No matter what your level of cooking skill, macaroni and cheese is likely one of the very first things you ever cooked -- if you really want to call that cooking. If you can boil water, you can make it.

Of course, sometimes you don't even have time to do that. Sometimes the pressures of work and family life hammer you down to so little free time that you can just barely squeeze out four or five minutes to throw something in the microwave.

Well, friends, you're in luck. Thanks to the miracle of frozen and refrigerated entrees, you can get your mac-n-cheese fix without so much as turning on a burner. All you need is a microwave and a few minutes and you'll have a steaming-hot bowl of comfort food.

But how comforting will it be?

Those of you who make your own macaroni and cheese from scratch can skip this paragraph. I'm speaking to my Blue Box friends for whom Kraft is the beginning, middle and end of their mac-and-cheese experience. Every other version you ever taste is compared to that and often found wanting. I've had "gourmet" macaroni and cheese in high-end restaurants with shaved black truffle that didn't come close. But I've also had some ladled out of a chafing dish at a soul food joint that knocked my socks off.

So where do the frozen and refrigerated versions come in? That's what we're here to discuss.

Our panel of dedicated testers gathered, forks in hand, and fell upon the following entries with much gusto and many napkins. There were five of them, and each was allowed to award a maximum of 20 points per entry based on taste, texture, appearance and, of course, cheesiness. Cheesiness is separate from taste; an entry could taste perfectly fine, but not have that cheesy hit.

Nutrition information is provided for each entry, although you might not want to look.

We'll start with the two refrigerated contenders:

Shedd's Country Crock Deluxe: (1 cup) 350 calories, 14 grams fat, 30 mg cholesterol, 930 mg sodium, 41 grams carbs.

The most cogent comment from any tester on this one was, "They should stick to margarine." That's pretty much what the dish tasted like: fairly good quality macaroni drenched in melted margarine. There was little cheese flavor. The pasta was a bit too chewy, but not outrageously so. Final score: 71.

TGI Friday's Classic 5 Cheese: (1 cup) 530 calories, 17 grams fat, 40 mg cholesterol, 940 mg sodium, 71 grams carbs.

This one was no lightweight in the calorie or fat department, but every bit of that was put to good use. The cheese flavor was strong without being overpowering, the sauce was insanely creamy and the pasta, while a tiny bit soggy, still held up well. Two testers found it a touch salty, but Friday's still notched a final score of 95.

And now, our frozen competitors, all cooked per the microwave directions.

Amy's Macaroni And Cheese With Organic Pasta: (whole package) 410 calories, 16 grams fat, 40 mg cholesterol, 590 mg sodium, 47 grams carbs.

The box bills this as "A delicious family favorite." None of the testers were quite sure which family. Perhaps the Simpsons? The macaroni was rubbery, the sauce was watery and the cheese flavor was nonexistent. If this be the fate that awaits me if I go organic, I'm sticking to Twinkies. Final score: 47.

Boston Market Home Style Meals: (1/2 cup) 320 calories, 9 grams fat, 20 mg cholesterol, 880 mg sodium, 45 grams carbs.

This was a great example of what happens when you mess around with tradition too much. Here we had just about the best cheese sauce in the whole test made tremendously messy and unpleasant to eat by the use of what seemed to be six-inch rotini spirals. It looked like something out of a horror movie on the plate. The pasta tasted fine, it was just unmanageably large, leading to many cheese-smeared chins. Final grade: 82.

Michelina's Macaroni and Cheese Bake: (1 package) 240 calories, 4 grams fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 540 mg sodium, 41 grams carbs.

Michelina's is one of the lower-priced lines in the frozen food arena, and this one will give you your $1.09 worth. The sauce had a definite (if not vibrant) cheese flavor, the pasta was perfectly adequate and the overall consistency closely mirrored that of the Mighty Blue Box. It also bore an eerie resemblance to Kraft on the plate. Final score: 83.

Stouffer's Macaroni and Cheese: (1 cup) 340 calories, 16 grams fat, 25 mg cholesterol, 820 mg sodium, 33 grams carbs.

Stouffer's is to frozen mac and cheese what Kraft is to the boxed version, and it's the king for good reason. The cheddar sauce was almost impossibly rich, with real cheese taste and aroma. The pasta was perfectly al dente, and carried the sauce as well as any homemade. It even looked great on the plate, not spreading out in a slick like some competitors but holding together. Final score: 98.

And we've got to include one "light" version, for those of you looking for waist-friendly comfort food.

Smart Ones Macaroni and Cheese: (whole package) 270 calories, 2 grams fat, less than 5mg cholesterol, 790 mg sodium, 52 grams carbs.

The Weight Watchers Smart Ones dishes have, in past tests, found no spot on the middle ground. They've either been the top of the heap (flatbread breakfast sandwiches) or frighteningly bad (meat loaf). This one was a shot right past second base, up that middle ground. The pasta was a bit too firm, but not bad. The sauce was nicely cheesy, but there wasn't quite enough of it. Altogether, you'd be satisfied if you chose this over a full-fat version for dietary reasons. Final score: 76.

The Friday's and Stouffer's entrees come out in almost a dead heat, with the slight edge going to the frozen entrée. Since all the entries but Michelina's (low end) and Amy's (high end) are within a few cents of each other per serving, that means your best buy would be whichever of those two was on sale … unless you had a coupon. Enjoy!