Dollar meals. How do they stand up against a dollar menu? Do they fulfill the claim of being an actual meal or should you be shopping around for $3.00 worth of fast food? Jess explores these topics with Michelina’s Lean Gourmet Penne Primavera.

Price: $1.00
Serving: 1 bowl, 8 oz.
Calories: 240
Fat: 11%, 7g
Sodium: 22%, 520mg
Protein: 9g
WW Points: 5 Winning Points

Michelina says: Whole wheat pasta with vegetables in a light Alfredo sauce

Jess says: This meal kind of tastes like plastic, which is surprising since it is cooked in cardboard with a cardboard flap, so the plastic must be a special ingredient, not merely packaging essence. Still, it isn’t bad and was entirely edible. In fact, it made me wonder if I could eat plastic were I to be stranded on a tupperware island, though that must be hell on the digestional tract.

Of course, the meal isn’t good either. The sauce is blah and the portion is meager. In fact, the one thing that I can say about this meal is that is uninspiring. My cup usually overflowth while writing food reviews, but this meal has dried my mental inkwell.

If you only have one dollar to your name (and I guess some pocket change for tax), go get a sundae from the McDonald’s dollar menu. If you are lactose intollerant, get fries. If you don’t have any money to your name, but you have a microwave and someone gives you this meal, go ahead and eat it. It will do the job.

Strangely, Hungry-Girl raved about it.