Velveeta’s Cheesy Skillets – Liquid Gold?

I first had Velveeta cheese as a kid and I never had it, or any other creamy fake cheese product, ever again. Just the thought of fake creamy cheese makes me gag a little, and the smell is even worse. Lucky for me, my mom cooked meals more or less from scratch.

My base cheese sauce starts with a flour/butter roux (2T ea), then 2 cups (1 pint) half-and-half, then about 4 oz (1/2 a block) shredded sharp cheddar.  I shred my cheese from the block, the anti-caking agent they put on factory-shredded cheese is not worth the convenience! It ruins recipes and tastes chalky. Blech. And for the magic yellow color, I use mustard powder (2t) and paprika (1/2t). Certainly not a diet food, but it is a REAL food, and just an occasional splurge. Sometimes for extra thickness, 1/2 block of cream cheese is nice, or a tiny slurry of milk/cornstarch. Also, instead of cheddar, other cheeses transform this into a really versatile sauce. [as you can tell, i'm a clean-out-the-fridge kind of cook, haha]. So, for a skillet cheeseburger mac, like the one above: Boil water and cook some noodles (egg noodles work really well, and they cook super fast, but any will do! Undercook slightly, if possible, al-dente is better when there’s more cooking to be done after the boil), drain them, set them aside for a minute. Meanwhile, in a huge skillet, brown 1lb of ground beef. In this particular application, I leave the chunks sort of bigger, to mimic tiny burgers, rather than chop finely as it cooks, like for tacos. As it’s browning, to the beef, add 1/2 chopped onion, and the kinds of seasoning you’d use on grilling a hamburger (salt, pepper, garlic, etc.). If you’re feeling fancy, my favorite secret ingredient ever is about 1/4 cup pickle juice, minced up pickle, or relish, depending on what you have – I think it’s the Polish girl in me, I sneak pickles into almost everything. Stir in the drained noodles, then pour the cheese sauce over and stir. Be sure to taste it, and adjust it – some people might add a squirt of ketchup, if that’s your thing. I like to serve cheeseburger mac scooped onto a bed of lettuce, with  diced tomato, a little extra grated cheese, a bit of chopped raw onion on top, and of course, pickle slices – dressed like a cheeseburger!

Admittedly the commercials do crack me up because they are so bizarre! But yeah, no way would I eat that stuff.  I posted my version of homemade “hamburger helper” to help people learn that this stuff can be made at home with real ingredients.  http://foodembrace.com/2011/02/skillet-burger-mac/

My grandma made the most amazing mac & cheese, with heaps of velveeta. It was my favorite food as a kid, but then I made it as a grown up and was freaked out with how fake, gooey, and paste-like it tasted. Now, when the mac & cheese mood strikes (which is often!) I make a soymilk-based creme sauce (1 cup soymilk + 2 tbsp arrowroot/cornstarch), add mix ins (kale, pumpkin, pesto, etc), add pasta, and then shred some fresh cheese on top. Healthy, hearty vegetarian fare for the mac & cheese kid in all of us! The recipe for the pesto creme pasta can be found here: http://bakerymanis.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/quick-meals-pesto-creme-pasta

You didn’t say whether it tastes good or not. It sounds disgusting.

Point of fact: Metallic gold is inert to all body chemistry, it has no taste, it provides no nutrition, and it leaves the body unaltered.  So unless you eat a really big piece of gold and choke on it, real gold is much less likely to kill you than this stuff.

Those of you over 30 need to remember that today we are not even able to get the same foods our parents used to buy. The more the politicians get away with deregulating and skipping testing and blocking accountability to the producers, the worse it’s going to get. Now the fight is back on to eliminate labeling so producers can add anything they want to “save pennies” and neither they nor the politicians care one bit what it might do to future generations because their only concern are the short term profits of their bank accounts today.
It makes me feel really sad to know my grandchildren will never know the difference.

Actually real gold is edible in very small amounts. I have had chocolate with food grade 18 carat gold leaf on it. I bet it is better for you than the Liquid Goooooooooooldd in these commercials. I must say that they are the funniest advertisements I have seen in a long time. Too bad they are not promoting something healthier.

In 45 years, I’ve only had boxed macaroni twice – as a teen. Even back then I knew something was wrong and have simply refused to eat this “food.” I have sworn off boxed foods altogether and especially cheese from any box or can. I never needed a nutritional breakdown to know. My body told me by swelling and  bloating once the meal was over.

the cheesy skillets meals (I tried the chicken with broccoli) is one of the worst products ever! Ugh! Horrid! I would recommend you not waste your hard earned money on this mess of a meal, if you want to call it that!

velveeta makes great mac’n cheese, but this skillet meal mess is a joke. Totally nasty, and guess Krafts  never heard of if it aint broke, well, don’t fix it. Should have just stuck with mac’n cheese, and let it be

I actually tried this. Never again! I knew it was bad for me but the convenience won out. There is an underlying flavor that’s almost like dill pickle. Very disgusting taste. I asked a friend if they ever tried it and they said they found it to have an underlying flavor they found gross. Cheese I should have made it from scratch like normal.