It’s always an adventure to roam the aisles at Trader Joe’s. You never know what you may find at Aldi’s cousin. I’ve found some unique products over the years, including tempura seaweed snacks, cheeseburger burritos, Patio Potato Chips, and cheddar cheese with caramelized onions.
During a recent stroll down the freezer aisle at Trader Joe’s, I found a pepperoni pizza mac & cheese bowl. I like pizza, and I like mac and cheese, so why not mash the two into one dish?
The Trader Joe’s Uncured Pepperoni Pizza Mac & Cheese Bowl cost $3.29 for a 12-ounce package at the time of publication.
The box describes this as “mac & cheese with pizza sauce and uncured pepperoni.”
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains wheat and milk.
One box has 2 servings (although you might be tempted to eat the entire thing in one sitting). One serving has 290 calories, 13 grams of total fat (20% DV), 5 grams of saturated fat (25% DV), 35 mg of cholesterol (12% DV), 750 mg of sodium (31% DV), 30 grams of total carbohydrates (10% DV), 1 gram of dietary fiber (4% DV), 4 grams of total sugars, and 14 grams of protein. The nutrition panel doesn’t talk about added sugars, but it doesn’t look like this contains any added sugars.
Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
The box has directions for heating this in a conventional oven or in the microwave.
To bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the tray from the box and remove the film from the tray. Place on a baking sheet on the center rack in the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Let stand for 1 minute, then stir and serve.
To microwave, remove the tray from the box and pierce the film several times. Microwave on high for 5-6 minutes. Let stand 1 minute. Remove the film, stir, and serve.
Ready to serve after microwaving.
I opted to heat this in my microwave and shared it with my daughter. It smelled great and looked good. It tasted good, too, with a mix of elbow noodles, cheese, pizza sauce, and pepperoni. Our only complaint was that this seemed skimpy on the sauce and cheese. As evidenced in the photo above, there are noodles that don’t have anything on them. Even after thoroughly stirring to mix everything up, we still felt like this could use more cheese or pizza sauce, or both. (We felt the same way about the seasonal Trader Joe’s Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese.)
The Verdict:
The Trader Joe’s Uncured Pepperoni Pizza Mac & Cheese Bowl is a fun mashup of pizza and pasta. It features mac and cheese topped with pizza sauce and pepperoni. This was fine, but it didn’t have as much cheese and sauce as we expected.
