Price: $2.69
Serving: 1/3 kit, 2oz. plus water
Calories: 270
Fat: 11%, 7g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 26%, 620mg
Protein: 10g
Carbs: 13%, 39g
Fiber: 7%, 2g
Sugar: 7g
Weight Watchers Points: 6 Points

Annie Chun says: Celebrate great eating with this satisfying blend of hearty noodles, roasted peanuts and toasted sesame seeds for a dish bursting with rich nutty goodness.

Abi says: Confession: I like Pasta-Roni. Yes, the stepchild of the San Francisco treat is one of my favorite boxed side items. I can do without stovetop stuffing or rice, but promise me some angel hair pasta seasoned with a mysterious powder packet, milk and butter and you’ll have my undivided attention.

I picked up a box of Annie Chun’s Peanut Sesame noodles because I needed a break from those pseudo-Italian cream sauces, but I still wanted some noodles to go along with my meal for the evening: rotisserie chicken and green beans.

The amount of peanut noodles displayed on the plate is between 1/2 and 1/3 of the box (yes, almost a single serving) and while it makes for a tasty, utterly American peanut noodle experience (the sauce can only be described as a pleasant [if boring] blend of peanut, tahini, and some unidentifiable seasonings), it can in no way be construed as a meal. Or even a meal kit. The term ‘kit’ implies that everything I need (minus water) is included in the box.

Ms. Annie Chun suggests that we

Just grab a meal kit, boil the noodles as directed, add sauce, then toss in sauteed vegetables and tofu or chicken and you’re done. Healthy and delicious meals in less than ten minutes.

She seems to believe that we all have some sauteed vegetables and already prepped and cooked chicken just sitting around waiting to be added to our noodles. This is not a “meal kit” this is a “part of a balanced meal kit” that must be served alongside protein and vegetables, making for a colorful dinner that might pass Biggie’s muster. Maybe. She has tough standards.

If this review has inspired you to make your own, homemade peanut noodles and sauce, I recommend this recipe from Epicurious. It makes a terrifically mild starting point, has received raves from my coworkers, and it super easy even if you don’t have a Cuisinart or blender (just warm the peanut butter and it will be easy to blend. I used Thai rice sticks instead of Italian pasta and it was delicious.

Price: $2.99
Serving: ¾ cup, 4 oz.
Calories: 230
Fat: 17%, 11g
Cholesterol: 10%, 30mg
Sodium: 18%, 440mg
Protein: 7g
Carbs: 9%, 25g
Fiber: 4%, 1g
WW Points: 5 Points per Serving
20 Weight Watchers Points per Bag

Trader Joe says: There was no bag blurb and no product description on TJ’s site.

Adina says:

Pro: This meal was like eating little tender bites of heaven covered in gorgonzola cheese. It is heaven in a bag. If I worked for Trader Joe’s, that is how I would describe this product. “Try heaven in a bag. You may need a coronary angioplasty after you’re through with it, but it’s worth it!”

I cooked this in a skillet for 7 minutes. I know that is pseudo-cheating since it has microwave oven heating instructions, but I didn’t want to risk sacrificing delicious gnocchi dinner for HER purity. Sorry, Abi. To be honest though, I think it is worth it. Considering it adds only one extra piece of cookware to the post-dinner clean up and all it involves is emptying the bag into a skillet and then watching the frozen chunks of gorgonzola melt evenly over the ever expanding gnocchi, I say take the plunge. Pseudo-cook a real meal tonight. Your taste buds will love you.

Anyway, as far as taste goes, this was a 5 star meal. The gnocchi were tender but not chewy and definitely not mushy. The cheese was flavorful and the sauce was rich and creamy. I will never order gnocchi out again because now I know I can get the same delicious meal for 9 dollars cheaper.

The best part was that I never felt like someone was trying to feed me gravy covered cardboard. A novelty, I know!

Con: One bag is 4 servings. Getting me to stop after a quarter of the bag would require a locked muzzle and handcuffs. And a tranquilizer. Because I just plowed through the entire 4 servings and now I cannot so much as look at any more saturated fat until after dinner tomorrow. Seriously, eat the whole bag and you will have accounted for 140% of your daily saturated fat intake, assuming you are (trying to stay) on a less than 2,000 calorie diet. Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth it. HEAVEN IN A BAG. I’m just saying, be ready to sacrifice the next 2 days of office birthday cake for it.

Therefore, this meal weighed in at a 4, since eating this meal means that I probably will have to at least pass the gym on my way home from work tomorrow. Because walking past the gym is half the battle.

Price: $1.00 (sale at CVS)
Serving: 1 meal, 10.3 oz.
Calories: 300
Fat: 8%, 5g
Cholesterol: 8%, 25mg
Sodium: 18%, 430mg
Protein: 17g
Carbs: 15%, 46g
Fiber: 32%, 8g
WW Points: 6 Points

Betty Crocker says: Penne pasta simmered in a robust garlic-parmesan sauce. Easy 5 minute prep. Just add water & microwave. Great for lunch. No artificial flavors.

Abi says: These aren’t very good, but I like them more than just about any microwaveable pasta in white sauce that I’ve consumed over the course of writing for HeatEatReview.com. In fact, I’ve turned to this CVS (a local drugstore) staple on multiple occasions over the past year.

Perhaps my affinity for these bowls stems from their intensely strong parmesan-garlic flavor. If you had me do a taste test on the bowls, I couldn’t identify the flavor specifically as garlicky or parmesany. Just blatantly odoriferous. Another plus (yes, smelliness seems to have become a plus), they don’t need to be frozen. This means that a) they don’t take up room in my freezer, and b) I can cook the pasta to my preferred state of doneness: just beyond toothy.

So really, the lesson from this review is that blandness is the devil and I prefer al dente pasta. Also, only buy these on sale, because they aren’t worth more than $1.25.

Dumb but true: these are not for vegetarians because they contain chicken fat. Dried powdered chicken fat. Way to reduce your market, Betty Crocker.

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.