Smart Ones® Calzone Italiano – Zippy and fun for lunch!
Written: Apr 19 '08 (Updated Apr 21 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Zippy flavor, nice change of pace!
Cons: A lot of bread, not too much sausage or cheese and sauce.
The Bottom Line: This is a very nice change of pace for lunch, nice flavor, could use a bit less bread and more cheese, sauce and sausage!
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| Magick1's Full Review: Smart Ones Calzone Italiano |
I, as you can already tell, like convenience for my lunches at work. I have the ability to microwave items which is terrific. I don’t normally have leftovers from dinners made at home, so I look for something quick to grab, fix and munch at my desk at lunchtime. These meals fit that bill very well. The entire meal, box and all, fit nicely into my lunch bag and are super fast to prepare. Normally, these meals take about 3 – 4 minutes to prepare. Only the lasagna items seem to take more time.
The Product
It’s a little calzone pocket 4 ½ inches long and about 3 inches wide. If you have not had a calzone, it is bread wrapped so that it makes an envelope holding in some yummy stuff inside like sauce, cheese, meat and possibly other things. This is a small item, but it is packed with stuff. In this case, it’s stuffed mostly with sauce.
This meal is not different much different than the other Weight Watchers® Smart Ones® meals. It’s quick to fix, only taking about 3 minutes. You have to take the product out of the cellophane wrapper, take the sleeve that is in the wrapper, open it and put the calzone inside the sleeve. On the outside of the sleeve, it’s just cardboard with the instructions on preparation. On the inside, there is a metallic looking film to help crisp the bread on the calzone while you microwave it. If you ever gotten a microwave pizza, it’s the shiny, metallic looking layer that you cook the pizza on to crisp up the crust.
The box states this will take about 2:45 – 3:15 on medium. Our microwaves commercial grade microwaves and they seem to be on high and it took me only about 2:00 – 2:15 till the calzone was done. The box states to use medium settings and on the work microwaves, I don’t know how to change this at all. If the calzone looks like it is overflowing or the sauce starts to come out of the seams of the calzone, it is probably done. Unlike most of the other meals that I have tried, this one does not provide oven instructions for conventional preparation.
The little calzone, when it’s pulled from the microwave, brings you the immediate scent of something delicious, a bit spicy and wonderful. Be sure to let it cool down before biting into it. That sauce packs one heck of a wallop if you bite in too quickly. It will burn the dickens out of your mouth! And, that sauce holds the heat really well, because it is insulated by the nice thick layer of bread surrounding it!
The flavor of the sauce is not really zippy. It has a decent, but mild flavor (I think). There are a few hidden gems of Italian sausage in the pocket and some cheese. The envelope or pocket of bread is the biggest thing in this dish though. The actual sauce, sausage and cheese did not make up very much of the product. Let me just say, this looks virtually opposite of the photo on the front of the box!
The photo makes it appear that you have a super thin breading around the entire calzone (maybe ¼ of an inch) and the sauce, sausage and cheese make up to ¾ of an inch (a tremendous amount of the calzone). It’s the opposite for the actual product you get. It seemed like there was only about ¼ to ½ an inch of the sauce, sausage and cheese and then roughly ½ to ¾ of an inch of bread all around.
In that regard (mostly bread), this is a bit of a disappointment. But, the flavor is delicious. The Italian sausage has a bit of a bite to it, but it’s not overwhelming nor does it leave you feeling it for the rest of the day! The sauce, as mentioned is mild, and there was not a whole lot of cheese. If you don’t mind a little sauce with your bread, you will like this product! But, if you want more of the sauce, sausage and cheese, you will be disappointed by this one!
The appearance of these calzones wasn’t bad. When I brought these to work the past couple of days, I noticed the little calzones appeared to have spilled out some of the ingredients from the seam on one side of the bread. But, the color of the bread, the criss-cut pattern on the top and the smell of the calzone when you pull it out of the microwave really makes your tummy grumble with expectation!
If you like mildly spicy foods, this might be a nice treat for you to try. If you are not a spicy person, you might want to avoid it because the sausage does pack a little kick.
Nutritional Information
This information is taken directly from the box and is based upon a 2,000 calorie standard diet per serving. A thing to keep in mind, though, is that this box contains 2 calzones, each being 1 serving. Keep this information in the back of your mind!
Calories 290 Calories from Fat 50
Total Fat 6g or 9%
Saturated Fat 2g or 10%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.5g
Cholesterol 25mg or 8%
Sodium 620mg or 26%
Total Carbohydrate 47g or 16%
Dietary Fiber 6g or 23%
Sugars 6g
Protein 14g
Vitamin A 4%
Vitamin C 6%
Calcium 20%
Iron 6%
This information, just like the ingredients list coming below, are taken directly from the box.
The Ingredients
Bleached wheat flour, tomato puree (tomato paste, water), water, low fat cheese (low fat mozzarella cheese [part skim-milk, cultures, salt, enzymes], non-fat milk, modified cornstarch), cooked Italian sausage (pork, water, spices, seasoned salt [salt, sugar, spices (including paprika and turmeric), onion, cornstarch, garlic, tricalcium phosphate (free flow agent), oleoresin of paprika, spice extractives], corn syrup solids, seasoning [hydrolyzed soy protein, hydrolyzed corn torula and brewer’s yeast wheat glutens soy protein], dehydrated onion, dehydrated garlic, paprika), modified cornstarch, modified tapioca starch, contains 2% of less of: parmesan cheese (part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), eggs, yeast, seasoning (maltodextrin, sugar, spices, garlic, onion, xanthan gum, citric acid, dextrose, acetic acid, natural flavor, extractives of paprika), sugar, salt, canola oil, cellulose gel, olive oil, cornmeal, wheat gluten, fat free skim milk, garlic powder, sodium stearoyl lactylate, methylcellulose, enzymes (wheat).
Contains eggs, milk, soybeans, wheat
Overall Impressions
I did enjoy the flavor. The sauce wasn’t too spicy, but the sausage inside did contain a bit of a kick. Too bad there was not a lot of cheese and sausage inside. It was mostly sauce. But, that is not a deal killer. I wish the bread would have been a bit thinner and more sauce, sausage and cheese were inside. But, again, this wasn’t a terribly bad thing.
Overall, this was a decent, quick meal to prepare. Watch the sauce, it gets pretty hot and if you try eating it too soon after removing it from the microwave, you are going to have a severely burnt mouth! Trust me. I did that the first time when I tried these!
The calzones are a bit small in size, but the bread is filling. If you watch the points for the Weight Watchers® point system, remember, this information is based upon 1 serving. The box contains 2 calzones and 1 serving is 1 calzone. The point value is a 6.
I enjoyed the flavor and the bread of the calzone, so likely, I will purchase these again. But, I will not go out of my way to get them, as they were not super. Again, you can hopefully find decent sales in your local market with these being 2 or 3 packages for $5. Keep an eye out for the sales. They seem to be about every other week or at the least, every 3 weeks in my area!
~Thank you for spending time with me today!~
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Teriyaki Chicken and Vegetables,
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Creamy Parmesan Chicken,
Creamy Rigatoni with Broccoli and Chicken,
Orange Sesame Chicken,
Salisbury Steak,
Pepperoni Pizza,
Chicken Carbonara,
Swedish Meatballs,
Roast Turkey Medallions,
Traditional Lasagna with Meat Sauce,
Chicken Oriental,
Lasagna Florentine,
4 Cheese Pizza,
Cranberry Turkey Medallions
Recommended:
Yes
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