Trader Joe's Tuesdays: Mac & Cheese Adventure!

Author: Lainey

I’m not big on trying new things.  Ummm, here’s my confession – I lived 40 years without ever having eaten macaroni and cheese.  YES, that’s what I said!  My dad didn’t like it and wouldn’t allow it in the house when I was growing up (side note, he also vetoed tuna noodle casserole, but my babysitter really liked it and she brought it to me to try and once I tried it, my whining became louder than Denny Bobainey’s insistence on a tuna-noodle-free house).  When I was in college & in my first place, I REBELLED and bought that instant blue box stuff.  I was SO excited to make it and be a grown up!  I cooked it and added the powdered “cheese”, and the fluorescent orange color combined with the noxious odor grossed me out so much I dumped it down the garbage disposal and never ate a single bite.  I lived mac and cheese-less for the next 20 years.

Until I went to Trader Joe’s.  GOD, I love Trader Joe’s.  There are so many things to try and it’s really inexpensive and “exotic”.  YES, I said “exotic”.  I live in fucking Akron, Ohio.  It doesn’t take much to impress me!  I decided to give their frozen mac and cheese a try, because a) inexpensive, and b) it kind of looked good on the box, and c) WHO doesn’t eat macaroni and cheese?  That’s just weird.

I let it sit in my freezer for a few days because I was nervous to try it.  I don’t know why.  It’s noodles, which I like, and cheese, which I really like, sooooo….?  Yeah, I don’t know either.  I worked up the nerve one night and threw it in the microwave, (I waited for the horrid baby crap smell that I remember from my aborted instant mac & cheese attempt to waft through the kitchen – that smell never came) and psyched myself up to eat some MACANDCHEESE.

OOOOOHHHHHHH!  Ok, now I get it.  Now I get why this is a staple.  NOW I get why people love this stuff.  It was DELICIOUS!  The macaroni was perfectly cooked, so it wasn’t squishy and mushy (as I had feared) and the cheese was very mild, but very definitely cheese (not some “cheese” powdered fucknuttery), and it was creamy, but stringy when you pulled the fork away.  It was SO good!  I was hooked. 

It’s mac & cheese, so it’s not exactly health food, and it’s not something that I can eat all the time.  One box is two servings and makes a decent side dish or small meal, if you're not that hungry.

I don’t know if it’s fair for me to rate it, since I don’t really have anything to compare it against, but I would give it 7 out of 8 tentacles.  I took one point off for the price, which while inexpensive to me (around $2 or $3), may not be to other people who buy the Kraft stuff regularly, which is like a dollar or something.

Rating: 7/8 tentacles