A Macaroni Experience

We've noticed boxes of Macaroni and Cheese popping up in stores around town. (Okay, not literally popping, but you know what I mean...right?)

I could barely contain my excitement! Obviously, it isn't Kraft, but it's something. Most importantly, it's something I don't have to cook completely from scratch. Score!

Well, sorta, kinda score. Maybe more like a Close Enough When I'd Rather Poke My Eye Out Than Make or Eat Another Peanut Butter Sandwich Score!

I opened up the box, prepared to give my kids a (not) wholesome lunch of Mac'N'Cheese and here is what I find....

10 macaronis

Flavored oil

Milk Powder

Cheese powder

Spicy chile sauce

And a package of two dried peas, 50 Orange Dippin Dots and a mystery dried meat-like substance.

 

Because most Indonesians wouldn't have butter or milk in their kitchen, you are supposed to just add the milk powder and oil to the cheese powder. That way, you get a nice pasty, powdery, oily sauce for your 10 macaronis. Ew. And then, because this is Indonesia, you add some chili to it! I really have no idea what ultimate purpose the peas, Dippin Dots and fake meat serve - perhaps to make this more nutritious?

But, here's the confession. We ate it and we liked it. With a little bit of real milk and butter instead of oil and milk powder, this could be passable. I'd leave out the two peas, 50 Orange Dippin Dots, and the counterfeit meat because your kids are likely to fish it out and ask, "ew, what is this?" and have you spending the next 30 minutes picking all the tiny bits out while trying to explain the concept of dried vegetables...and meat. (Perhaps you are more up to that task than I - I can assure you, dried meat granules are a relatively new phenomenom in my life, something I never considered before moving to Southeast Asia... how do you explain something you can't understand?)

Unless your kids have been especially naughty, I'd be careful about adding that chili sauce too. And you'll have to buy at least four boxes if you want each child to have more than 3 macaronis for their lunch - there's nothing a mom hates more than hearing "I'm hungry" two minutes after the lunch dishes are cleared from the table.

Anyway, as I said, with a few minor tweaks, this stuff can pass for the old classic. You know, for days when you'd rather stick a fork in your eye than make or eat another peanut butter sandwich.

Or, you could just have your family send you some Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in their next package.

Ahem.