Frozen Friday: Marie Callender's - Three Meat and Four Cheese Lasagna

Marie Callender's Three Meat and Four Cheese Lasagna is a 31-ounce frozen entree meant to serve four and comes with a nifty guarantee: if you don't love it, it's free (up to $8.00 by mail. Offer expires 5/31/12).

I picked it up at my local supermarket for $6.49.

Three meats and four cheese is a little bit more elaborate than the typical lasagna especially the frozen family-sized variety.

That's a pretty nice guarantee.

The four cheeses incorporated are ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, and romano cheeses while the three meats are seasoned cooked beef and pork, sausage, and pepperoni. The pepperoni in particular was a nice touch and adds that distinctive smoky flavor.

The box advertises a new baking tray that promotes even baking in the microwave but quite honestly I've never had a problem with frozen lasagna not cooking evenly in my microwave. The tray is neat though and has areas covered with a foil-like material that I'm guessing reflects or redirects microwaves (I could be wrong though; I'm no microwave scientist).

While my lasagna (like all lasagnas in the past) was heated through, the cheese ended up burning a little which didn't look so great but still tasted fine. The sauce on top looked a bit liquid-y but cutting out a quarter for myself showed that the sauce clung quite well to the pasta.

The pasta was a bit soft but kept together. The sauce have a nice tomato sweetness and the three meats each had distinctive tastes and textures that was novel and kept it interesting. The ricotta provides a nice texture change up and a little bit of a creamy taste as well as serving as a buffer for the stronger sauce. I didn't notice the parmesan and romano cheeses too much.

Overall, every thing fit well together but I felt there could have been a bit more mozzarella for that melty gooey-ness. But other than that I liked Marie Callender's Three Meat and Four Cheese Lasagna very much, especially the use of three different types of beef/pork.

Nutritional Info - Marie Callender's Three Meat and Four Cheese Lasagna
Serving Size - 1 Cup (227g)
Calories - 290 (from Fat - 110)
Fat - 12g (Saturated Fat - 6g)
Sodium - 860mg
Carbs - 31g (Sugar - 8g)
Protein - 14g