If you ever have the single-serving version of those blue boxes, do yourself a favor and add a bit of dairy when you stir in the powder. We normally have 1% or 2% milk on hand so that’s what we use but I imagine a dab of sour cream would do wonders.
My SO is the same way; we either buy Bush’s Grillin’ Beans, which doesn’t have that, or I try to fish out the thing.
I’m glad it isn’t just me. LOL
I’d like to write them a letter and ask why, exactly, do they feel that this is a good and desirable thing? How would they like it if I served them a nice meal but decided to add a lump of fat to their plate before I served it.
The fat is the first thing I go after in a can of pork and beans. It’s the best part!
Uhhh … 
Mmmmmmmmmmm! 
I’ve found using one of the better brands gives me a great starting point on making my own awesome white clam sauce.
Then you must be able to make an awesome New England Clam Chowder.
Maybe the boxes are much smaller these days, but there’s only about 750 calories in one, with the added butter and milk. I used to eat a couple boxes at a time as a teenager.
My add-ins were a can of tuna and frozen peas. One of my favorite lunches as a kid.
Saw a couple of recipes recently that specified the meat from a rotisserie chicken. I think one was for gumbo since a discussion in another thread brought up a bunch of gumbo suggestions noise. Makes perfect sense if you like the way the chicken’s been seasoned.
I wish I could…but I can’t eat milk. 
I buy canned chicken when it’s on sale and keep it on the shelf for impromptu menus. Voila! No fridge needed except for the leftovers!
Yum! Here’s someone’s recipe trying to duplicate it.
In the third reply, someone adds broccoli, white meat chicken, and black olives to their version.
Now that’s just ruining it! 
I loved the original when I was a kid. I can’t remember when I last had it. Do other brands have a version now?
Not that I’ve ever seen. Stouffer’s used to have a version of it years ago, but they discontinued theirs too. Tis a mystery.
Here’s one more recipe.
Does Rice-A-Roni still make their Pasta Roni version?
Oh, that recipe looks promising, with the powdered ingredients. I don’t know what else they put in those (crack?) but there’s something about that cheese powder Kraft uses that makes it very hard to copy with fresh ingredients.
If you try any of these let us know how they are, especially curious as to how the powder version turns out.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve used box mac n cheese without doing something to it. Besides almost always adding additional cheese, I’ve dumped in a can of tuna, or cut-up hot dogs, or ham. I’ve added various seasonings (I used to add sage, for some reason). I’ll add a can of chili (with or without beans) to turn it into chili mac.
I’ve never thought of turning it into Noodles Romanoff, though. That has now been added to my list of things to do when I have sour cream in the fridge.