Bertolli Frozen Meals (Review & Giveaway)

If there's one type of cuisine I could eat over and over again without growing tired of it, it's Italian. I love pastas, breads, soups, etc that burst with bold Italian flavors and delicious ingredients. I was pretty lucky to be able to eat at a celebrity chef's restaurant in NYC a few weeks ago, featuring (you guessed it) Italian fare. I do a lot of cooking at home, and we average one or two Italian meals a week, depending on our schedules.

I was recently given the opportunity to try some new Italian meals from Bertolli, a well known Italian foods brand. Bertolli has recently launched new meals that are almost heat and eat meals, available in you grocer's freezer. We're pretty big Bertolli fans in the Witt house. I come from an Italian family, so authentic Italian food is important to me. I don't have time to make things from scratch each and every time I make a meal, so we often use Bertolli's delicious Alfredo Sauce varieties, their Olive Oils, and sometimes their tomato sauces. Bertolli released their frozen meals a while back, and they have just unleashed some new flavors, which we couldn't wait to try!

I couldn't wait to give this Bertolli Meal Soup a try!

We were sent some coupons so we could go to the grocery store and pick and choose which flavors we most wanted to try. We're new to Bertolli's frozen meals, and honestly, I didn't know what to expect. I have tried some other 'skillet meals' from the freezer before, and not been entirely impressed. Since we already knew about Bertolli and had grown to love their previous product lines, we were holding them to a pretty high standard.

We headed to the store and purchased 1 Bertolli Meal Soup, 1 Risotto, and 1 other type of frozen Bertolli Classic meal. It's important that I mention to you that my husband is not very adventurous when it comes to food, so he was really not up for trying any of the Bertolli Meal Soups except for the Tomato Florentine & Tortellini, so I caved, and that's one we went with. We also picked up the delicious looking Roasted Chicken Risotto, and the Chicken Parmigiana and Penne meal.

All of these meals were incredibly easy to prepare. All I had to do was pour the frozen meal from the bag to a skillet or pot, and at maximum, add a little bit of water. Each meal that we tried was truly incredible! We first tried the Bertolli Roasted Chicken Risotto, and I have to tell you, it was so creamy, and perfect! The risotto was tender, but not at all gummy, and the chicken tasted like it had never been frozen! My husband loved it because it was immersed in a velvety Parmesan cream sauce. I loved this meal, because it included some of my favorite veggies- asparagus and Portobello mushrooms! We gave this risotto two thumbs up, each! It's definitely a meal that we will be having again soon!

Next, I prepared the yummy Bertolli Tomato Florentine & Tortellini Meal Soup. I decided to make this on a night that I was home alone, working. I got in pretty late from a meeting and needed to get right to working on some reviews, so I needed a quick dinner, and didn't want fast food. Again, I simply poured the contents of the bag into the pot, added the amount of water it called for, and followed the directions for preparation. Within minutes, I had a simmering pot of soup that looked like it had just been freshly made. I sat down to my warm bowl of soup, filled with a rich tomato bisque, spinach, cheese tortellini, and chicken. Oh, my yum! This is probably the best non-homemade soup I have ever had! The package said 'meal for 2,' but I ate off of this soup three times! It was so filling, and though I was completely satisfied, I wanted more, simply because it was so delicious! Seriously- I don't think I can ever eat soup from a can ever again.

Take a look at some of these photos from my personal favorite Bertolli Meal...

Here's what the meal soup looks like, still in the bag...

Still frozen, but ready to go. Look at those pieces of food. No tiny bits in there!

My Meal Soup, simmering away...

Dinner time! A bowl of soup, slice of Texas Toast, and some sweet tea! My kind of dinner!

Lastly, we tried the Bertolli Classic Chicken Parmigiana with Penne, and it was pretty out of this world yummy! The pasta in this meal, like in the others, was just nice and al dente, which is exactly that way you want your pasta. The flavor of the tomato sauce was so good- it could have passed for homemade! The chunks of chicken in this meal were mouth-watering. Balian, our two year old son, is not big on sauce, but he enjoyed the plump penne noddles with a little sauce on them from this meal, and even tried some of the chicken. Anything that pleases my picky eater is a winning product, in my mommy book! Chicken Parmigiana is a family favorite, and I usually slave over it, when I make it at home, because I make everything from scratch, including the sauce. This is such a nice treat, because it's a meal we love to eat, but it takes just minutes to make, and tastes incredible!

It's pretty amazing that each Bertolli Meal that we tried really was restaurant quality food... and for me to say that, it truly had to be good. Bertolli Meals are easy to make, and the clean up is a snap, too- because there's only one pot or pan to clean, and maybe some wine glasses to wash. Each Bertolli Meal comes with pairing suggestions, printed directly on the back of the bag. I thought that was a really nice touch. Some of our meals offered wine or bread suggestions.

Bertolli has so many delicious Meals to choose from- you could quite literally have a different one every night of the week, if you're not into cooking, or if you don't have a lot of time, but still want to come home to a healthy, fresh tasting meal.

Some of Bertolli's other new flavors include:

Italian Style Wedding Meal Soup

Ricotta and Lobster Ravioli Meal Soup

Garlic Shrimp Risotto

We can't wait to give all of these wonderful meals from Bertolli a try! These would be great for us to have when we go on vacation, because we cook meals (wherever we end up staying), so we're not spending tons of money going out to eat. These meals stretch pretty far, and are definitely worth trying!

Want It? Buy It!

Look for Bertolli products in your local grocery store, and for the newest Bertolli Meals in your grocer's freezer! Want to connect with Bertolli? Find them on Facebook and Twitter, and gobble up their delicious updates!

Want It? Win It!

Four- yes, four lucky MBP readers will receive ONE coupon, each for a free Bertolli Frozen Meal. These coupons will be mailed by me, as I have already received them from the sponsor. Enter on the easy to use Rafflecopter entry form below for your chance to win!

Special thanks to Bertolli for allowing us to try their fantastic Meals, and for allowing us to host this wonderful giveaway for our readers.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I was sent the above mentioned product free of charge for review purposes, directly from the sponsor. All thoughts and opinions shared are my own. Your experience may differ. This giveaway is not associated with Facebook in any way.