Frozen Friday: Healthy Choice - Portabella Marsala Pasta

Healthy Choice's Portabella Marsala Pasta is a vegetarian frozen food meal featuring 9-grain pasta with baby portabella mushrooms and marsala wine sauce, topped with melted fontina cheese.

A 9-ounce box retails for about $2.99 around here and commonly goes on sale for $2 to $2.50.

This is one of those steam entrees that are super easy to microwave. There's nothing to puncture, slit, rotate, stir, or anything. You just throw it in the microwave, set the time, it hisses a bit, and it's done.

There's a very strong mushroom aroma that emanated from the tray once I opened it up after cooking. It's not my favorite smell, but some might like it.

For al dente lovers, whole grain pasta is definitely much more forgiving in how long you can cook it while retaining its firmness. The pasta here was firm but tender, and picked up the sauce quite well.

The sauce was light, savory, and just a little sweet.

There were a lot of mushroom present and they retained a nice texture as well as a lot of flavor. Combined with the sauce, there was almost a beefiness to the dish despite the lack of meat. It was a little weird without the meat texture that I'm used to though.

There didn't seem like there was much cheese and it melted into the dish with very little fanfare. Maybe it added some depth to the sauce, but I can't say I was able to discern its flavor.

Overall, Healthy Choice's Portabella Marsala Pasta is a fine choice for mushroom lovers or if you're doing a quick meatless Monday. The flavors are simple and measured, while the textures turn out very well.

Nutritional Info - Healthy Choice Portabella Marsala Pasta (255g)
Calories - 250 (from Fat - 60)
Fat - 6g (Saturated Fat - 2.5g)
Sodium - 500mg
Carbs - 38g (Sugar - 4g)
Protein - 11g

Diet Exchanges Per Serving:
Medium Fat Meat - 1
Starch - 2
Vegetable - 1

Weight Watchers PointsPlus Value: 6