Kraft Fat Free Shredded Cheddar Cheese, reviewed

I have been an honest cheese lover ever since I discovered pasta at the early age of 5 years old. I remember being served a hot plate of spaghetti with a marinara sauce and meatballs. I was about to dig right into it when my mom placed a green container of white sprinkly stuff. The label on the green container read, “Kraft Grafted Parmesan Cheese”. I had no idea what that meant at the time, but my mom sprinkled some over her spaghetti so I did the same thing. Once I took a bite, I knew I had tasted heaven. I instantly poured on much more and continued to do so on all future pasta plates. I even are the cheese by the spoonfuls. I soon learned of the best kind of cheese: the fresh-grated. :) It was heaven.

As I grew up and realized that I shouldn’t have too much cheese and that the pasta actually tasted good without a lot of the heavenly shreds. I began to eat less of the cheese as I experimented with new sauces. Eventually, I even forgot to add the cheese. I know, how could I?

Well, while I was at my local grocery store, the Lucky’s, I spotted something that just caught my eye: Kraft Fat Free Shredded Cheddar Cheese. Could it be? A truly fat-free cheese? Would it taste it? Was it lying? Was this a gimmick? Was there a camera crew waiting to jump out and say, “You’re on candid camera! Your friend sent you in, you crazy cheese lover!”

I picked up the bag of cheese, paid, and left the store ready to try my new cheese. It was this new cheese that prompted me to make the thin crust pizza dough mentioned in the previous post.

The Krat Fat Free Cheese

$3.59 with a decent taste (pile it on!), 25% of calcium too!

Well, I can honestly say that it’s not as great as Kraft’s – or rather any normal brand’s – cheese. The taste isn’t as sharp, though I truth be told I did not buy sharp, so my taste buds might be off. There wasn’t as much flavor as cheese usually has.

Having said that, I must give it some credit. It is fat free after all. It’s definitely a good alternative to the regular cheese if you’re looking to stay healthy or cut back on fat/calories.  In just 1/4 cup, you get 25% of your daily Calcium with only 45 calories. Not too shabby. If you pile it on your food, you can actually get a decent taste and not feel guilty. I do have to mention that in the 1/4 cup, it has about 11% of your daily sodium so be careful if you’re watching your sodium intake. Also, on sale at my grocery store, it was $3.59, a dollar less than the $5 price tag. Not that bad, but I’m hoping that it’ll go down some more with time.

Personally, I love to sprinkle some garlic powder and the cheese on my Alvadaro’s Whole Wheat Sprouted (Non-Fat) Sourdough toast. It becomes a kind of garlic toast, but ditching the garlic is just as good for some cheese toast. It’s also great in tacos, on pizza, on pasta (duh!), and chili. As the days are getting colder, this is especially a tasty match.

If you end up trying the cheese, post a comment on what you think. I’d love to know what recipe you used too. :)