Mac & Processed Cheese Spread
Aug 23rd, 2007 by Eryk
From time to time I get lazy and select frozen microwave meals as my choice for lunch at work. They may not be healthy, but they’re fast, cheap, and most of the time they taste good. Now everyone knows that these frozen meals are nothing more than heavily processed chemicals that vaguely look, smell, and taste like food. My co-workers and I joke that even the smell is probably just a chemical that releases a food-like odor when heated. My point is, tasty they may be but gourmet they are not, which makes it even funnier when they have names like Budget Gourmet or Lean Gourmet!
Still, I’m constantly amazed by the attempts made by the manufacturers of these products to make them sound like they’re actual food. Not just any food though; healthy, high-quality, super-food, better than mom used to make! You may remember the time I blogged about the miracle weight-loss Lean Pocket. Well today I had the pleasure of enjoying eating a Michelina’s Lean Gourmet Macaroni & Cheese.
It started out like any other lunch. There were a few minutes of down time at work and I was getting hungry, so I went to the break room and retrieved my mac and cheese from the freezer. I checked the side of the box for cooking time, opened the corner slightly, and put it in the microwave. When the first round of cooking was up, I removed it for the required mid-cook stir. And that’s when I noticed it. On the lid was a large, gold emblem that bared the claim, “Chef Inspired Recipe.”
Really? REALLY?! My 99 cent frozen macaroni and cheese is a chef inspired recipe?! I paused to consider that perhaps there really was a grandma Michelina who had a family recipe for macaroni and cheese that she passed down from generation to generation until it became a nation-wide, frozen success. After all, I personally have a recipe for homemade macaroni and cheese that uses four different types of cheese and is baked in the oven. Then I looked at the ingredient list.
Is it normal for chefs to enrich their pasta with niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, and riboflavin? Do chefs usually use pasteurized processed “cheese spread?” And other than Chef Boyardee, is there really a chef out there that encourages the use of “cheddar cheese flavor” over actual cheddar cheese? From the ingredient list it occurred to me that “chef inspired” really meant, “Saw a chef cook pasta and add cheese and decided to name our mac and cheese-like food after his recipe.” Seriously, I think the marketing folks at Michelina’s need to step back and reconsider what exactly they’re selling. If they wanted to stretch the truth without actually lying they should just put the word “Edible!” on the lid.
funny.
For people like me who cannot afford more than 99 cents for lunch they are definetly more than edible. I think if they put on the box “Edible” instead of “Gourmet” or “Chef Inspired” then it would make the people like me who depend on these processed cheese spread lunches feel like they are eating crap. Why not leave the “Gourmet” alone a let us feel like we are eating something descent.
It sounds to me like you’ve fallen prey to the common misconception that processed, pre-packaged food is less expensive than home-cooked food. This is not true at all. Consider this: home-made mac and cheese can be made by simply combining macaroni ($1.19 for 16 ounces), milk (1.49 for a quart), cheddar cheese ($2.49 for 16 ounces), and half a stick of butter (1.69 for 16 ounces). We’ll only be using half of the butter so it’s really only 85 cents with half left over for another batch. Melt the cheese, combine the ingrediants and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Voila! Home-made mac and cheese! Total effort on your part is a trip to the grocery store (which would have to be made anyway for the frozen meals) and about 10 minutes of preperation and clean-up in the kitchen.
Total cost is $6.02 (excluding left over butter) but 16 ounces of uncooked macaroni makes 48 ounces of cooked macaroni. One box of Lean Gourmet Mac and Cheese is 8 ounces, so our 48 ounces of mac and cheese will make at least 6 servings, considering the other ingredients added. $6.02 divided by 6 is approximately $1.00 per serving. A penny more right? Wrong. The prices I listed are Albertsons prices. The same ingrediants could be had for less at a store like WinCo and even less if coupons are used or a sale is happening. It’s not unreasonable to think that an 8 ounce serving of home-made mac and cheese could cost 80 cents or less! You’ll find that it’s the same for most foods found in the freezer aisle and many canned foods as well. The ONLY reason to buy these foods is for convenience. But just like buying candy at a convenience store, you actually pay MORE for them! Food for thought.
I am a registered dietitian and tell my clients about lean gourmet meals all the time. Chefs do not need to add those things like you mention because it has already been added to the pasta. Even the pasta chef’s use have been enriched this is because when they make pasta they take out the endosperm and the good stuff for you part of the grain so they attempt to add it back which is better than no attempt at all. Sure whole wheat pasta would be better because they leave the endosperm there but for 99 cents I eat Lean Gourmet all the time and recommend anyone who is trying to lose weight who wants something fast and prepackaged to purchase. Most meals are balanced including noodles, meat, vegetables and more for under a buck. They are calorie controled and it does not matter what you eat if you want to lose weight you have to cut calories and if lean gourmet is how you do it then good for you!
Wow these blogs go on and on. Time to get back on track. Will comment later on this. You really should think about writing for a magazine or newpaper. You could start your own column.
It sounds to me like you’ve fallen prey to the common misconception that processed, pre-packaged food is less expensive than home-cooked food. This is not true at all.