IMPORTANT: Healthy Mac and Cheese Is the Trend You Need to Know About

Envision eating your favorite comfort food, and then BAM: your fairy godmother appears and miraculously bestows gifts of health upon your plate. Your food tastes the same and is equally delicious, but suddenly you now get bonus health benefits. This scenario (minus the fairy godmother aspect) exists in a new delectable trend. Let us enlighten you: healthy macaroni and cheese.

It's a good rule of thumb to always look for an organic option, but Annie's Homegrown Organic brand upped the ante with Grass-Fed mac. When animals can graze naturally instead of eating feed, their byproducts are more nutritionally-dense (read: eggs and dairy).

The best part is, you don't have to compromise flavor with the grass-fed variety. Annie's Grass-Fed Mac and Cheese scored five stars across the board from our taste testers.

We got to try one of Banza's Mac and Cheese varieties, and the chickpea pasta brand did not disappoint. Our testers said "I loved it. Tastes like real pasta," and "If you hadn't told me it was chickpea, I wouldn't have known it wasn't a normal noodle."

You can also add to your gluten-free Mac and Cheese collection withAncient Harvest POW! pasta made from lentils and quinoa.

Speaking of quinoa . . . Yep. There's quinoa pasta ready to be slathered in cheese. Check out Edison Grainery's quinoa mac, or Ancient Harvest's Quinoa Supergrain Mac and Cheese Elbows.

Annie's is at it again with a high-protein mac that totally wooed our colleagues. They added protein to the noodle itself with golden peas, making for a delicious noodle experience with the same cheese sauce you know and love if you're familiar with the Annie's line.

Ready to kick the protein up another notch? Muscle Mac makes a pasta dish with 20 grams per serving. We've yet to try it, but it looks pretty dang good.

There are several dairy-free options if you're looking to cut back on animal byproducts altogether. Try Road's End Dairy-Free Shells, Daiya Deluxe Cheddar Style Cheezy Mac, or (surprise) Annie's Homegrown Organic Vegan Shells in Creamy Sauce.