Could use some salt.

The meatballs are actually surprisingly really good.

Hi everybody, my name is Jessica Luevano

and I'm a demi chef at Disney's Club 33.

And today, I will be reviewing pasta.

(cheerful music)

So I've been in this industry for seven years now

and I will say, I've had my fair share of pasta and carbs.

And I absolutely love it.

While being a college student and whatnot,

I did enjoy a lot of these.

And now I've had my taste of fresh pasta

and I absolutely love it.

But it doesn't mean that once in a while

it's not good to try these guys out.

So first, Lean Cuisine with Swedish meatballs.

The box says, "Cook for three minutes on high,

stir it around."

Okay I'm gonna put it back into the microwave

for another minute and 30 seconds.

Empty all that steam.

Gravy, noodles, and Swedish meatballs.

The gravy consistency's really nice,

there's no breakage of the sauce, which is nice.

Because when sauce breaks, it tends to look really nasty

and it just, I mean, you want food to look good

in order for you to eat it.

They got a nice flavor.

Not over the top.

The sauce could use a little bit of love.

It could use some salt.

The noodles aren't overly mushy,

but they definitely are overdone.

It's not messy either, which is nice.

The sauce isn't syrupy, it's a nice consistency,

it seems to sit on the noodles really well.

I'd give it like, give it like a four.

Because seasoning is kinda lacking

and the noodles are overdone.

You know, you have to consider

when you're putting stuff in there with sauces,

that that sauce is gonna continue to cook.

I like it, it's okay.

So for our next pasta, we've got Smart Ones.

So this one does have cheese.

It's gonna take a little bit longer in the microwave

so it's gonna be another three minutes.

There's a tomato-based sauce

unlike the gravy one from earlier

so hopefully this one doesn't overcook the noodles

and they still have a little bit of bite and life in them.

(microwave beeping) Oh, my pasta's ready.

So I'm gonna stir it around.

You've got tomatoes, you've got cheese.

Flavorwise, just typical tomato sauce with cheese.

So all in all Smart Ones,

decent tomato and cheesy consistency.

Nice little bite to the noodles.

Not too mushy.

The cheese definitely hangs onto the noodles

really well with the sauce.

I give this one a five, just because the noodles

were a little bit more enjoyable than the last.

Next up we have Amy's Bowl tortellini pesto.

This one calls for about a five minute cook and prep time.

Got a pesto sauce, tortellinis, and ricotta cheese.

So I'm gonna give this a try without burning my mouth,

cause it's very, very, very hot.

The noodles are like, chewy.

Pretty chewy.

Not in like a al dente kind of way.

Almost like the dough was really wet when they made it.

It absorbed a lot of this liquid.

And I feel like that's the trouble with frozen pasta is that

you're freezing them with these sauces.

So it's like, it's obviously gonna continue to cook them.

But it can also overcook them.

Personally, I think I would've liked

the tortellinis to be filled.

I don't think these are filled.

It's kinda just flat.

Maybe a little bit more herbs.

Maybe a little bit more basil.

It just needs a little bit of life,

just kinda like mm, like just flattens out.

I think it kinda goes with the first one

and I'm gonna give this guy a four.

Just a teeny bit disappointed, Amy.

Next up, Healthy Choice.

So this one is family favorite, spaghetti and meatballs.

What I wanna look for here

is the doneness of the meatballs,

once they're done, you know, cooking in the microwave,

I wanna see the bite on the spaghetti noodles.

I wanna taste how good the sauce is,

I'm looking for a flavor.

We'll see you guys in four and a half to five minutes.

Traditional spaghetti and meatballs.

Oh my god, I feel really silly.

The sauce steams at the bottom

and you pour your noodles and meatballs in.

Okay, that's pretty cool.

I'm not gonna lie.

And now I can mix my sauce into my noodles.

It smells good, I've had some time to cool it down

so I don't burn my mouth.

Kinda reminds me of the packaging I would get,

no offense to this company, but it's very nostalgic

and it reminds me of when I would get food

back when I went to school in Boyle Heights

and they'd give us like these pre-packaged lunches

and you could tell they just steamed them out.

And you were just so happy to have a really warm meal.

That's what this kinda reminds me of.

There isn't a lot of flavor.

It could definitely use some seasoning to it.

These noodles are definitely really soft,

not too much of a bite to them.

And let's see about our meatball.

The meatball's actually surprisingly really good.

I think that's like the savior here.

And you get five of them, so that's nice.

Really do make up for the lack of seasoning in the sauce.

I would probably give this, because the meatball,

(sighs) like a five and a half out of 10 on this one.

The meatball really saved it.

I wanna give it a six.

I was a little impressed with the bowl.

It was kinda cool.

Okay, we'll give it a six.

The meatball and the bowl saved it.

Just a bit more love in the seasoning,

that's all I could really say for this one.

Okay up next on our list,

we have family favorite Stouffer's.

This one is a Stouffer's bowl with chicken, bacon and ranch

with medium spice heat.

I'm Mexican so I absolutely love spice

so every opportunity I have to throw some chili flake

or some chili oil into my pasta, I'm there 100%.

This one's got a six minute prep time.

Six minutes later, we have pasta.

So this one is definitely very cheesy.

Got bacon, you can see the steam.

And a little bit of mild chili inside of it.

It smells really good.

What I'm noticing right away, it's very, very cheese-heavy.

Like when I stirred it around,

I almost had to look for the pasta,

because it just got completely lost in the sauce.

Your teeth just break through it right away.

So when you're stirring these things around,

per instructions, be careful,

'cause you don't wanna go and break apart your pasta.

Let's try a piece of chicken.

Chicken's okay.

It's cooked all the way through

which is like, number one, very important.

I believe that what they did here's

relied a lot more on the sauce to be its flavor.

You've got a lot of cheese going on in here.

And if you're into these super cheesy pastas,

by all means you're really gonna enjoy this one.

But everything kind of just gets lost.

You know, but all in all it's okay,

I probably give it, I give it a six

just because the sauce and the cheese

really does save it for the flavoring.

The chicken could've used some more flavoring

and the noodles are well overcooked.

So yeah, I'll give it a solid six.

This is the Stouffer's lasagna.

And this is the family size one.

And you can do it in your oven

or you can do it in your microwave,

it's really just a matter of preference.

Takes about 34 minutes from cook and prep time.

This is our finished product.

So as you can see,

it's cooked a little bit extra on the sides,

you got some hardened cheese here.

That's because it had to cook without the lid on top of it,

so it can fully cook all the way through.

You've got lasagna, the meat sauce,

and of course you've got cheese on the inside.

Herb-seasoned tomato sauce and real, real mozzarella cheese.

So let's go ahead and see how real this tastes.

Hot, very hot.

Not terrible at all.

You know, I could probably eat this.

The noodles are cooked well.

There's a lot of cheese.

I like the ratio of meat in there.

Even in that small bite that I got,

I got a really good amount of meat.

Flavorwise, I'm thinking it's good.

Like, you know, for lasagna.

You've got the tomato flavor.

I do taste the herbs.

You do get the cheesy stringiness inside of it.

And the meat is seasoned well, you know, as well.

I can actually see bits of it

and I can taste the herb inside of it.

And the noodles definitely hold up to the sauce.

I do see the cheese on the inside

which is really nice as well.

I think I can give this one,

I can give this one a solid eight, yeah.

It just took, for such a small package,

it did take quite a while to cook.

What I would recommend when doing something this large

when you're trying to feed your family at a fast time,

take it out ahead of time and let it thaw.

All in all, I think these were all really good.

They do have different flavor profiles for sure,

and it's always nice to go back and try the frozen meals.

And then go ahead and taste the fresher versions

of these things and see the differences for yourself.

(light music)