Baked Mac Must Mean Healthy Mac, Right?

We Americans really love appetizers.  Restaurants offer up these huge appetizers meals before we're served the huge meals that we've actually ordered (not to mention we order appetizers in droves) and they are mainstays of dinner events and parties because of their ease of serving and quick preparation.  Swaths of restaurants have the standard fare including mozzarella sticks, potato skins, buffalo wings, chips & dip a number of other small finger foods sitting on their menus, but as culture pushes towards healthier foods newer options like fried mac n' cheese disappear.  I've already reviewed Target's attempt to bring fried mac n' cheese to the masses, but what happens when a food maker has their eyes on our midsections and offer us a 'baked' solution to a normally fried meal.

The Review

Brand:
Hot Pockets Snackers Baked Mac & Cheese Bites


See! Baked! Totally healthy! Eat the whole bag!



Price:

$3.89 at Safeway

Packaging Description:

(On Front)

Microwaves in just over 1 minute

Not a low fat food

(On Back)
Nestle: Good Food, Good Life
Good To Remember!
Good To Know!
Good to Connect!

Preparation:
*Open the bag and remove four.  Well you can remove more than four, but four = one serving and we're trying to be good here.
*Place them on a microwave safe plate and arrange them evenly on it.

Fresh out of the bag.  Little frozen ninja triangles of mac n' cheese.

*Put them in the microwave uncovered and cook them for 1:15. *Let them rest in the microwave for a minute.


Two of them got a little sick spinning around in the microwave and they threw up a little.  I don't handle spinny rides well either Hot Pocket bites, it's OK, I won't judge you!

 *Remove them from the microwave, be careful, the plate could be hot.


Hello cheesy noodles!

 *Commence with the nomming!

Taste:
These were a little hit or miss.  Two of the four were pretty cheesy on the insides and the other two were not (and no, not because they popped open when cooking and bled their cheesy guts out onto the plate).  You don't really notice the noodles (which were pretty cooked) unless there isn't much cheese in that bite.  The coating is basically the Hot Pocket dough used for the standard Hot Pocket.  These weren't crispy and the coating tended to make them dry, especially when there wasn't much cheese in that bite.  Out of the microwave they have an interesting smell that I can't really describe what it is similar to, but it's not something one would expect to smell when mac n' cheese is involved.

Final Score:
I've got mixed feelings about these.  I really wished they were crispier.  The lack of a crunch really detracted from them and parts were dry.  Other parts (or entire pieces) were nice and cheesy and quite enjoyable (and I ended up eating both my serving and a portion of a second serving, though those were mostly luke warm and not very good).  These may have been better if cooked in the stove, but the packaging recommendations say to use the microwave over the oven.  If you're desperate for mac n' cheese bites in a pinch, these work, but they really aren't all that great.

Nutritional Information:
Serving Size 4 Pieces (93g)
Servings Per Container about 3

Calories  220  Calories From Fat 80
Total Fat 8g (12% Daily Value)
Saturated Fat 4g (20% DV)
Trans Fat 0g (0% DV) 
Cholesterol 10mg (3% DV)
Sodium 460mg (19% DV)
Total Carbohydrates 28g (9% DV)
Dietary Fiber 1g (4% DV)
Sugar 3g
Protein 6g