tampered expectations, we’ve actually been finding some real gems in their frozen food line. Sure, this isn’t gourmet food, but for dollar-a-pop meals, they oftentimes pack an unexpected punch.
Today we’re checking out the Michelina’s Stroganoff, which we’ve been meaning to try for quite some time. There’s just not enough time in the day to check out absolutely everything we want to in a timely manner, unfortunately. Besides, we’re a little short-staffed this summer (really, who isn’t?), and these meals don’t review themselves!
But that’s neither here nor there. What’s both here and there is the Michelina’s Stroganoff, so let’s focus our attention on that. It’s why we’re all here, right?
Cooking this frozen meal is about as simple as it gets. Toss it into the microwave for two and a half minutes, give it a quick stir, then pop it back in for another 60 to 90 seconds. You’ll want to let it cool before digging in, but that’s really all there is to it. If you don’t believe us, you can read the full cooking instructions straight off the box by checking out the package scan at the bottom of this review.
We should point out — as we always do — that Michelina’s reduces their production costs by packing their meals straight into the box rather than including a specially sealed tray. That means these aren’t going to keep as long as other frozen meals in your freezer, so keep that in mind before you run off and fill your entire fridge with these. We know it’s tempting when you see that low, low price!
Now, this is actually a pretty straightforward meal. You’ve got some pasta in stroganoff sauce, with a bit of beef crumbles tossed in.
So let’s start with the beef. This ends up being oniony tasting, like a meatloaf, and its kind of soggy. It sort of just dissolves in your mouth like a faux meat product rather than a true beef. There’s a little bit of gristle to it in some places, but much of it is startlingly soft for beef.
The sauce is actually pretty good. It has a surprisingly rich sour cream taste, which we really came around to. We’re used to the sour cream portion of a stroganoff being a bit more subtle than this, so we had to get used to it. But once we did, we started to enjoy it quite a bit. Of course, on the flipside of this, it means the beef broth and mushroom flavors — which are critical stroganoff flavors — are pretty muted, which is why they find themselves overpowered by the sour cream. It’s less because the sour cream is extra potent and more because the beef and mushroom flavors aren’t.
The pasta here is about what you’d expect. It’s ruffled, like the edges of a lasagna, and it does its job admirably. And it’s job is really just to be a vessel for the sauce.
Oh, and we found two small chunks of mushroom at the bottom of the dish, but they’re probably not worth spending too much time commenting on because they make up such a small portion of this meal. They seem like they probably came out of a can, if that tells you anything.
If you’re looking for low-cal, you could definitely do worse than this — and we mean a lot worse. This meal contains 260 calories, which is comfortably in the diet-friendly range. It also has only 520 mg of sodium, which is pretty low for a frozen meal. Note that this isn’t the most filling meal on the planet, but with those numbers, you could easily justify a side dish or two. You can always chomp down an apple or a granola bar or something.
The Michelina’s Stroganoff is a decent batch of stroganoff for a buck. The beef-and-mushroom flavor is maybe a bit too muted, but that really just allows the sour cream more room to do its thing. While this isn’t a perfect dish, we think that it’s a good value for the price. If you’re craving a stroganoff and are scrapped for cash, this is a pretty decent option.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen food, check out our package scan below.
