Banquet Spaghetti and Meatballs Meal

April 16, 2007 | Reviewer: Guest Reviewers

Banquet Spaghett and Meatballs Meal

Price: $1.00
Serving: 1 meal, 10.5 oz.
Calories: 400
Fat: 32%, 21g
Cholesterol: 6%, 20mg
Sodium: 30%, 700mg
Carbohydrates: 15%, 45g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Protein: 14g

Banquet says: Nothing. Apparently at $1 they can’t afford people to write copy for their packaging. But hey, it’s spaghetti and meatballs.

Brandon says: Banquet’s Spaghetti and Meatballs entree didn’t look all that exciting to me in the freezer, but since all these were on sale and I had several of the other meals in the cart already, I grabbed a couple of the “S&Ms” just for kicks. I mean, how could they possibly mess up something as familiar to everybody as spaghetti and meatballs?

I was pleased to find that they didn’t package the sauce and meatballs already mixed with the noodles. The Budget Gourmet meals also tend to use this same strategy to great effect; keeping the juices away from the absorbent things like pasta or rice helps keep all the elements of the meal from tasting like each other. This was an effective move, saving the entree from being a frozen version horrible canned pasta and sauce items. I was pleased that the noodles stayed largely intact and unsaturated with what little sauce was in the tray.

Yes, the lack of sauce was a bit upsetting to me. Growing up, I was a sauce guy and still am one. That’s where the flavor comes from! Admittedly, there wasn’t much sauce depicted on the package, but I was still surprised by the lack. An extra tablespoonful or two wouldn’t have killed them.

Fortuntely, I was pleasantly surprised by the meatballs. They were pretty darn good and there were six of them, more meat than I would have expected in a dollar meal. Their meaty presence somewhat mitigated my disappointment in the lack of sauce.

The other problem? Not enough cheese in the meal. I had to scour the ingredients list to verify there was in fact parmesan cheese in there. And there was, but I couldn’t tell. Maybe they need to add some grated parm in there on top of everything just to add that little extra texture and concentration of taste that people look for when they see it on an ingredients list.

Anyway, it was spaghetti and meatballs for a dollar, and it was decent but nothing special. It felt like a reasonable small meal. I’d buy it again, but not as a first choice — and only if it was on sale.

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comments

11 Responses to “Banquet Spaghetti and Meatballs Meal”

Kendra Doss on April 18th, 2007

wouldnt it be much cheaper to buy some noodles (50 cents) and some meatflavored speghetti sauce? (1.50?) i dont mean to be a smart alek or anything and i know this is a frozen food blog, but if i am going to by a frozen dinner, i can never bring myself to buy s&m because i feel it equates to freezer robbery. granted, banquet is the cheapest, but my goodness, some of the other brands charge an insane price for such cheap product costs.
Abi Jones on April 19th, 2007

It would be cheaper to buy dry noodles and a can of sauce (though not cheaper than a Banquet meal). But if you have trouble boiling water (or can’t wait fiften minutes to cook spaghetti), then this meal is an okay choice.

I have a lot of trouble paying big bucks for macaroni and cheese. By that I mean ‘paying more than a dollar for mac and cheese’.

I prefer frozen meals that are things I obviously cannot make in ten minutes. Enchiladas definitely qualify on that front.
Rick on January 5th, 2009

I picked up two of these S&Ms from WalMart for $1/each. At that price they’re far cheaper than a pack of spaghetti, a cheap jar of sauce, and the meat to make meatballs; and I can bring them to work and nuke them without having to cook them at home first (and try to package them for work and so on).

I had almost finished microwaving it when I actually read the ingredients. ANCHOVIES? Really? WTF? My wife, who is severely allergic to seafood, would have eaten it without looking at the ingredients and ended up in the hospital. I threw it out; I refuse to eat anchovies, especially in my Spaghetti & Meatballs.

Why are anchovies in everything now? They’re in Banquet S&M, they’re in Stouffer’s meatloaf, they’re in lots of different steak sauces…
Rachel on January 21st, 2009

Ya know what? For a cheap Washington, I think the S&M is quite a thrill. It’s easy and simple. If you want to buy something for a DOLLAR, you can’t expect much more than this. It tastes pretty good for $1 anyways. I always add a little water before microwaving it to make the sauce go just a bit further. I think it helps.
Tony on January 24th, 2009

I just polished off one of these television dinners, and there seemed to be a good amount of sauce by most people’s standards; to the point where I’d say it’d be excessive if they added more. I could also see some very present and visible evidence of cheese powder in the sauce. I dunno if Banquet improved upon some of these aspects in recent revisions of the meal, but I am quite pleased with the quality of this product.
Uncle Ed on February 28th, 2009

In his review (April 2007) Brandon says this about the meatballs:
“. . . there were six of them, more meat than I would have expected in a dollar meal.”
Today I was down to my last frzen dinner (I usually keep several around for times when I don’t feel like cooking). It happened to be Spaghetti & Meatballs. I’ve been buying Banquet meals for a couple of years now and have been paying 86 cents each for them (Walmart or Winco). Since I’ve been buying them, there have only been 5 meatballs in their S&M (also 5 in their Swedish MB’s) .
To my surprise today, while the package net weight had not changed (10 1/4 ounces) there were only 4 MB’s in each, as shown in the package illustration. I don’t recall seeing any announcement of an impending product change, and there was certainly no indication on the package like “New & Improved” or some such. You’d think a reduction of 20% in the number of a key item would rate a mention somewhere. I’m not going to weigh the meatballs but they sure don’t look any bigger.
Oh well, at 86 cents for a quick small lunch I guess I won’t be organizing a protest march any time soon.
I did take a photo of both old and new packages if anyone cares. Pix on request from : curmudgn@hotmail.com
Len on March 19th, 2009

I noticed that too, Unce Ed. There used to be 6-7 meatballs in every package. The last 5 or so packages that Ive eaten, there has been only 4 meatballs. oh well, for 88 cents I cant complain that much. Must be cost cutting due to the recession.
Jim on April 1st, 2009

The package has shrunk to 9 oz now. 4 meatballs.
Tony on August 9th, 2009

Hmm, I’ve been eating this television dinner on a semi-regular basis for a while now, and the last couple dinners have been pretty sparse on the sauce, like the reviewer says. This in addition to the fact that they cut it down to 4 meatballs total. I guess it’s cost-cutting.
Spanky on November 1st, 2009

Yum
ray fracassi on March 13th, 2010

design a cut out section in tray,
for fudge brownie only…
like a dessert now an then…
mrray.