With the holiday season upon us and the seemingly never-ending amount of chores, I’m on the lookout for fast, but healthy frozen Italian meals. Growing up eating homemade Italian food and then making my own, I know what the real stuff tastes like. Spices, tomatoes, good cheese, meat and seafood are all important. Freshness is another necessity, but it can’t be done with chemicals.
Michael Angelo’s Gourmet Foods has now become a favorite Italian healthy frozen Italian meal that’s fast to make. I honestly didn’t think I’d like their products, but after tasting a few with my family, we’re hooked. Here’s an explanation from their website as to why,
Each of Michael Angelo’s delicious appetizers, entrées and sauces is handcrafted from Sara’s authentic Italian recipes, using only the natural, wholesome ingredients found in a genuine Italian kitchen. In order to ensure that you provide your family with a delicious and nutritious meal, we use only 100% premium meats, authentic Italian cheeses, 100% durum wheat semolina pasta, fresh herbs and spices, fresh vegetables, and specially selected, vine-ripened tomatoes.
Now for why I ate them, gave them to my family and wanted more after one serving – in one word, delizioso! We tried the Meat Lasagna first. The first ingredient is Tomatoes and next is Mozzerella Cheese. I learned that Michael Angelo’s uses only vine ripened tomatoes that are selected from premium parts of the crop. Mozzerella is prepared the Italian way, using real milk. I could taste these special ingredients and felt like I was eating my mother’s food, made from scratch. When my husband and daughter ate their portions up, it all made sense to me.
You can use the microwave or the oven, but we chose the oven because we wanted some of the pasta to be crispy. It’s something we fight over! Taking just about an hour to heat up, instead of 3-5 hours to make from scratch, made me enjoy it even more. It was so nice to have a very tasty, hearty meal for dinner. Just take a look at the close up, where you can see the real basil, parsley and the melted cheese.
We also ate the Shrimp Scampi and Baked Ziti with Meatballs. The scampi had too much of a greasy feeling to it and I was not happy to read that Sodium Tripolyphosphate was an ingredient. I can’t fathom where that comes in as a natural ingredient so I know I’ll be avoiding the scampi from now on. The ziti was delicious and eaten up very quickly.
Sarah Agnello, Michael Angelo’s mother, still oversees the ingredients and the development of the products. She’s choosy like me because she knows what is important in Italian food. She learned cooking as a child from her Sicilian grandmother. I grew up learning to cook, but it was from my mother and most of it was Italian food.
We’ll be eating more of Michael Angelo’s meals this holiday season and even past that.
I received coupons for these frozen meals for my review. All opinions are my own.
Yummy…