Kraft=Psychic?

Kraft is now taking advantage of creepy video analytics technology in order to predict what grocery shoppers might want to eat for dinner. The "Meal Planning Solution" kiosk will scan a shopper's face, determine his or her gender and age, and provide appropriate suggestions - which, obviously, will come from the Kraft family of products. I'm hoping that their recommendation for a 23-year-old female would be some sort of delicious mac and cheese, but I'm guessing it would probably be something boring like salad dressing. The kiosk can also send recipes and shopping lists to your smartphone, and it will dispense a free sample before you continue your shopping.

Read the full article here.

Kraft Homestyle

I have been "saving" this macaroni and cheese for a really long time. For some reason, I had built it up in my mind to be the best thing I'd ever eaten. My mom has this recipe that takes like 5 hours to make and involves about 7 different cheeses and a ton of cream and who knows what else, and I was anticipating that this would be better than that. Perhaps I was hoping beyond hope, but, I mean, it comes with breadcrumbs and everything. They've also been marketing very aggressively toward adults, which I took as a sign they were attempting to do something very different than their previous products.

The preparation, while not as arduous as a legitimate homemade mac and cheese dinner, was nonetheless more involved than your typical prepared dinner. You have to prepare the pasta, then mix the "Special Seasoning" packet with butter, then add milk and cheese sauce and cook that before adding pasta. Then there's an optional oven finish, in which you put shredded cheese (not included) and bread crumbs (included) on top and bake at 425 degrees for a few minutes. I obviously did this, since I figured I had already come this far and might as well make it as good as possible.

It actually looked like this at one point. And I was scared.

They tell you to stir the pasta into the sauce, and at first when it looked like this I was worried there wouldn't be enough cheese for the macaroni.

But there was!

Pre-oven-finish.

Out of the oven.

Hooray!

Ratings

Flavor: 4/5. So when I stole a bite or ten before adding the breadcrumbs, it was pretty solid, but definitely still had a strong "artificial" taste. You know the one – where it doesn't taste bad, but you can definitely tell it's not real cheese. Not that I'd expect anything less from Kraft, but it certainly wasn't "Homestyle" unless your home is the Velveeta factory.

Consistency: 5/5. Creamy and, while I was worried there wouldn't be enough sauce for all the pasta, there definitely was.

Pasta Shape: 3.75/5. I like the elbows, and the ridges were a nice touch, but the whole time I was wishing they were shells or something similar. Elbows bore me. Personal preference.

Overall: 4/5. I really, really wanted this to be perfect. I wanted to genuinely be able to say that I've found a new supermarket mac and cheese that tastes like the real thing. Unfortunately, this isn't it. It's certainly not bad, but for the amount of effort you have to put in I would say it's probably not worth it. Just throw some bread crumbs on top of Velveeta and call it a day in about half the time.

Nutrition Information: Serving Size 3 oz (about 1/4 package), prepared. 340 Calories, 120 Calories from Fat; 8g Fat, 2.5g Saturated Fat, 0g Trans Fat; 15mg Cholesterol; 690mg Sodium; 41g Carbohydrate; 1g Fiber; 3g Sugars; 10g Protein.

Spotted In Boston

Kraft Cheesy Alfredo with Pasta Twists

I'd first like to apologize for the lack of mac and cheese reviews as of late (since I'm sure the millions of people who read my blog are just beside themselves wondering why I haven't written more). Moving back home after college has led to a lot more of my mom's food, which includes things like fresh ingredients, vegetables, and all-around healthiness. Good for things like combating heart attacks and obesity, but terrible for this blog. On the flip side, though, unemployment has left me with a lot of free time at lunch, which should counteract the effects of Mom's healthy cooking.

I don't generally consider alfredo sauce a part of the cheese family. Though it does contain parmesan, it doesn't generally taste particularly cheesy, and cream seems to take center stage within the sauce. However, I'm willing to make an exception for Kraft because, let's face it, there's not actually all that much real cheese in their regular mac and cheese either.

Ratings

Flavor: 4/5. This was actually a remarkably good sauce. It didn't taste like alfredo, per se, more like a hybrid of cheese and alfredo sauce.

Consistency: 4/5. Pretty standard; it could've been a little thicker but didn't necessarily need to be.

Pasta Shape: 4.75/5. Gemelli was a solid choice for the "alfredo" sauce.

Overall: 4.25/5. I actually enjoyed Kraft's attempt at alfredo sauce a lot more than I thought I would. Granted, it was not an alfredo in the strictest sense, but it was still good. I also found it interesting that a perusal of the ingredients revealed that the sauce even contained a touch of onion, and I wonder if we can attribute the sauce's deliciousness to this fact.

Nutrition Information: Serving Size 2.5 oz (about 1/3 box), prepared. 380 Calories, 130 Calories from Fat; 2.5g Fat, 1g Saturated Fat, 0g Trans Fat; 5mg Cholesterol; 650mg Sodium; 50g Carbohydrate; 2g Fiber; 7g Sugars; 9g Protein.

More Crazy Marketing From Kraft

Click here for the story on this giant noodle.

Photo from Chicago Sun-Times

Kraft Goes on Tour!

Kraft will be sponsoring a mac and cheese tour in order to promote their new Homestyle variety. When you visit the locations hosting the tour, you'll be able to enjoy free samples of the new flavor. Unfortunately, the tour is mostly limited to the South and Midwest; apparently those of us on the coasts are finally being punished for our obsession with healthy eating. Or perhaps I'm just bitter.

In any case, you can check out the schedule here.

New Kraft Ad

All the Gleeks out there who watched the season finale may have seen that Kraft premiered a new ad for its Homestyle mac and cheese during the episode. What do you think?

Mac and Cheese in the News

The New York Times recently featured a great article on Kraft's attempts to market mac and cheese to adults as well as kids. I know that boxed mac and cheese gets a reputation for being a food parents make when they're too tired to make a real dinner for their kids, but hopefully people will begin to understand that some people actually enjoy eating it.

Read the full article here.

CHEDDAR EXPLOSION VIP

Some of you may recall that I reviewed Kraft's Extreme Cheese Explosion mac and cheese, the release of which coincided with a contest that would allow a kid to pull the trigger to demolish Texas Stadium. The winner was 11-year-old Casey Rogers; the promotional video is below.

Tombstone Mac and Cheese Pizza?!

When I went to South Carolina for spring break this year, one of the things about which I was most excited was visiting CiCi's Pizza. I know it sounds like a weird thing to get excited about, but they happened to have a mac and cheese pizza that looked like the most amazing thing ever. CiCi's did not disappoint, but I did, unfortunately, have to return north, where our repertoire of fast casual dining restaurants is severely limited.

I thought that mac and cheese pizza was going to be just a fond memory until I was browsing through the grocery and found this pizza: a Tombstone frozen pizza with Kraft mac and cheese on top. Brilliant, no? I immediately rushed home in order to see if my wildest dreams had, in fact, come true.

Ratings

Flavor: 3.5/5. The cheese tasted remarkably good – you could tell it was Kraft, but it was better.

Consistency: 3/5. The sauce itself was pretty good. However, I thought that the frozen-pizza crust was too thin to hold the macaroni and cheese, and it additionally made it seem dry.

Pasta Shape: 4/5. Elbows are a conventional choice, but they worked surprisingly well with the Kraft sauce.

Overall: 3.5/5. So the mac and cheese pizza did not disappoint. While it wasn't perfect and there were things I definitely would have changed, it was pretty damn good. A solid meeting of two delicious foods.

Chef Boyardee Mac and Cheese!

So I know what you're thinking. "Canned mac and cheese…WTF?" At least that's what I was thinking. After all, how exactly can you preserve the goodness of mac and cheese in a tiny, non-refrigerated can? Nonetheless, I figured it was worth a shot, especially since I am deeply committed to trying all unfamiliar supermarket mac and cheeses.

I had the choice to microwave this one or cook it on the stovetop. Though cooking it in the microwave would have been more in the spirit of canned food, I figured I had the ten free minutes to throw it in a pot and heat it up.

Ratings

Flavor: 3.5/5. The flavor was actually pretty good – certainly better than expected. My one problem is that there was a slightly strange aftertaste. Random note: when I heated up the leftovers later, the aftertaste had disappeared slightly.

Consistency: 4/5. Surprisingly creamy, with a solid amount of "cheese."

Pasta Shape: 3/5. Pretty much the same as Kraft. I don't actually know if this pasta shape has a name besides "the Kraft shape."

Overall: 3.5/5. So the canned mac and cheese actually surprised me and wasn't terrible. If you have the ability to make other types of mac and cheese, I would probably choose a better one, but if you are in a situation where you can't boil water or need to pack canned food for some reason, this actually isn't a terrible option.

Nutrition Information: Serving Size ½ can. 180 Calories, 14 Calories from Fat; 1.5g Fat, 1g Saturated Fat; 20mg Cholesterol; 1090mg Sodium; 35g Carbohydrates; 2g Fiber; 8g Protein.

Get Free Mac and Cheese!

This isn't a review, but definitely a piece of news worth noting for all mac and cheese aficionados. I learned today that if you become a fan of Kraft mac and cheese on Facebook, you can get a coupon for a free box of any of the new Kraft flavors: Extreme Cheese Explosion, Cheddar Explosion, or Grilled Cheese Explosion. I've reviewed the Extreme Cheese Explosion thus far and will be reviewing the Cheddar Explosion this weekend (along with my trusty boyfriend and guest reviewer), but haven't yet seen the Grilled Cheese Explosion in stores.

If you're not yet a fan of Kraft (and really, why aren't you?), click here to check it out.

Kraft Extreme Cheese Explosion Macaroni & Cheese Dinner

I was vacationing in Hilton Head, South Carolina for my spring break when I saw the most exciting thing a supermarket mac and cheese aficionado can see: a type of Kraft I had never seen before. This is a rare sight, since Kraft generally sticks to the tried-and-true favorite with a few different varieties for when its regular customers are craving a change. Apparently this "Extreme Cheese Explosion" and its counterpart, the "Cheddar Explosion" (which I will be trying soon) are relatively new, and Kraft is running a promotion to coincide with the explosion of the old Texas Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

The preparation for this one is essentially identical to the preparation for typical Kraft. This recipe, however, calls for more milk and less butter. I should note that when my boyfriend prepares Kraft mac and cheese, he uses no milk and only butter. It's generally delicious, but I felt that I should stick to by-the-box preparation when trying something new.

My camera is unfortunately out of commission at the moment, so I was forced to rely on my trusty cell phone for the following images.

I was so excited to see this box in a South Carolina Kroger's supermarket.

Stirring in the butter.

Close-up of the mac and cheese on the plate. Note the cool shape of the pasta. Looks delicious!

Ratings

Flavor: 3/5. The cheese sauce didn't taste bad, but there was a strange aftertaste that definitely reminded me of something I've had before, though I can't recall what it was. The original Kraft cheese definitely has a much better flavor.

Consistency: 4/5. You can generally count on Kraft to provide a generous amount of cheese, and this one certainly lived up to the "Cheese Explosion" name. You're never going to get a super-creamy texture with cheese that comes from a powder, but this one was like a thicker version of standard Kraft.

Pasta Shape: 5/5. This was a shape I'd never really seen before; a sort of thick twist. It definitely worked perfectly with the cheese sauce and looked good too.

Overall: 4/5. Though the sauce was not my favorite, it still had a solid, cheesy taste. The pasta shapes were perfect, and I would love to see Kraft use this shape with other varieties of mac and cheese as well. I don't think I would replace classic Kraft with this kind, but it's definitely worth a try, and I'm sure many people will enjoy this variety.

Nutrition Information: Serving Size 3 oz (about ½ box), prepared. 360 Calories, 70 Calories from Fat; 4.5g Fat, 2.5g Saturated Fat, 0g Trans Fat; 15mg Cholesterol; 1000mg Sodium; 57g Carbohydrate; 1g Fiber; 10g Sugars; 11g Protein.