We’ll always make time for a frozen batch of lasagna here at Freezer Meal Frenzy. Blame it on the inner Garfield in us, if you will, but we just can’t get enough of this delicious meal. So today, we’re looking forward to trying out the Banquet Lasagna with Meat Sauce.
Now, we’ve checked out enough frozen lasagna with long cook times that we kind of expect that to be the default. So it’s always a pleasant surprise when we find something that can be heated in the microwave in about four minutes. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
As you might be able to see in the image above, this comes out super soupy. Just look how much liquid there is in the tray. If you’re expecting a thick, chunky sauce, well, this ain’t it, bub. It does taste kind of alright, though it’s as watered-down-tasting as you might expect.
There’s a little bit of mozzarella and cottage cheese in the sauce, but it’s not enough to really do anything for the meal. You can forget about that ooey-gooey, oh-so-cheesy lasagna, because this meal skimps really hard in the cheese department.
It also skimps in the meat department, though we do have to admit that the few chunks of meat we did find were pretty decent-tasting. This is a combination of beef and pork that leans a lot harder into the pork side of that equation than we were expecting. We’d honestly love to try a bigger helping of this stuff, because we found it to be the most enjoyable part of the meal.
We also want to comment on the noodle shape. Instead of flat sheets of pasta with ruffled edges, this meal opts for a smaller crinkled pasta shape. That’s not really a good or bad thing, but we thought it was interesting enough to mention.
This is actually pretty low in calories for a frozen lasagna, with just 300 calories in the whole meal. And the sodium level is respectable too. At 620 mg, this is lower in sodium than your average frozen meal. Then again, it’s also a pretty small serving, and, as we mentioned earlier, it’s pretty watered-down all around.
Our inner Garfield weeps; the Banquet Lasagna with Meat Sauce is just not a good lasagna. Sure it’s cheap and easy to cook, but it’s watery and bland, and there are plenty of better options in the freezer aisle. If you’re in Minnesota, we recommend the Lunds & Byerlys option, but the Stouffer’s Lasagna Italiano is a good option as well.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen lasagna, check out our package scans below.