I'm A Big Kid Now!

Mac n' cheese isn't just a meal for adults and in many ways it's become a kids meal, that adults get to have with their kids.  The Krafts of the world advertise up and down on kid's shows and really market towards the youth of the country.  I may be silly enough to make sure that I get the Pokemon mac n' cheese, but I am not the norm.

When I was young I was occasionally allowed to eat TV dinners (the no longer fashionable name for the frozen meals of today) and often I made the choice to have ones that were marketed towards kids.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there are a number of different 'kids' mac n' cheese meals out there.  It's a good thing I'm a kid at heart, because I didn't feel guilty one bit for buying these meals.  I'm looking out for kids too with this blog!

The Review

Brand:
Kid Cuisine Mac & Cheese

The power of cute penguins playing baseball is a sirens song to kids to get parents to buy this dish.

Price:
$2.29 at Target

Packaging Description:
(On Front)
Cheese sauce made with real cheddar cheese
Good source of protein
14 grams of whole grain

(On Back)
A Mad Libs done to the song 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game'

Preparation:
*Remove the tray from the box.

*Take a knife and cut the plastic film away from ONLY the brownie.  Cutting out the plastic from inside the brownie portion leaves the film over everything else.

It's weird because the brownie is in some kind of not cooked state, it puffs up upon cooking.  Watching that is pretty cool

*Microwave for three minutes.
*Take the tray out of the microwave and peel back the plastic film from the mac portion of the tray.
*Stir and break up the mac n' cheese.  Once done reapply the film.
*Cook for an additional 30 seconds to one minute.  I split the difference and cooked an extra 45 seconds.
*Let the meal sit for a few minutes to cool.
*Remove the plastic film.

I was also impressed (for whatever reason) that this came in a blue tray.  It's just a tray, but I thought it was a nice touch for some reason.

*Commence with the nomming!

Taste:
Pulling this out of the microwave I smelled the brownie that was cooked during the heating of the meal.  I didn't smell the mac or the corn, even after pulling the film off of the food.  Being the adult I was, I first dug into the brownie.  It was oddly hard and had a cocoa powder taste.  It wasn't worth cheating on.  I dug into the corn next.  It was corn, but there was a good amount of water in that portion of the tray.  Finally I tried the mac n' cheese.  The noodles were a little over cooked but were otherwise passable.  What wasn't O.K. was the taste.  There wasn't any.  It was completely bland.  Trying mac on the edges and the middle didn't do me any better.

Final Score:
We've got an epic fail here Kid Cuisine.  This was so bad that that only thing I finished was the corn.  I ate about 1/3rd of the mac and about half the brownie before I decided it wasn't going to get any better and it wasn't worth the calories.  The hard brownie and flavorless mac were just majorly disappointing.  Parents, please don't buy this for the kiddies.  Besides the fact that the whole thing is 400+ calories and targeted at little kids, it's just not good.  The complete lack of flavor was so off putting that it wasn't worth the calories to eat.  Even the mediocre just add water cups are miles better than this.

Nutritional Information:
 Serving Size 1 Entree (284g)  Servings Per Container 1

Calories 420   Calories From Fat 100
Total Fat 11g (17% Daily Value)
Saturated Fat 3.5g (18% DV)
Trans Fat 0g (0% DV)
Cholesterol 25mg (8% DV)
Sodium 470mg (20% DV)
Potassium 690mg (20% DV)
Total Carbohydrates 69g (23% DV)
Dietary Fiber 6g (24% DV)
Sugar 25g
Protein 12g  (14% DV)