Kraft Spaghetti Dinner

Back when I was a very young kid in the 1960s.  Ready made food and easy meal preps were becoming more popular in the late 1950s until the early 1970s due to more households acquiring televisions (think TV Dinners) and more mothers going to work.

Mom's needed quick and easy ways to prepare meals.  When you go to the grocery store now, an entire aisle is dedicated to pasta and various brands upon brands and abundant varieties of pasta sauces.  However, in the 1960s, you didn't have those options and foods like "spaghetti" (believe it or not) was considered kind of unusual for most Americans.

 

 Kraft decided their Kraft Dinner (aka: Macaroni and Cheese) was a hit so decided to bring something new to the market....Kraft Spaghetti Dinner. Originally, there were 2 kinds..."Mild" (which apparently was more sweeter, probably to fit kid's taste) and "Tangy", which provided a more authentic Italian tomato taste.

It appears that all you can get now, is the Classic Tangy Spaghetti Dinner.

 

It couldn't be easier.  It comes with everything you need except for the tomato paste.  Today, you can get a box for about $2 and a can of tomato paste for about $0.79.  So for about $3, you can serve  your family of four! It even comes with grated Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top. 

Of course most people would add a side salad or maybe some garlic bread to complete the meal, but you don't have to.

Apparently, at some point in time, Kraft made a spaghetti dinner with meat sauce too, but I can find no evidence that is still available.

Recently, I found a box of the Classic Tangy Spaghetti Dinner at Publix and since I haven't had in about a  hundred years, I decided to get a box.  

Personally, I thought it needed a little extra "oomph" so I added a pound of cooked ground beef.

It was so easy to make, I boiled 3 cups of water in a saucepan and added the noodles and let them boil until they were al dente.  Meanwhile, I browned the ground beef, drained it, added a 6 oz. can of tomato paste and 2 cans of water along with the seasoning mix. It took less than 10 minutes.

I admit, the word "Tangy" kind of threw me because I didn't want it to taste "Tangy" or like Chef Boyardee and to my happiness and joy, it didn't. It tasted like most jarred pasta sauces, such as Ragu, Prego, etc. It was very good. I liked that it came with the grated Parmesan which gave it that special little extra.

I also like, that it made enough for me to have for dinner plus enough for left overs for a couple of meals.

The verdict - actually pretty good and tasty. Great value and something I would definitely make again!