I had to run to the store this past weekend for a couple of things and, since I was already there and had no idea what we had at home for lunch (which turned out to be nothing), I decided to surprise everyone by buying them frozen dinners from Michelina’s (mostly because they were only $1 and I didn’t want to spend too much money).
I got my kids their usual macaroni and cheese dinners but was in the mood for something a bit different when it came to my wife and me. So, rather than buying one of my usual entrees, I ended up purchasing two of their Traditional Recipes cheese manicotti dinners.
As I mentioned before, the main reason I purchase these dinners is the price. And, as a result of the low price, I don’t really expect too much from them. However, I have come across a few of their dinners that exceeded my expectations by a lot. Unfortunately, this was not one of them. But, I still thought it was pretty decent.
As far as a budget lunch goes, I will say this wasn’t too bad. For $1, I got two small cheese manicotti that, even though they didn’t look like much at first, were much more filling than I expected them to be.
The dinner was also very easy to make. I just needed to lift a corner of the lid and put it in the microwave for about 3 minutes. This wasn’t a huge deal when I actually made it but, had I been in more of a rush (like I usually am during the week); this would be the type of dinner I would be looking for in terms of cooking time.
The manicotti itself was kind of plain and didn’t have much taste of its own. However, I have also had worse and it was slightly better than what I would expect from the price. My only real complaint was I wasn’t crazy about the sauce; mostly because it had a weird combination of spices and there was a bit too much of it (there were only two manicotti in the box but there was enough sauce for about four).
Overall though I do feel this was a dinner that was worth buying. It wasn’t the best frozen dinner I have ever had but, it was a decent enough dinner for a very reasonable price and I would recommend it because of that.