Smart Ones Macaroni and Cheese

December 12, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

Price: $2.00
Serving: 1 package, 10 oz.
Calories: 270
Fat: 3%, 2g
Sodium: 33%, 790mg
Protein: 11g
Carbs: 17%, 52g
Fiber: 10%, 2g

for non-dieters
for dieters

Smart Ones says: It’s a comfort food classic with elbow macaroni and plenty of rich, creamy cheese sauce. So delicious, so satisfying…and another little way you can be good today.

Abi says: I’ve resisted the pressure to purchase and review this meal for a long time (approximately 6 months). At first I thought I could get my coworker Ashley to review it. She only ever eats three different frozen meals and this is one of them. Unfortunately, Ashley was not game, though she was semi-excited when I told her that I was finally trying one of her staple lunches.

I have to say that I would eat this again. There’s no way I’d buy it for full price ($3.50 at Safeway!), but if it is a choice between this and just about any Lean Cuisine lunch, I would definitely choose this one. Smart Ones is spot-on with excellently textured noodles and the cheese sauce is not too shabby. Hungry-Girl gave this meal 10 points out of 10. I can see why; this meal contains only two grams of fat and packs in plenty of flavor.

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comments

17 Responses to “Smart Ones Macaroni and Cheese”

MaryAnne on December 12th, 2006

2 grams of fat for an entire meal? I’m going to buy this one today. Just a heads up- Target carries the Smart Ones line and 99% of the time it’s priced $1.77 which is a good deal for an entire meal. This is one of the lines that I really trust to deliver at least a 3/5 star meal.
Riley on December 12th, 2006

I love Smart Ones meals and live on them most of the week however, of all of them the mac and cheese was the worst to me. It’s soggy and mushy, definitely not one of my favorites.
Anna on December 12th, 2006

Oh good. You liked it too.

I thought it was really good for something so low in calories and fat.
rachel on December 12th, 2006

I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one. I tried this last week and not only was it watery, but there were mysterious little bits of what i assumed to be cheese throughout the macaroni.
It will definately be the last time I have mac & cheese for awhile.
Colleen on December 13th, 2006

I have GOT to try this.
John on December 14th, 2006

This is what garners 4 or 5 stars around here? Eeeesh. Tried it last night. It wasn’t inedible but it was pretty gnarly.
Colleen on December 15th, 2006

I didn’t think it was all that fabulous… but pretty good for standards of frozen and/or packaged mac.
Colleen on December 16th, 2006

Why is this meal not catagorized with “mac and cheese”? It isn’t in the mac and cheese section OR the smart ones section. How ever will we find this meal again?
Abi Jones on December 16th, 2006

@Colleen – gross oversight on my part which has been fixed

I wouldn’t call this meal fabulous, but I was definitely a cut above a lot of other frozen mac and cheese meals. Texture is very important for my enjoyment of a meal and Smart Ones managed to make an al dente pasta with an appropriately creamy sauce. I liked it.
Colleen on December 20th, 2006

I just had this again for breakfast (yes, breakfast). Now that I’ve had it again without trying to critique it so carefully and figure out why people like it so much, I think I’ve figured out the reason I didn’t like it is because the cheese just didn’t taste like cheddar. It wasn’t even sharp cheese. When my mom would make her recipe for the family, she always used wisconsin extra-sharp cheddar cheese. This was not a sharp cheese, so to me this tasted just as close to fettuchini alfredo as it did to mac ‘n cheese. Well, not quite. But it still wasn’t sharp enough.
Anne on March 16th, 2007

Stick to Annie’s for a healthier version of the ultimate childhood favorite- Macaroni and Cheese.

Don’t get me wrong, the nutrition of this health-modified version isn’t bad- it’s only 2 grams of fat, which is especially good compared to Kraft’s blue box 15 gram nightmare. But alot of Smart One’s entrees, including this one, is made with trans fat. It’s not significant enough to be labeled, but it’s there and it all adds up.
The taste is another thing. I found it a little on the watery side, when it comes to the sauce which tastes decent but not great. It’s cheesy, but it was missing something. The noodles were fine, nothing much to say about them.

Over all, I would give the flavor a 3, and the nutrition a 3. While it’s lite, it’s got some nasty stuff in it and it’s nothing special when it comes to satisfaction.
Amerykah on August 4th, 2008

I usually buy Lean cuisine Mac n cheese ,which is awesome but has 5 more fat grams and 20 more calories. Instead I bought this one for the price and caloric difference. SO GROSS! The cheese tasted like death sauce and left a really nasty coating/flavor in my mouth. Its really bad… So bad I imagine after the apocalypse all that will survive on battlefield Earth will be Cher, Roaches and this horrid plastic meal. I threw the whole thing in the trash after two bites. I could problem have recycled it considering its closeness polymer. But I decided the trash is more suitable. Basically There is no way I could eat a whole one of those.
Jill on May 19th, 2009

One of my favorite SmartOnes, but I just picked up a box and it’s gone from 5 POINTS to 6. I wonder why…
Alison on June 8th, 2009

This is gross. I just tried it for lunch and it tasted like a pasty plastic sauce all over the noodles. I added pepper and even that couldn’t help curb the taste. Not worth it, even if it’s on sale!
SoupySales on June 13th, 2009

Beyond disgusting!!! Two bites and into the trash. Lean Cuisine Mac for me~~!!
Lean Cuisine Macaroni and Cheese : Heat Eat Review : We Review TV Dinners, Frozen Meals, and Microwavable Foods on September 17th, 2009

[...] Wha? Oh. Anyway – if you want “healthy” mac n cheese, try the Smart Ones Macaroni and Cheese – it’s not awesome, but it’s better than this one. And if you want amazing mac [...]
Jennifer lambert on October 21st, 2009

I still can’t figure out why anyone on this planet would even consider this meal edible. Every now and then I see something on here that is pretty decent scored very low….then I see something that is in no way edible labeled 5 stars. I mean honestly…..as the dieting altered your taste buds? Do you have taste buds?

Mac and Cheese was invented to be fat filled dish. I mean seriously….cheese, butter, milk. That sounds fat filled to me. If you are really craving Mac and Cheese make some cuts in our diet somewhere else and have a decent portion of the real thing.

This is by far one of the most puzzling reviews on this site. I can’t wrap my head around it. I bought two of these meals once because I had a glimmer of hope. Oh hell no. Never again. Took two bites of one threw it in the trash…. immediately went into the freezer and threw the second one out. Wasn’t even going to do it again……to think that some of you even attempted a second try! No hope whatsoever.