Amy, What Has Happened To Your Kitchen?

Like a glutton for punishment, or one who's enjoying a very good meal, I keep coming back for more.  I'm not getting tired of mac n' cheeses by any means but I would hope that a company who've gone to the effort to create so many kinds has a real reason to keep making all the flavors.  Hopefully Amy's picks it up today.



The Review

Brand:
Amy's Kitchen Rice Mac & Cheese

So we meet again Amy's... How many combinations of mac do you have because we're at three and counting and I don't think it's ever going to stop.

Price:
$3.99 at Safeway

Packaging Description:
(On Front)
Gluten Free,  Made with organic rice pasta

(On Back)
Amy loves our Mac & Cheese, but some of her friends, like many Amy's customers, are not able to eat it because they are "gluten Intolerant." So we decided to create a dish that does not include any wheat, and searched until we found a macaroni style noodle made from organic rice. Then we covered the tender rice noodles with the same smooth cheese sauce that has made our Mac & Cheese so popular, and came up with this great tasting meal for all our customers to eat and enjoy.

Preparation:
*Take the tray out of the box and remove the plastic wrap.

*Put the tray in the microwave and cook uncovered for three to four minutes. I split the difference and cooked it for 3:30.

A quick 3:30 later...

*Once the first heating is complete, pull the tray out of the microwave and stir up the meal.

Here, though still cold and requiring more heating it looks like a proper meal now.

*Place the tray back in the microwave and cook for an additional two to three minutes. Once again I split the difference and cooked it for 2:30.
*Keeping with my rule of letting the cheesy sauce meal cool before eating.  I let this sit for one to two minutes before I think about eating it,  even though the instructions doesn't say anything past the second wave of heating.
*Give it one last mixing.

OK rice mac n' cheese, you look good, now be good.

*Commence with the nomming!


Taste:
This was a strange combination of the cheese sauce from standard mac, and the gummy rice noodles from the non-dairy cheeze mac.  The sauce did not play well with these noodles and not only was it gummy chewy mess thanks to the pasta but the sauce didn't taste very good.  I had a few comments from coworkers who didn't like the smell of the meal after I pulled it out of the microwave.  I wasn't bothered by the smell, but others sure were.

Final Score:
I was hoping that because this was a combination of the vegan mac and cheeze and Amy's standard mac n' cheese that it would have come out better.  It failed almost as badly as the dairy free cheeze.  I couldn't get over the gummy horribly overcooked noodles and the sauce wasn't so much a sauce as it was some kind of stuck to the noodles and tray adhesive.  I tried it fresh out of the microwave as well as after letting it sit and hopefully congeal multiple times.  It didn't get any better and even though they were using real cheese and multiple pounds of butter or whatever they used to make this so fattening, it was just a depressing mess.  Gluten free people need to look somewhere else.  Non gluten free people need to look somewhere else too. 

Nutritional Information:
Serving Size 1 Entre (255g)
Servings Per Container 1

Calories  400  Calories From Fat 140
Total Fat 16g (25% Daily Value)
Saturated Fat 10g (48% DV)
Trans Fat 0g (0% DV) 
Cholesterol 50mg (17% DV)
Sodium 640mg (27% DV)
Total Carbohydrates 47g (18% DV)
Dietary Fiber 1g (4% DV)
Sugar 6g
Protein 16g