I am not sure when Campbell’s bought Franco American, but I just had some Spaghettios for the first time in years and the flavor has not changed one bit–it’s comfort food to the Nth degree, no matter when or where you grew up. I’ll be honest, though, I originally was going to review the ones with sliced hot dogs and those hot dog slices were pretty disgusting so I didn’t finish the dish or the review.

But the one with mini-meatballs is delicious. And let’s face it, it can’t be easy to make processed meatballs taste real, and these do have that canned food meatball thing going on, but they still taste real enough not to be considered mystery meat (I think). And with ground pork being the first meat ingredient, the flavor is a bit milder than all-beef meatballs.

As for the pasta rings, they were done about to the degree you’d expect for canned pasta, but those and the familiar mild tomato sauce with a slightly cheesy taste is still really great. Of course, at 480 calories a can (who’s going to eat half a can?), it’s a pretty hefty calorie binge for lunch. But still worth a once-in-a-while binge at that.

This product did not boast “NEW” on the can or anything, but it sure did catch my eye. I am a sucker for trying anything that could pass for junk food or canned anything. Maybe it’s because I’m positively addicted to carbs. And that’s not a great thing for my waistline, but I sure do love carbs.

Now, I don’t make a habit of eating canned food every day for lunch, but I had to try this Chefboyardee Chili Mac because it just looked intriguing. It was macaroni with chili gravy and some ground beef. Sort of like a poor man’s Hamburger Helper. And poor man’s it is, because there is barely any beef in this dish.

But I can say unequivocally that this chili mac is delicious. Not only is it a tasty gravy, but the macaroni is not mushy. In fact, it’s almost al dente, something you just don’t find in canned pasta. You want proof of how much I liked it? Well, I’m not going to bore you with the photo of the bowl, but I ate the whole can and the whole can was good.

It didn’t hurt that the temperature in Madison today is about a balmy 45 degrees. So anything with the word “chili” in it was going to hit the spot, and this mac did just that.

Whole grains are all the rage these days. You can thank the fact that low-fat diets went out of style over the past ten or so years, and the focus was once again on low-carb diets for losing weight and burning fat fast. Whole grains, as the South Beach Diet will attest to, are “good carbs,” because they’re less processed than their white flour-based counterparts. Whew…you’d think I was a doctor or a nutritionist, but alas, I’m just a dude like you that likes to eat.

I also like to have healthy options once in a while, so I’m kicking off this new weekly feature with a a review of the new line of Chef Boyardee Whole Grain Pasta, in this case the Beefaroni.

I grew up on Beefaroni, so it’s not like I was trying the product for the first time. I was, however, trying this new “healthier” version for the first time. And quite honestly, there is almost no way to tell the difference. I didn’t taste the regular Beefaroni side by side with it, but I have had that enough times in my life that I didn’t have to.

Whole Grain Beefaroni is absolutely delicious and satisfying, with just the right amount of ground beef and tomato sauce. Typically canned pasta is cooked more than pasta you’d cook at home or that you’d eat in a restaurant, and that’s the case here, but I’m sure they do that for a reason.

This still isn’t exactly diet food, and if you eat the whole can, you’re talking 480 calories and 18 grams of fat. And who wouldn’t eat the whole can? But here is the good part–there are 18 grams of protein in the can, and a whopping 6 grams of fiber. If you read the ingredient list, whole wheat flour is right near the top. So really, if you’re going to eat Chefboyardee products, you may as well get some fiber into your diet…..especially when it really does taste this good.