Last year I talked with thousands of parents to uncover their biggest challenges when it came to feeding their children. The usual suspects were on the list like time, money, skill and picky eaters in the house, but the questions that allowed parents to elaborate more put a spotlight around not having enough time and energy in today’s busy schedules to make a healthy meal at the end of the day.

That’s exactly why so many of us turn to convenience foods. In fact, that’s why convenience foods were developed over 50 years ago, when moms joined the work force and needed a quick and easy way to feed her family.

Around that same time, food manufacturers found new ways to add flavor and color to our food to make it more appealing (I guess real food wasn’t exciting), and discovered that high fructose corn syrup was not only a cheaper sweetener than real sugar, but it also extends the shelf life of convenience foods. How wonderful (for them).

Fast forward to today and we still need convenience, but we’ve also learned about the perils of these cheap food ingredients. The blue box of orange macaroni and cheese “dinner” is mighty tempting (cheap, quick and easy), and we know kids will love it, right?

Well, we did an experiment to see how convenient the processed macaroni and cheese “dinner” really is, compared to homemade macaroni and cheese.

Mac and Cheese Comparison

You might be surprised by the results.

First, let’s look at how long each took to prepare from turning on the water, to serving up, and how many portions each made. We’ll get to the recipe in a bit.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend the two extra minutes to have all those leftovers for school lunch or dinner another night! Then we did the taste test.

What a Decision To Make!

My four year old’s very favorite food is macaroni and cheese. It always has been and likely will be for the rest of her childhood.

Mac and Cheese Taste Test

She tasted both versions and loved the scratch-made macaroni and cheese. In fact, she kept gobbling it up and we actually had to cut her off eventually.

We Have a Winner!

HOMEMADE MACARONI and CHEESE

Ready For The Recipe?

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 ½ cups milk
3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Salt to taste
1 pound elbow macaroni

Cook macaroni according to the package. You’ll want to bring it to an al dente place (definitely not mushy). Make your cheese sauce while the macaroni cooks.

Heat a good sized pot over medium heat. Add oil and butter. When butter melts into the oil, add flour and mix well. Gently whisk flour and butter together, until smooth and flour has had a chance to slightly brown, about 3 minutes.

Slowly add milk while continuing to whisk, making sure to get any lumps that form. Bring milk to a low boil while stirring frequently. Allow the milk to thicken slightly, then stir in shredded cheddar cheese, one handful at a time. Season sauce with nutmeg. Add salt to taste.

Add cooked pasta to sauce and coat completely by gently mixing both together. Serve and enjoy.

A couple options:

• Transfer the mix to a baking dish and top with extra cheese, or bread crumbs. Place under a broiler for a few minutes to lighly brown the top.

• Mix in veggies like peas or broccoli – your kids might be more likely to eat them mixed into their favorite dish, and the cheese sauce will make them tasty.

• If your child insists that macaroni and cheese must be orange, make this dish orange by boiling the macaroni with carrots, add saffron or turmeric to the cheese sauce, or use natural food dyes from your local Whole Foods or natural foods market.

Wondering about the price difference? The blue box cost $1.20 to make (the package, butter and milk) for 2 to 3 servings, while the homemade macaroni and cheese cost $5 to make over 8 large servings. Not that big of a difference when you consider the benefits of eating real food.

What’s missing? Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and a lot of sodium. Like anyone is going to miss that!

While there is an increasing amount of convenience foods that don’t use high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors and food dyes, the least processed foods are better choices.

Give the homemade macaroni and cheese a try with your kids. Stick with it and they’ll forget about the bright orange stuff sooner than you think.

UPDATE: I’m writing a guidebook for parents on how to tell if their child is being negatively impacted by their diet. If you’d like to know when this resource is available, sign up for free updates from me here. Thank you!

Note: Our recipe for Macaroni and Cheese is a hybrid of a few that we’ve used from mulitple sources. I wish I could share the sources with you, but it’s morphed so many times over the years (as I find a new recipe), that I really can’t. I’m grateful to all of those who’s inspired it, though.