As a college student who’s always busy, I rarely have time to cook a comfort meal from scratch. Thankfully, there’s a Trader Joe’s right across the street from my college campus, so whenever I feel a craving for a meal that would normally take more than fifteen minutes to make, I make a beeline to the TJ’s frozen aisle.
One of my all-time favorite frozen meals from Trader Joe’s has just returned to the store’s shelves this week: the Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese. It’s a seasonal item, but this mac and cheese has made waves on FoodTok every fall since it first went mega-viral in 2023 as the perfect autumnal lazy-girl dinner.
Because it’s seasonal, the butternut squash mac and cheese is usually sold out in stores — people (me included) try to stock up on their favorite TJ’s frozen meal before it’s gone. In most videos you see of people cooking it, you’ll catch a glimpse of a stack of butternut squash mac boxes in the freezer.
Butternut squash is no stranger to mac and cheese — they’ve been put together to make an elevated version of the childhood classic for over a decade.
Apparently, Trader Joe’s version of the butternut squash mac and cheese was a total accident, created by a product developer in 2017 who was actually presenting canned Organic Butternut Squash, simply using mac and cheese as a vehicle to showcase the pureed squash. The tasting panel loved the butternut squash mac and cheese dish so much that they decided to make it for the public to enjoy as a frozen meal.
The mac and cheese starts with mezzi rigatoni pasta, a superior pasta shape for any saucy dish, in my opinion. The sauce is a combination of rich bechamel sauce, Gouda, Cheddar, and Parmesan cheese.
Yes, you read that right: this is a triple-cheese mac. But the thing that truly sets this butternut squash mac and cheese apart from a basic mac and cheese is the seasoning.
Trader Joe’s uses herbs like nutmeg, sage, and thyme to bring a savoriness to the dish that is uniquely delicious. These warming spices elevate the flavor of the mac and cheese from a typical frozen meal to a craveable, comforting dish that embodies the season of fall in every bite.
For an easy zero-cook meal, I usually just microwave the mac and cheese for five to six minutes until it looks hot and perfectly ooey-gooey. However, some people, like Natalie Ludwig (@eatsbynat on TikTok), prefer to cook it over the stovetop in a pot for maximum flavor.
“My sister and I always stockpile this every year because it is just that good,” Ludwig said in her video of cooking the butternut squash mac and cheese.
Take her advice and mine, from personal experience: make sure to reserve a small section in your freezer to stock up on the Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese before it leaves the store in a few months. I know I already have one tucked in my freezer for a time in the future that I crave the easiest cozy fall meal from Trader Joe’s.