I'm a sick woman and I have lost all self control

[The empressof all]

I grew up with a mother who although she was not a great cook always opted for fresh ingredients. We never had packaged food and the worse thing she ever fed me was an occasional bologna sandwich on white bread.

I've for the most part picked up these habits and generally prepare foods from scratch.

I don't know what the hell possessed me but at the market yesterday, Kraft Mac & Cheese was on sale..2 boxes for a dollar. I bought some and since I was preparing a ham steak for dinner tonight I thought it would be an easy side.

I made the frickin thing and tasted it. I felt like a woman possessed and sat there at my kitchen counter and ate the whole thing before my family came home. I have found my drug...... Now mind you it really wasn't even that good but I couldn't stop myself. What's wrong with me? Is there any hope?

I'll never buy this stuff again.

[mike_c]

1. that stuff's not even food....

I swear it's made from industrial cheese waste, but you know why it's so successful (aside from being really easy)? Because a BUNCH of food scientists labored over it for a long time before Kraft began selling it, and they've continued to hone it for decades. It's as designed and engineered a product as anything produced by big pharma or the auto industry, and it's engineered to work. It's no accident that you ate it all.

[liberalhistorian]

18. Amen to that,

I really cringe whenever I think of how much I used to love that shit (and that's exactly what it is).

REAL mac and cheese made with REAL pasta and REAL, fresh cheese, otoh, is a whole 'nother story.

And you know something really weird? White wine goes really well with real, fresh mac and cheese!

[kestrel91316]

2. Boxed macaroni and cheese is like crack cocaine to me...................

so is Hagen Daaz ice cream and any sort of potato chips/Cheezits etc. And anything chocolate, too.

[mtnester]

30. The Devil of chips for me are....

Dill Pickle Lays and Cape Cod Russett...OMG

[CornField]

3. Ewwww...

I can't even stomach making mac n cheese for my kids -- it makes my stomach roll every time. I do think there is something about it... that is, I've never met anyone on the fence. People seem to either love it or hate it.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Cheap eats are like a drug .......

try this ... maybe it'll help.

http://webpages.csus.edu.nyud.net:8090/~sac52576/maruchanbeef.jpg

:)

[The empressof all]

5. Satan Begone

My husband and kid got hooked on the Cajun Chicken flavored Top Ramen.

He'd sneak them in the house, hide them in the bottom back of the pantry and collude together to get me out of the house so they could have their fix.

I became a Top Ramen Nazi at one point. We've compromised and I buy the fresh ramen noodles that they now eat with Canned chicken broth, soy and a dash of rooster hot sauce. I don't know how much healthier that is but it doesn't seem as salt and chemical laden to me.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. My number 1 son had a stretch of unemployment .....

.... and with ramen noodles at 10¢ a package when they're on sale, guess what he was subsisting on?

Corollary #1: Who sells **anything** for 10¢ these days?????

Corollary #2: Anything being sold for 10¢ must be essentially worthless.

Corollary #3: If there were any real (nutritive) value in ramen noodles, the world would have no hunger problems.

[wildeyed]

9. Add a couple of lightly whisked eggs

and a half cup of frozen veggies and it is not so bad. That is what I subsisted on in college without any major nutritional deficiencies. I still make it in secret occasionally :)

[Dora]

12. GET OUT!!!

Finally, after all these years, my father-in-law understands that as much as I appreciate his generosity, a case of ramen will not be eaten in our house.

(Of all people... you?)

[Stinky The Clown]

13. The suggestion was made, fully ............

[Warpy]

14. Nah, in NM we have Enchiloso Ramen

and their lime & chile flavor is food of the gods when combined with clean out the fridge veggies.

Other than that, I find I've lost my taste for prepackaged junk food. I know that because that's what I'm living on right now in Florida. My dad was living the bachelor life out of the microwave, there is NO cooking equipment in this kitchen beyond a stove and an egg beater and a few old, crusty Teflon pans and a drawer full of dull knives with no sharpener.

HELP!

[merci_me]

19. Maruchan creamy chicken...................

While the noodles boil, I take two pasta bowls, put a pad of butter in each and sprinkle half the season packet in each. Then I divide the cooked noodles between the bowls, with a little of the water still clinging. Toss with a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream, some chopped plum tomatoes, fresh basil and fresh grated Parmesan and it's like the best and fastest comfort food going.

[NMDemDist2]

7. ahhhh

so you are human after all? does our Empress have feet of clay?

damn, there may be hope for us peons after all

:evilgrin:

[cleofus1]

8. you see the secret is

they don't use cheese...just orange coloring...your brain does the rest...

[wildeyed]

10. I loath Kraft mac and cheese,

but I adore Cheetos, but only the crunchy kind, not the puffs. :shrug: Seems like more or less the same nutritional value as the mac and cheese. I don't bring them into the house. Then I end up eating the entire bag in secret and trying to hide the tell-tale orange encrusted fingers from my family.

[cleofus1]

11. same principal

just orange coloring...but a top secret combination of chemicals give the unique "taste"...the chemicals are listed on the side of the bag...

[wryter2000]

15. It gets worse

If you use half the noodles in the package and all the milk, butter, and orange powder, it doubles the evilness of the stuff. That's how the dh used to eat it. (Why I married a man with his taste in food is beyond me.)

I still have a few packages of it in the garage. I'm hoping it'll kill any vermin that find their way in there.

BTW, the beef ramen isn't any good. You need "oriental flavor," whatever that means. :evilgrin:

[SoCalDem]

16. It's the ORANGEness of it

:)

Just like Cheetos:)

Enjoy your occasional lapses, but if you start getting up at 3AM to cook it and then wash and put away the dishes & pans (to hide the evidence) or if you start scouring the net to find syringes big enough to inject it..or try to snort it...well..you may have a problem :)

[babylonsister]

17. I cook macs and cheese about twice a month; it is, naturally,

something my PITA loves! I enrich it by throwing actual slices of cheddar cheese in it.
And ya know what? I like it, too.
And ya know what else? Ours doesn't even have to be Krafts; any old generic version will do.
Does that make me bad?:)

[NJCher]

20. OK, if you want to get liberal about it

At least get Annie's packaged macaroni and cheese from Whole Foods!




Cher

[cleofus1]

21. the rub is...doing it from scratch is pretty easy

just boil the macaroni till tender...drain...add a tablespoon of butter and a cup of grated sharp chedder and a cup of grated monteray jack and mix...add some chopped green onions and some peppper and wa la (wah lah?)

[calico1]

22. Now, *that* I could go for.

The real thing. That boxed crap is just awful. I never could figure why people like it so much. It doesn't even taste like real food. Blech...

[The empressof all]

23. I make it from scratch all the time

This was just an aberration on my part. I honestly hadn't eaten the boxed stuff in probably 10 years and just was blown away at my consumption reaction to it.

[Dora]

24. The reason I haven't responded.

This too is my shame. I can polish off an entire box of the Kraft crack-n-cheese. Alone. With one hand on the spoon and the other hand holding a novel. I can do this all without leaving a trace.

It's even yummier with a can of tuna mixed in.

Fortunately, I rarely shop at stores that carry the tempting blue box, so temptation is not as much of an issue as it used to be.

[cleofus1]

25. damn

i eat the boxed stuff too...but i do prefer to make it from scratch...but that orange powder craft uses it like heroin

[Dora]

26. I like scratch too.

But I hated it when I was a kid. Hated it. If my stepdad had homemade mac-n-cheese in the oven, I knew I was going to be eating a lot of salad with dinner. Gagfest. Retch-a-licious.

I still get cravings for the blue, even at 36. That lovely orange, slippery goo that thickens into a pasty, gummy *UEO after only twenty minutes off the heat still calls to me in my deepest, quietest dreams.

* Unidentified Edible Object

[jeanarrett]

27. What I find really strange about Kraft mac and cheese is

that you must eat it hot and immediately or there is no taste to it at all. If you serve it up rewarmed the next day or it has gone cold before you eat it, it tastes like nothing at all. All that neon orange cheese loses its oomph after ten minutes, which makes me just now realize that the cheese is actually radioactive.

[The empressof all]

28. Oh no

I confess, I ate the remnants of the second box, cold right out of the fridge for breakfast the next morning. :spank: SO and kid don't share the addiction issues thank goodness.

I think, like cold pizza, cold pasta, cold meatballs and cold Chinese food...all of which I adore.... It's a matter of taste.

[mtnester]

29. Guilty pleasure - I have not had the stuff for years for the VERY

story and reasons you described (cooking with fresh ingredients, not using packaged product)

Thank you now for putting the thought of eating an entire pot of that stuff, alone, in secret, and getting the dishes done and put away before anyone else can tell what I have done.

God help me.

[fortyfeetunder]

31. After years of homemade, Kraft M&C doesn't cut it for me

I have tried Kraft M&C on occasion, the rest of the family will eat it, but I can't bring myself to eating more than a teaspoonful. It doesn't taste natural, having eating M&C cooked from scratch all my life.

I'd imagine the Kraft M&C would be much better with a little supplementation with products from Elsie the cow, and her goat and sheep friends.

[bliss_eternal]

32. I'm late to this party but

had to respond to this--that's the funniest thing EVER! :rofl:

I feel your pain. Sorry that you now know the hideous addiction of processed food.

I don't dare bring pop tarts in the house--I lack the ability to discern one from the whole box :wow: Horrible, evil substance that they are.

[lavenderdiva]

33. The Kraft WHITE Cheddar and Macaroni is awesome...

At work, I think they are torturing me, by having the Girl Scout Cookie brochure out to order from. Thin Mints have long been my 'drug of choice'. I literally can sit there and eat a whole box. They taste so good and are waaaayyyy addictive. Its very shameful.

[The empressof all]

34. Girl Scout Cookies are the droppings of Satan.

I've always regarded them as pure evil.

I haven't seen those fiends out side of the markets yet peddling their vile wares. But it's been raining in Seattle like crazy, maybe they all melted.

[lavenderdiva]

35. Excellent analogy.

This brochure is given out by the moms, before you will get the door-to-door, or the table set up outside the grocery store, stocked with hundreds of boxes of heavenly delights. The brochure said they won't be delivered until sometime in late February or early March. I have been able to resist the temptation so far, but don't know how much longer I can maintain my composure and not order the Thin Mints. The thought even crossed my mind to order 12 boxes, stash the other 11 in the freezer, and allow myself 1 box per month. Do you think these are demonic thoughts tempting me? You are right, they must be evil to taste so darned good!!! I'm having impure thoughts.