For all the Why’s and Wherefore’s of Survival Saturday, please visit the Intro Post. Thanks!
Tonight’s dish is an old reliable standby, that staple of our childhood, the perennial favorite, macaroni and cheese by Legacy Premium. It doesn’t get much more “staple” than that.
Ingredients & Allergens:
Nutritional Info:
Things Needed:
6 Cups of water
1 package of Mac n Cheese
Directions:
Boil 6 cups of water. Whisk in entire package. Reduce heat to a MEDIUM BOIL. Cook for 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 3-5minutes.
I once again used a bamboo spoon instead of a whisk.
Impressions:
So, this was our first real flop and sadly, it was all our own fault, I can’t blame the food in any way. I didn’t reduce the heat to a medium boil, I reduced it to medium heat. That didn’t fully cook the pasta and when we each took a bowlful, we ended up with half cooked pasta, some of which was truly crunchy and I mean full on granola crunchy! We poured our bowls of uneaten food back into the pot and I’ll be tossing the potful into the garbage later tonight.
Second, this really should have been whisked together. A bamboo spoon just didn’t do it. The cheese powder fell into the pot all at once and a spoon wasn’t enough to truly mix it up. So besides crunchy pasta we also had clumps of extra cheesy powder. Gross.
Mrs Bookstooge thought the sauce was a little thin for her taste, as she wanted a more full bodied bowl of food. I was ok with it, as I was thinking of it as almost Mac-n-Cheese soup.
Neither of us finished our bowl, well, because of crunchy pasta! But the bowl pictured has 1 1/2cups worth and from the little I did eat, that would have fully filled me up. So the serving suggestion and total servings once again were spot on. This would serve 4 very hungry people easily. Unless one of them is a teenager. Then just pour the entire package down their throats with some hot water!
We’re going to try this again next month, as “mac-n-cheese” was the one that had the highest number of packages in the bulk box I bought years ago. However, we’ll be making some changes.
Lessons Learned:
READ the directions more carefully! Seriously, I laughed afterwards when I realized what I’d done. But if we were in a real Survival Situation, we’d have had to eat that crunchy pasta and life would be even worse 😦
Use a whisk. I really need to find some sort of plastic or bamboo utensil that I can whisk within my Pampered Chef pots without worrying about scratching them up. If any of you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.
I’m also thinking of cubing up some block cheddar and adding that to our individual bowls. Some nice extra sharp yellow cheddar wouldn’t go amiss at all.
–All Survival Saturday Related Posts–
Mmmmmmmm crunchy pasta, yummy haha! Looking at the photo it does look like the sauce is quite thin.
Seems like an ideal meal for survival mode though.
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very ideal. Lots of fats and salt to keep your body going in a stress filled time. NOT something you’d want to eat on a weekly basis if you could help it 😀
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What about a nylon whisk?
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I’ve never heard of those, so it will be something to go investigate.
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It sounds like a lot of work for survival food! And for mac and cheese too, at that. I’m just so spoiled by the Kraft bowls where you simply throw in some water and heat it for 3 and a half minutes 😛
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Is that the EasyMac stuff? Mrs B keeps some on hand for those busy work days…
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Oh man, Mac n cheese fail! I probably would have made the same mistake since most packages do say medium heat rather than boil 😂
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I couldn’t believe it was mac-n-cheese that was our first fail. Something so easy and simple. At least we got a good laugh out of it!
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Once again I must stress how totally unappetizing these meals look to me – granted, in a survival situation my squeamishness would evaporate quickly, and since I know I wouldn’t be able to, say, catch a fish or a rabbit, I would have to fall down on these. But still…
You and Mrs. Bookstooge deserve a medal for this community service, seriously!!!!
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😀
One more reason we only do this once a month!
Thankfully, I’ve never been a “visual” person when it comes to my food. As long as it doesn’t have eyeballs in it, I’m pretty meh about how any food looks. Which definitely helps here, as most of this stuff ends up looking like off-white goop no matter what it is supposed to be.
As for rabbits or fish, I figure if I have these kinds of problems with packaged food, I’d probably starve to death trying to figure out how to cook either one of those 🙂
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I guess a fish would be easier, while I’m not sure I would be able to actually kill a rabbit, or some similar smaller creature – unless I was so far gone with hunger that any reluctance would be wiped out completely…
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Oh no! I was literally beginning to type “good old fashioned mac and cheese” when I scrolled down and saw this was a flop- darn!
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Yep, try, try again!
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hehehe
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Oh, you’ll forgive me if I’m laughing after I read this. I almost want to come and help you. Do you need a cook?
If a stranger shows up at your door, don’t be surprised … 😉
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Nothing to forgive 🙂 I was laughing at myself as well. I mean, how do you mess up mac and cheese? Well, I guess I found out!
A cook would be great! I know how to cook, as I learned it from my mom and then homemaker courses in bibleschool, but I don’t LIKE to cook. That’s my brother’s area.
Mrs B never learned to cook from her mom and hasn’t the desire either. So we’re kind of the quintessential “lazy couple” 😀
Only strangers bearing already cooked food, or the supplies, are welcome at our house…
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I only ever had yucky mac n cheese that tasted super fake when I bought it from the shops or even went to ‘American style’ restaurants. I like cheese sauces and cheese in general. But I can only eat this when I make it myself haha. It’s not very popular in Germany or Australia anyways, as far as I know 😀
Throwing some cheddar in there would probably make it better! Also, maybe some spices.
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Neither Mrs B or I are big fans of spiciness. We’re pretty mild 😉
So you’re a mac-n-cheese snob eh? I actually prefer a brand we have called Stouffers. It is super cheesy and almost thick enough to sit on a plate 🙂
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I bet you have much more choice than we do 😀 Send me some?! Hahaha
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This is what it looks like:
https://www.stouffers.com/our-dishes/classics/family/macaroni-cheese
Of course, when I buy it in the store, I buy the 10serving size one, not that wimpy 5 serving one 🙂
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I’m sorry, but I had a good laugh throughout this post hahahahaahh How did a classic turn into a flop like this!!! It’s survival time, man!!!! You trying to help the enemy by screwing the great ol’ mac n’ cheese?!?!!? 😛 Crunchy-soupy-mac n cheese yooo!!! Hope your next attempt will be much more… pleasant!! 😀
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I hope next time will be better too! Cause my goodness, it’s mac-n-cheese!!! 🙂
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[…] January’s Epic Failure when we attempted Mac-n-Cheese, I decided to try something that required no nuanced cooking with fancy terms like “medium […]
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