We love mac and cheese here at Freezer Meal Frenzy, which is why we so often take the opportunity to review macaroni dishes. We thought we’d covered all the variations of Stouffer’s mac and cheese — the Classic Macaroni & Cheese, the White Cheddar Mac & Cheese, and the Garlic Parmesan Mac & Cheese — but then we stumbled upon the Stouffer’s Macaroni & Cheese with Broccoli. It’s no secret that we were thrilled at the prospect of testing out yet another mac and cheese.
Looking at the ingredients, this is actually very similar to the Classic Macaroni & Cheese, although this one has bleached wheat flour — and the broccoli, of course.
Like many of Stouffer’s frozen meals, this one has an unusually long cook time. You’ll need to toss this in the microwave for four minutes, stir it, then put it in for two more minutes. That’s six minutes of microwaving, which is more than we’d expect for a macaroni dish. To be fair, this is the same amount of microwave time required for the Classic Macaroni & Cheese.
This comes with the broccoli mostly on one edge of the tray, so you have the option to either stir it all together or to eat the broccoli as a side. We chose to stir it together, because that seems like the intended way to eat this dish. If that weren’t the case, there would have been some kind of divider between the macaroni and the broccoli, we think.
The macaroni is the same stuff you’ll find in the Stouffer’s Classic Macaroni & Cheese. The cheese sauce is especially creamy with a hint of a sour cream flavor to it.
However, the broccoli creates an interesting problem. Since it’s very soft and juicy here, it produces a lot of moisture when it’s in the microwave. This means that the edge of your macaroni dish is drowning in a watery broccoli juice, which causes the whole thing to be kind of watered down. The cheese sauce is still creamy, but it loses some of its creaminess to the soggy broccoli moisture.
We also found this in our dish:
What is that thing? Well, we know what it is — it’s a yellowish cube of pure broccoli stem — but what is it doing in this dish? We picked that thing out and tossed it into the trash, but it’s evidence that Stouffer’s wasn’t all that particular with the broccoli portion of this meal. And the rest of the broccoli confirms our suspicion; this is a soggy, low-quality broccoli that doesn’t taste very fresh.
But there’s some good news. With the broccoli replacing a portion of the noodles and sauce, this version of Stouffer’s macaroni actually has fewer calories than the Classic. While a box of the Classic will run you about 660 calories, this one will only set you back by 440 (190 from fat). It also has much less sodium, at 900 mg. Now, this isn’t a low-sodium meal by any means, but it has just over half the sodium of the Classic version of this dish.
Stouffer’s Macaroni & Cheese with Broccoli is exactly what it sounds like: a slightly healthier version of the Classic Macaroni & Cheese. Of course, the broccoli content is pretty weak here, and as far as flavor is concerned, the Classic is a better-tasting meal. If the 660 calories of the Classic is just a little too high for you, the Broccoli version of this offers a decent alternative, although it’s definitely a compromise.
To learn more about the nutrition info or ingredients in this frozen mac and cheese, check out our package scans below.
