Sometimes, after a long, stressful Target shopping day, it’s nice to come home to a toasty bowl of comfort food. That’s exactly how we were feeling when we picked up the Good & Gather White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese at our local Target store. Yes, the Good & Gather brand has (mostly) replaced the Archer Farms brand, so you should see quite a bit of the G&G offerings on Target shelves these days.
Now, before you get your undies in a bunch, yes, we know this isn’t technically a frozen food. You’ll find this in the refrigerated section at Target (at our store, these meals are near the fresh veggies). But you know what? We’re going to review it anyway. Good & Gather does also make frozen food, and we’ve reviewed several of their items. We’re just curious to see how this one tastes. Besides, it’s not like we’ve never reviewed a non-frozen mac and cheese before. We feel like we’re bending the rules here, not breaking them.
Anyway, heating this is simple. Puncture the film, pop the tray into the microwave for three minutes, give it a stir, and nuke it for another minute or so. That seems like a long cook time for a non-frozen dish of macaroni, but this is actually a ton of food. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out our package scans at the bottom of this review.)
We have reviewed the traditional cheddar version of this dish before, but this is a little more indulgent. The real star, of course, is the white cheddar sauce, which is rich, creamy, and decadent. According to the package, this sauce contains whole milk and butter, so it’s definitely made for folks looking for a treat rather than a low-cal meal. If you’re in the former group, there’s plenty to love here; if you’re in the latter, you might want to skip this (we’ll get to the nutrition content later).
The noodles here are spiraled elbows. Yes, take your classic elbow macaroni pasta and twist it into a spiral, and that’s what you’ve got here (we’d argue that this is neither a true elbow or a true spiral). It’s a good shape for this mac and cheese, we suppose, though we can’t help but wonder how this would taste with shells instead. These noodles are actually pretty thick, giving them a bit of firmness when you bite into them.
The package makes it look like there are parsley flakes here, but those are just for looks. This meal does not actually contain any parsley. This is just a simple sauce-and-noodle combo.
We mentioned this earlier, but this doesn’t seem like it was meant to be a single serving. There’s a ton of food here. The package recommends eating about one cup, which is about 2/5 of the container. We think you’ll probably just eat half the contents of the container — if nothing else, it makes the math easier. If you stick with the package’s recommendation, you’re looking at 280 calories and 960 mg of sodium. If you go hog wild and eat the whole package, you’re up to 710 calories and 2,470 mg of sodium. In case you don’t want to reach for a calculator, our half-carton serving contains 355 calories and 1,235 mg of sodium.
The Good & Gather White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese is a simple dish, but it’s also a satisfying one. This is an indulgent take on everyone’s favorite comfort food, and Good & Gather does a fine job of making it. We really like it (and we probably ate way too much of it!)
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Target brand mac and cheese, check out our package scans below.
