Joe's Diner Mac 'n Cheese

It should be no surprise to anyone who know's me that this would be the post I start this whole carfuffle with.  

It's true.  I love Mac 'n Cheese.  The golden, creamy, gooey, cheesy, heavenly stuff is what I live for.  Seriously.  It is, and always has been, my biggest comfort food and favorite treat.  It's a shame that I'm mildly lactose intolerant.  It's also so sinfully fatty and calorie rich but I think I'd totally be willing to gain an extra 10 to, well, any amount of pounds if it meant I could eat it for every meal of every day!  Too bad we need all those little annoying things like vitamins and minerals…


So when I found out about "Joe's Diner" frozen Mac 'n Cheese for $2.99, I had some serious sentimental flashbacks to freshman year of college and microwaving Stouffer's mac and cheese in my roommates microwave every day.  Ahh college…  And yes, I did end up gaining the extra 10 pounds that semester for that matter.  Oops!

Trader Joe's "Joe's Diner" Mac 'n Cheese comes in a cute retro little box, like most everything else there does, with two servings of 1 cup in each container.  There are four cheeses involved with this dinner which was a nice treat; Cheddar, Swiss, Havarti, and Gouda.  It says on the box to either microwave or set it in the oven but I chose microwave this time.  Maybe I'll update later if I put it in the oven to compare.

So I unwrapped, prepared, and anxiously stuck the beautiful thing in the microwave.  Mac and cheese is a wonderful thing you see, so if it went wrong, this foodie would be sorely dissapointed.

The thing about microwaving this kind of mac and cheese is that the edges get delightfully crispy while the center stays gooey and melty.  I, personally, am a crispy edge lover.  So when the Mac 'n Cheese came out and I tasted those first few bites, I was pleasantly relieved to find it nearly as delicious as I had hoped.  There were even a few delighted, though embarrassing and regretful, groans.

 But here's the thing!  It was great for the first few bites but I quickly began to feel like the taste was turning from "ooh yum!" to just okay and finally to a few disdainful looks at it as I finished up!  I mean, don't get me wrong, it's hard to find bad mac and cheese but this just fell short of all those sentimental memories of vegging out in a cramped dorm room.  Okay, probably the wrong image, but you know what I mean.  Mac and cheese is supposed to be gluttonous and sinful and yet oh so good to make you feel like you just can't stop!  No?  Just me?  Oh well.

I ate the whole thing anyways because I was starving after a long day at work and really it wasn't bad, just a bit disappointing.  There wasn't quite enough cheese or maybe too much pasta.  It was very mild.  The cheddar shone through, naturally, but the others all fell short!  I could hardly taste the havarti or gouda at all!  (My uncle makes a mean gouda mac and cheese, so I should know.)  I definitely think the pasta was overcooked and I'm definitely sure that wasn't my fault.  It doesn't take a genius to find the microwave time on a box.

Also, I looked up that Stouffer's Nutrition Facts to compare and was incredibly surprised to find that Trader Joe's version has more calories per serving than the other!  It won out just barely in grams of fat, only 15 as opposed to 16, but had more grams of saturated fat at 8 than 6 for Stouffer's!  So it's kind of a toss up!  I might have to go buy the other just to compare in close time proximity so that I'm not just thinking that the other tasted better.

But over all, I guess it was fine.  It was good enough, very filling if you eat the whole thing (but that's a ton of calories at 720 a box), and still better than Kraft blue box.  But that's not hard to beat either.  I feel like there are better, tastier, healthier alternatives out there but this isn't a bad choice, it just probably won't be my first from now on.  Sigh.  I was really rooting for this one too!

VERDICT:

"Eh.  Fine, but better luck somewhere else."

Ratings:

Taste - 3/5

Price - 4/5

Nutrition - 2/5

Total - 9/15

*Taste rating should be pretty self explanatory if you read the post.  The only truly yummy part were the 3 or 4 bites of crispy edge that saved it from a 2 or 1.5.  Price per OZ was good but with a lack of quality I lowered it.  Cost is only worth it if the food is.  Nutrition in mac and cheese will always suffer but the amount of saturated fat was unsettling along with enriched pasta and a high calorie amount made this so sad.  I really try and keep breakfast, lunch, dinner, and total snacks at around 400 - 500 calories each and 360 for one meal made me feel glad I went kayaking that day.

**All photo credits go to me.