The $1.25 Dollar Tree Find I’m Stocking Up On

Every time we eat spaghetti bolognese, I always have leftover sauce but never enough leftover pasta. For years now, I’ve been boiling small portions of pasta in the mornings for my daughter’s lunch. As I waited for the water to boil, then cooked, drained, cooled the noodles, and did the requisite dishes—all while trying to get everyone dressed and out the door—I would remind myself to cook extra pasta the night before.

But, of course, I never remembered this sage advice. Plus, there was always a niggling thought in the back of my mind that opening a whole package of pasta just to make one child-sized portion seemed silly. This post-spaghetti-bolognese-morning-madness had plagued me for years until I recently discovered Pasta Zing noodles at the Dollar Tree.

Like single-serve rice packs, these shelf-stable, fully cooked packages of plain pasta just need a minute in the microwave to be ready to eat. For just $1.25, they’re now my go-to solution for those mornings when I have precisely one minute to pull together something satisfying for my daughter’s lunchbox.

Pasta Zing Microwavable Pasta Pouches

• Price: $1.25 for a 7.05-ounce pouch

• Why I Love It: These single-serve heat-and-eat pasta pouches come in handy when I need a small serving of noodles and don’t have time to cook it from scratch.

Why I Love Pasta Zing Noodles from Dollar Tree

The convenience factor is unbeatable. After 60 seconds in the microwave, I’ve got perfectly cooked pasta ready to be dressed however I like. The portion size is just right, too. Each 7.05-ounce package contains about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of cooked pasta—perfect for a child’s lunch or as an addition to a more balanced adult meal. Since they’re shelf-stable, I stock them for lunch emergencies.

I was genuinely surprised by the quality. The pasta is made with durum wheat flour, semolina flour, and water and maintains a surprisingly good texture—not mushy or strange as I initially feared. There are no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives either. The only additional ingredient is refined sunflower oil, presumably to keep the noodles from sticking together. And the packaging is BPA-free.

So far, we’ve tried the plain spaghetti and farfalle (my daughter’s favorite) noodles since those have been available at my Dollar Tree (Pasta Zing also makes pasta with sauces).

While I can buy a pound of dried pasta for around the same price, I still find them to be quite economical. On top of the convenience, when I consider the time, energy, water, and added stress on busy mornings saved by not boiling pasta for just one serving, I appreciate the value they give me.

How I Use Dollar Tree’s Pasta Zing Noodles

Most frequently, I’m just pairing them with leftover homemade sauce. I warm the pasta for 60 seconds, add a scoop of warmed bolognese, marinara, or pesto, and my daughter’s thermos lunch is ready in a few minutes. But I also made an improvised pasta salad one day by mixing it with chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, cubed salami, olives, and a splash of Italian dressing.

They’d also be great to bulk up a leftover stir fry, add heartiness to brothier soups, and mixed with a sesame or peanut sauce with veggies. Tucked between other quick meal solutions for those inevitable moments when time is scarce but hungry people still need feeding, these heat-and-eat pasta pouches are a godsend.

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