Price: FREE from Stouffer’s
Serving: 8oz.
Servings per container: 4.5
Calories: 330 per serving
Fat: 20%, 13g
Cholesterol: 13%, 40mg
Sodium: 36%, 860mg
Protein: 18g
Carbohydrates: 12%, 36g
Fiber: 12%, 3g
Sugar: 6g
Weight Watchers Points:

Stouffer’s says: Freshly made pasta layered between mozzarella cheese, seasoned beef and a rich garlic tomato sauce.

Nicole says: First thing to address with “family-sized” meals is the “serving size” used for its nutritional information. They always list the serving size for a six year old. And obviously not an American six year old, because we are all well aware of the obesity epidemic among American children.

Eight ounces a “meal” does not make. I suppose if you were making this for a family, you’d make a side dish. This box contains “4.5″ “8″ ounce servings. But that detracts from “Easy Express”, doesn’t it? My co-worker/co-eater (Bonnie) and I decided that at best, you could stretch this as a standalone meal for two adults and two small (under 6) children. Can children under six eat Stouffer’s these days? There are so many new rules to child-rearing these days. I ate 2.5 of those 4.5 servings. My co-eater had 1.5 (she’s a big snacker). 0.5 servings went to waste, because it’s hard to give away part of your frozen lunch.

Also, for dinner,”18 MINUTES” sounds awesome. But it’s a long time at lunch in a microwave shared with many others. Oh, well. I would definitely say don’t but this if you don’t have a microwave – 75 MINUTES! You could cook several meals in that time. I was shocked and delighted that it cooked all the way through, a common problem with frozen lasagnas. It also burned on some edges, but me and my co-eater love burnt lasagna edges.

The main point of this meal is that it is NOT what you’d expect from a lasagna meal. The box hints at this, but the taste screams it. “Garlic” is a serious odifier of the meal name, and serious flavor – if you don’t like it, don’t get this. If you like garlic, as I do, it’s pretty exciting. But not a good date meal, if you’re the type to “cook” your date a dinner that comes from a Stouffer’s box. The sauce is not remotely similar to the oregano-rich tomato sauces of most frozen meals. This is garlic sauce.

The “cheesy” in the name is also serious. This is cheesy, and contains mozzarella instead of lasagna’s standard ricotta. It is a nice change, but again, NOT what you expect. The ingredients are surprising, including burgundy wine and soy sauce. I say CHANGE is coming to America and it is good.

The beef is totally unexciting. I have no negative or positive comments – it was simply the ground beef that is in the flavorful cheesy garlic sauce. But I love my protein, even if it doesn’t stand out in any way.

Both Bonnie and I liked the refreshing flavors of this meal, and it’s perfect for a small family or if you have a roommate and it’s your turn to cook. My 2.5 servings were very satisfying and delicious.

Price: $3.29
Serving size: 4oz
Servings per box: 3
Calories: 150 per serving
Fat: 15%, 10g
Cholesterol: 34%, 110mg
Sodium: 16%, 390mg
Protein: 6g
Carbohydrates: 3%, 9g
Fiber: 4%, 1g
Sugar: 4g
Weight Watchers Points: 4 Points

Stouffer’s says: Chopped spinach baked with skim milk and eggs. No preservatives.

Paige says: This spinach souffle and the Stouffer’s macaroni & cheese were the only frozen items my mom would allow me to eat growing up. Everything else was homemade. In fact, I wasn’t allowed to eat mac & cheese from a box. When I went away to college and made mac & cheese from that blue box, I realized how artificial it really is. I also liked it.

I hadn’t had the Stouffer’s Spinach Souffle in about 15 years, so I thought it was time to remind myself why I hadn’t been eating it. It’s actually not bad. It does NOT taste like creamed spinach, which I don’t care for at all. t solidifies to the point that if you insert a knife, it comes out clean. Of course, you can make it runnier, but I prefer my souffle with a bit of crisp skin on the outside. And while I enjoy crisp skin on my souffle, I do not like any skin on my pudding. No pudding skin singles for me.

But back to spinach. I love spinach. Cooked or not, I think it’s delicious. My favorite is spanakopita, which is spinach and feta cheese layered between phyllo dough. That’s spinach at its greatest. Anyway, the souffle. It does rise and has a bit of a fluffy texture to it, but I think a real spinach souffle would likely have more seasoning and some diced onion and maybe even some cheese. Alas, this has none of those things. But it’s frozen and cooks in only a few minutes, so I won’t complain. It really does taste like spinach, eggs, and milk. I ate about half of it for a meatless lunch. I also ate a red bell pepper separately, but that’s just because I love red peppers. I was definitely full. Not like some frozen meals that have me craving a candy bar 30 minutes later. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Price: $2.00 CAD on sale
Serving: 1 tray, 248 g
Calories: 250
Fat: 14%, 9 g
Cholesterol: 20 mg
Sodium: 38%, 920 mg
Protein: 12 g
Carbohydrates: 10%, 31 g
Fiber: 8%, 2 g
Sugar: 2 g
Weight Watchers Points: 5 Points

Stouffer’s says: This Stouffer’s entree is made with oven-roasted turkey and real mashed potatoes and contains no artificial colours.

Katie L. says: “Croutons,” I remarked out loud the moment I pulled off the film on the tray of Stouffer’s Turkey & Stuffing dinner. What I mistook for croutons was actually stuffing, surrounded by gelatinous unidentifiable brown sludge with a side of mashed potatoes that actually, did in fact, look like mashed potatoes.

But let me back up a moment. I missed Canadian Thanksgiving this year in mid-October because I was traveling and no, I do not understand why we have different Thanksgiving dates. Pretty sure it has something to do with the harvest, but it could be because we’re weird.

I digress. I was in the grocery store the other day, lurking about looking for something to crush my hankering for turkey, stuffing and some potatoes and picked up this dinner. I had high hopes.

I stabbed my plastic film on the tray a few times with a fork, popped it in and 5 minutes later checked. Still a bit cold, so in it went for another minute, and then I had to let it sit for two minutes. By that time I was ready to start gnawing off my own arm, was increasingly grouchy and though to myself “this had better be amazing.”

Too bad it wasn’t. The mashed potatoes has developed some strange sort of skin over-top of them and had been sprinkled with paprika. The texture was gummy and gross but the flavour wasn’t bad. The turkey side of the tray held better results. The turkey, cooked in the gravy, was actually really tender and the sauce was pretty tasty. But I kept eating strange brown sludge things that I knew were neither turkey nor gravy and it started to scare me a bit.

The croutons, ahem, stuffing, actually was the best part. The part that was under the gravy was kinda gross, all gloopy and such but the stuffing that hadn’t been touched by gravy tasted exactly like… well… croutons. And I love croutons. The crunch was a nice contrast to the rest of the meal, which bordered more on the sloppy, soggy side. Yay croutons!

There were no veggies either, which I thought was poor form. But it filled me up better than a lot of meals and despite some questionable textures, the flavours in this meal were all pretty darn good. This was no earth-shattering turkey dinner but it did curb my hankering (for about 20 minutes, mind you) and is good in a pinch.

That being said, I would only buy it on sale.

[Even though this is a product of the United States, it is sold it Canada (as evidenced by the bilingual packaging and the review by Katie L., the Canadian Katie at Heat Eat Review. Also, she spells if 'flavours'. The most similar (but not identical) product on the US side of the border is Stouffer's Roast Turkey. The Stouffer's Roast Turkey Breast is a different beast featuring cornbread stuffing. - Editrix]

Calories: 530
Total Fat: 32%, 21g
Saturated Fat: 30%, 6g
Cholesterol: 27%, 80mg
Sodium: 54%, 1300mg
Carbohydrates: 18%, 54g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Sugars: 19g
Protein: 31g
Weight Watchers Points: 12 Points

Stouffer’s says: Grilled chicken tenders with BBQ sauce, topped with bacon and monterey jack and cheddar cheeses with mashed potatoes.

Nicole says:I previously reviewed a Stouffer’s Chicken Monterey. This is a different meal, completely. Just to clarify. Strange? Perhaps. Stouffer’s should think about working on their adjectives/regional or ethnic references.

This “Restaurant Selects” meal is a “NEW Larger Satisfying Size”, at 14.5 ounces and 530 calories.

Instead of the monterey jack cheese sauce, this chicken baths in barbecue sauce with both monterey jack and cheddar cheeses. And bacon. Very different, but probably a good different.

My current hamburger obsession (formerly bleu cheese) is the “Texas” burger, which in the best version I have seen is topped with bacon, barbecue sauce, cheddar cheese, red onions, and coleslaw. This is the healthy alternative to that burger, minus the coleslaw and red onions.

Yes, my chicken has grill marks, so barbecue sauce is the right condiment. The chicken is moist and well-portioned, with about 8 pieces ranging from niblet to finger-sized, mostly on the larger end. However, the flavor of the chicken is lost in the sauce and the added yummiyummiyumminess of the pieces of bacon in that sauce. The cheeses in the sauce also pretty much get lost, except where they have melted together into balls of cheese (in sauce), which are pretty yummy but still rather barbecue flavored. The sauce goes take on a gelatinous texture around the edges, but stay away from those edges and you’ll be fine. I did get one bite of chicken that was a bit too “gristly” for my liking. Don’t worry, I discreetly spit it into a napkin, so as not to offend my keyboard, monitor, telephone, or coffee mug.

The mashed potato portion is huge – approaching the size of my hand with fingers spread, and I have long fingers. The herbs present in sight, taste, and smell are really lovely, but I can’t place the herb and it’s not one you’d generally pair with a barbecue dish. I really enjoyed them, but the meal might feel better rounded with a smaller potato share and a small third side. I recommend cornbread or baked beans.

The meal is definitely filling and would be suitable for a dinner or a lunch for a hearty appetite. It’s overall very tasty and I’d buy it again without a second thought. I will reiterate:

1. How does changing the name from Chicken Monterey to Monterey Chicken turn a chile cheese sauce to a barbecue sauce and switch the sides from mashed sweet potatoes and mexican rice to mashed herb potatoes?
2. A big part of the reason this is filling is the above-average size of the potato portion. Split the side portion of the tray and offer another side dish! It’s be great to get more than starch from my “side vegetable”.