Annie's Mac and Cheese review

packaging

I have written a review on their other product, Annie's Shells with Real Aged Cheddar, I will try not to compare these two products, but give you my thoughts on this product individually.

I have always been a fan of Mac and Cheese foods, so when I found these Mac and Cheese in Costco, I was very excited. I haven't liked Kraft's Mac and Cheese as I always had trouble with their cheese sauce. I had high hopes for this cheese sauce.

back

After reading the ingredients (I guess that's usually one of the most important things, especially with dried foods) I was very happy that they were very natural ingredients (they even claimed they were organic... double points!).

The instructions were very simple: boil water, put in pasta, after a few minutes drain pasta and make sauce using milk/butter then put in pasta. I think anyone who can boil water and measure with a measuring cup can cook this.

result

The results were ... a little bit off from the picture shown on the box. The box's Mac and Cheese was much creamier. I was also a bit disappointed as I could hardly smell any cheese flavour (I expected a much stronger smell). The taste was "ok", the cheese flavour wasn't strong. Luckily, the sauce was enough to coat the macaroni. 

Summary:

• easy to make
• great natural/organic ingredients
• not a very strong cheese taste
• creamy

I would give this box of Mac and Cheese a 7.5/10.

website: http://www.annies.com/

Annie's Shells with Real Aged Cheddar review

I have always been a fan of Mac and Cheese foods, so when I found these Shells and Cheddar in Costco, I was very excited. Like most people who are very health cautious, the first thing I did was look at their ingredients list. I read through the ingredients and was impressed. They had hardly, if any chemicals, everything seemed very natural and they claimed they were organic. I wonder how they were able to maintain being so "natural" since most dry "cook it yourself" foods contains lots of chemicals.

back side of box with nutrition information

The instructions were very simple: boil water, put in pasta, after a few minutes drain pasta and make sauce using milk/butter then put in pasta.

I think the instructions were very precise,they did a good job providing instructions that work. When I compared the image to my final dish, they looked really similar. (any one here come across cooking instructions that never worked for them?).

ready to serve!

Once I finished combining the sauce with the pasta, I can already smell a strong cheese flavour. This tasted very delicious, almost like... home made (haha). But I'm serious! It was very good, it hardly tasted like anything that was dried and from a box.

As much as I liked it, I think they should do something about making the sauce creamier. I thought it was a little dry.

Summary:

• easy to make
• very good instructions
• great natural/organic ingredients
• great taste
• slight improvement to creaminess (and moist)

I would give this box of Cheddar Shells a 9/10.

website: http://www.annies.com/

Silicon Cupcake Molds review

I bought these a while back, so I can't remember where I made this purchase exactly. I have high hopes for this product because it can withstand heat, cold and they are much easier to clean than your traditional cupcake/muffin molds.

All I can say is I love these molds. They are exactly what I expected them to be, the different colours help me keep organize especially if I'm trying to do something a little different for my muffins/cupcakes, they help me keep track of what I want to do. Taking the baked good out is also an easy task, because of it's flimsiness it is easy to pop the goods out easily.

The only problem I have with them is that they do not keep their shape as well as other molds, and they can be a little tough to transfer, so please plan ahead (e.g. put a pan underneath it if you plan to put them in the oven, or a large flat bowl if you plan to have them steamed)