Healthy Food Review: Trader Joe’s Penne Pasta with Creamy Vodka Marinara Sauce

I used to be addicted to Top Ramen and other various heat-and-eat noodles like macaroni and cheese. They made for an excellent lunch on the go, or dinner if you ran out of everything else in your house to eat. College-age people know this all too well. The problem with Top Ramen is that it is loaded in salt and all kinds of stuff not good for your body. A healthier alternative can be found at Trader Joe’s: Penne Pasta with Creamy Vodka Marinara Sauce.

Ingredients. This little meal can be bought for almost nothing. For two bills, Trader Joe’s gives you an Italian-style serving of drum wheat penne pasta. The sauce they concocted is made of vodka, tomatoes, Parmigiano reggiano cheese and all those little mamma mia flavorings you’d expect from Italy. For nutrition, every serving has five grams of dietary fiber, eight grams of sugar, 13grams of protein, and only eight grams of fat. All of this is neatly compacted into 400 calories, with only 70 calories coming from fat. This makes the Penne Pasta bowl a good tummy filler with no regrets. There are no preservatives listed in this product, but the “best before” recommendation is a little over a year after purchasing.

Since the bowl is only about six ounces, you can keep this under your desk and use the coffee maker to heat up water and cook it. You fill the bowl with water to the water line, mix in the sauce, and then pour in the noodles. If you don’t have a microwave, stir it around with the hot water from the coffee pot. If you do use a microwave, be careful- this is a hot item that stays hot for a long time. The package isn’t designed to be very thermal-friendly.

Taste. This is definitely a worthy alternative to traditional ramen noodles. Trader Joe’s wasted no time in putting effort into the sauce. They adequately drenched the noodles in deep Italian flavoring. My own personal taste wants to put a dash or two of salt into the bowl, but that would defeat the purpose of eating healthier. Nonetheless, the Trader Joe’s Penne Pasta bowl is still a tasty lunch treat. My suggestion would be to have a side of grapes and perhaps a glass of white wine (if your workplace allows it!).