When Stouffer’s puts out family-sized versions of their single-serve meals, we like to try both versions to see how they compare. The larger size usually requires a different cooking method, and the change in cooking method sometimes has a great impact on the quality of the food. So even though we have reviewed Stouffer’s Macaroni & Cheese in the past, we thought it was time to see how the family-sized version of this meal stacks up against the single-serve version we reviewed all those years ago.
The Stouffer’s Family Size Macaroni & Cheese — which, if it isn’t perfectly clear by now, is what we’re reviewing today — has directions for both the microwave and the oven. Since we used the microwave on the smaller version, we decided to use the oven this time around, even though it takes more than an hour. (If you want to see the full cooking instructions, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
As you can see in the image above, one of the advantages to cooking this in the oven is that it produces crisp, dark brown edges that we really love to munch on. We understand that not everyone enjoys this sort of thing, but we often find the crisp edges of a baked pasta dish to be quite good.
This macaroni has the same chubby elbow-shaped pasta as its single-serve brethren, and the same creamy sauce. When we reviewed the previous version, we thought this had sour cream added to it, even though it actually didn’t. It has some of the same salted cream flavor that a macaroni cheese sauce has when it does have sour cream in it, however. Needless to say, this is one of those craveable meals that’s hard to stop eating once you start. This is a classic, no-frills mac and cheese, but it’s also a very tasty one.
The box claims there are about five servings inside, with a serving containing 320 calories (130 from fat) and 910 mg of sodium. While that might seem somewhat reasonable, keep in mind that a full package contains 1,600 calories (650 from fat) and 4,550 mg of sodium. While you won’t likely eat the full tray in a sitting, we think you’ll almost certainly eat more than 1/5 of it, so keep these numbers in mind (the serving pictured above is about 1/3 of a tray). What we’re trying to say is that this stuff is loaded with calories and sodium, no matter how you divvy it up.
The Stouffer’s Family Size Macaroni & Cheese doesn’t try to do anything fancy, but it excels at being a delicious, simple mac and cheese that several people can enjoy. The only complaint we have is that the calories are pretty high, and the sodium level is through the roof. We don’t recommend eating this regularly, but we do recommend trying it out. We think there’s a lot to love here.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen mac and cheese, check out our package scans below.
