Parents have better options than powdered cauliflower in Kraft mac 'n' cheese

"Psssst. Hey, man. You selling any cauliflower powder?"

Cauliflower powder isn't available in stores or on street corners, but is the newest ingredient added to a special version of Kraft Macaroni 'n' Cheese. "Look, ma, some vegetables."

As an extra bonus, the cauliflower powder substitutes for some of the flour in the pasta. Win-win?

In itself, a downside would be difficult to find. Sure, the cauliflower powder doesn't amount to much, hard to know what nutrients are left after cooking and freeze-drying into powder form, price will go up, some of the nutritional info isn't adding up. Guess it was easy to find a downside.

Real cauliflower has fiber as well as vitamins. Cauliflower powder definitely doesn't have fiber, and its vitamins are under scrutiny.

Getting kids to eat more vegetables is a noble goal, but this doesn't really accomplish what parents need, even if this does give Kraft added sales. Suggesting that parents serve cauliflower mixed in with store-bought mac 'n' cheese won't work for these parents because if it did, they wouldn't be buying this product.

Ironically, this product has been sold in Canada (under its traditional name, Kraft Dinner), a land where consumers are used to putting other food items into the dish, such as cut up hot dogs and ketchup.

Americans aren't used to putting anything in the store-bought mac 'n' cheese. And the taste of real cauliflower would be a dramatic shift.

So what should parents do about getting veggies in a mac 'n' cheese meal?

If parents buy the new product, buy it for reasons that have nothing to do with vegetables. Chances are you won't buy it for any other reason. Ideally, make your own with whole wheat pasta but that isn't likely to happen for the on-the-go approach.

If you are desperate to add vegetables to the mix, go with canned tomatoes or a low- to no-sugar tomato sauce. Macaroni with tomato sauce is not mac 'n' cheese, but the dish would have more vegetables and more nutrition. Maybe you can add the cheese powder into the dish somehow, creating a tomato mac 'n' cheese.

Though more work is involved, you could buy cauliflower, cook it (while the kids are away from the kitchen), puree it, and then put the puree into the boxed mac 'n' cheese. At least the cauliflower puree would be fresh, and you would improve the ratio of cauliflower to macaroni/cheese.

If your kids really love boxed mac 'n' cheese, sometimes you just have to give in to them and not worry about the vitamins for that meal. Serve a simple salad or cucumber slices that they can dip into the excess cheese. Or worry about it for the next meal.

Wherever you stand on the idea of sneaking in vegetables into children's food, know that parents will always do a better job than corporations in sneaking those veggies into their diet. Your motivation (love) will always trump their motivation (profit).