Annie's Deluxe Shells and Aged Cheddar, Pasta and Cheese Sauce, Mac and Cheese Made with Organic Pasta, Dinner Side or Snacks, 11 oz

I have a picky eater who will only eat THIS mac and cheese. Good thing we all like it! A little tip: leave a small amount of the cooking water from the shells in the pot after draining to mix in with the cheese sauce. Extra creamy and yummy!

I grew up a Kraft boy, and you wouldn't find me with off-brand boxes of macaroni and cheese. No, sir. Just the authentic and best for me. When I got older, I realized (thanks to Mark Bittman's superb cookbook, How to Cook Everything -- if you happen to be in the vicinity of a bookstore, pick it up) that boxed stuff is horrid, compared to making actual pasta with actual cheese. But, well, sometimes I just want something out of a box. (And our seven-year-old ALWAYS does, for he has the insane and tasteless taste buds of a child.) In those cases, I always went back to Kraft, until we started shopping at Whole Foods and bought a pack of Annie's to try out -- very skeptically in my case, as I'd had a lot of off-brand stuff that failed to live up to the Kraft ideal. Even so-called "premium" and "deluxe" stuff like the Velveeta Shells and Cheese was just totally weird and off-putting. But, heresy of heresies, it turns out that the Annie's stuff is actually BETTER than Kraft. Both the regular box with the powder, and this stuff with the cheese-gel, taste better than Kraft, through some feat of food science alchemy. Try 'em out. Personally, I give the nod to the Deluxe over the regular, just because it's twice as easy to make (no mixing milk, butter, and powder -- just rip the pouch and mix with the noodles), and "easy to make" is pretty much the whole point of boxed food; but it is a lot more expensive, so if you're price-conscious and willing to put forth a bit of effort, get the regular Annie's. (Or, better yet, get that Bittman book, and learn to make pasta with sage and parmesan for the same price and just about as much work...)

This mac and cheese is amazing! Super fast, easy to make, and natural ingredients. Taste amazing as well! Highly recommend.

Quick and easy meal or side dish. We sometimes add cooked hamburger or chicken sausage, or broccoli and other veggies for more nutrition and flavor. Otherwise nice creamy texture

This is a wonderful mac and cheese--loved by my whole family. I really appreciate that it is organic and that the ingredients are wholesome and natural. I also like that the cheese isn't the powdered type that you have to mix with milk and butter; you just squeeze it onto the hot pasta out of the bag, stir it up, and you are ready to go. It makes a creamy, flavorful dish that you can eat all on it's own or add ingredients to it. The only caveat I would add is that if you have leftovers that you re-heat, for some odd reason it loses a lot of flavor and we have to add more cheese. Since we seldom have leftovers, though, that hasn't been a big issue. I buy this by the case because it's something I always want to have on hand.

Look out blue box. This Annie's Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese with Organic Pasta is the real deal. It is easy to make, taste great, is creamy, and our kids love it. Was thankful to find an entire flat of them on Amazon as we use at least one box per week. Can easily add proteins such as chicken, brisket or pulled pork to make it a meal.

We are semi-food snobs. I can't do boxed mac, but I like this one. This is the only mac and cheese we eat (unless we make it ourselves! We love it with chicken sausage and sauteed peppers with lemony glaze for a quick weeknight meal. It's much better than the mac I had from a food truck last week that was just bland and not worth eating. I see a comment saying that it is salty. It's not salty at all but I'm thinking that person may have cooked pasta in salt or added their own? It's possible they are reviewing the wrong product as well.

Our family LOVES this stuff. We have a somewhat larger family, so we have to use a few boxes when we make it. It is significantly more expensive than the powder version, but well worth it. It is creamy and the shells are just the right size to have the cheese pool inside of them. I always throw a couple handfuls of finely shredded medium or sharp cheddar in when mixing in the cheese, which really boosts the yumminess (and calories). I have also tried adding gouda, pepperjack (not finely shredded), and colbyjack, all of which were delicious.