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homemade macaroni and cheese recipes
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I am on the path to healthier, whole foods cooking and now it’s time to throw the familiar blue box out the window. But my family is resistant to this one’s homemade makeover. I tried one that they did not like. So I need your kid-tested, mother-approved mac and cheese recipes, please.
Real cheese is okay and we have no known food allergies, so no special diet restrictions. I just want healthier ingredients. Thanks.
Hello, I hear ya! We had a hard time when we got rid of that infamous blue box! This is what I use, and have used for years. My mother-in-law uses regular grocery store ingredients, but we are using more healthy choices. Hope you all enjoy!
Macaroni and Cheese:
~1 box (16 ounce) of elbow macaroni (or your favorite type)
~ 3 cups of cheddar cheese (we use organic/raw cheese, if available)
~ 2 cups milk (we use raw milk)
~ 1/2 cup flour (fresh ground soft white wheat or unbleached flour)
~ 1/2 cup butter
~ sea salt, to taste
Directions:
Cook box of noodles according to directions. While boiling noodles, place butter in a small saucepan over low heat to melt. Once melted, place flour and mix until a paste-like consistency. Then, add milk and gradually raise heat to low/medium, careful not to scald milk. Once it is heated thoroughly, add salt to taste, then remove from heat. Once removed from heat, add about 1 cup of the grated cheddar cheese to the milk/flour mixture and stir until melted. Set aside. Once noodles are cooked to desired consistency and water is drained, place noodles back in large pot and add cheese sauce mix and stir. Grease/butter a 9″ by 11″ baking dish and place noodle mixture in for baking. Add remaining cheese on top of noodles, and bake in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Enjoy!
I make a similar one to the one just posted above this and my family loves it – tho they love it better when I use Velveeta instead of real cheese (it’s just creamier while sometimes real cheese can be a little grainy – at least that is my experience).
My recipe card is dated October 2007, but it’s a family recipe that has been made for as long as I can remember.
My recipe is:
1/4 cup flour
6 Tbs butter
dash of pepper
1 tsp salt
4 cups milk
1 lb of cheese
3 cups dry elbow macaroni – cook according to package
In saucepan, melt butter then wisk in flour, salt, & pepper to make a roux. Add milk and cook and stir until thick and bubbly over medium heat. Remove from heat, then add cheese and stir until melted. Stir in cooked macaroni and pour into greased 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.
I make a similar recipe to the above, but I modified it because I hated to use so much cheese. It’s SO easy to cook and SO easy to remember (just remember 2 milk; 2 cheese; 2 macaroni):
2 cups milk (dairy or soy)
1/4 cup flour whisked into the milk
2 cups macaroni
2 cups cheddar cheese (or American, or whatever you have on-hand), shredded
black pepper and ground mustard, to taste
Cook macaroni according to pkg directions. In the meantime, heat milk (with flour, pepper, and mustard whisked in) over medium heat, whisking frequently. When the milk starts to thicken, remove it from the heat and stir-in the cheese. When the cheese is melted, stir in the macaroni.
You can serve it like that, but in my family we prefer to put it in a casserole dish and sprinkle bread crumbs on top. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
Yum! It’s that time of the year for gooey, carby meals, huh?
We do a similar version, but use rice pasta and Daiya brand cheese wedges, usually the cheddar. It is made with pea protein since we don’t do dairy. I also add a bunch of organic frozen peas, as well as onions and garlic, and have never had to add flour with mine. I wonder if you could use a non-gmo cornstarch instead? Rice flour might not be as grainy as regular or whole wheat flour. Just a thought.
This crockpot recipe is yummy and easy:)
Ingredients:
1 stick (1/2 c.) butter, cut into pieces
2 c. uncooked macaroni
2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
24oz. small-curd cottage cheese
2 1/2 c. boiling water
1. Place butter in bottom of slow cooker. Add uncooked macaroni, 1 1/2 c. shredded cheese, and cottage cheese. Stir until well mixed.
2. Pour boiling water over all. Do not stir.
3. Cover and cook on high 2 hours.
4. Stir well. Sprinkle w/remaining 1/2 c. cheese.
5. Let dish stand 10-15 min. before serving to allow sauce to thicken.
I usually will stir once or twice while cooking and keep close eye on last 15 min. to make sure edges don’t burn. Yummy!
Oh I’ll have to try the crockpot one – the pasta doesn’t get too mushy? That is why I haven’t tried it in the crockpot because some things I’ve made in the crockpot with pasta have gotten to mushy and were yucky. Also, what about the cottage cheese – can you tell that is in there, not sure how my kids or hubby would like it if it was really noticeable.
I’ve never thought it was mushy….though I guess not as firm as out of the box kind. Kids haven’t minded. You can’t tell cottage cheese is in there….just be sure to get small curd. The only complaint I’ve had was when I used milder cheeses…they like the sharp cheddar.
We basically do as MelissaB described with making a roux, melting in the cheese, adding the macaroni, and then baking it to brown the top.
Several years ago, we ran across a recipie from Alton Brown that added just a little blue cheese and apples. It was very good and we enjoyed the little kick from the blue cheese.
Another fun variation is using a mixture of lots of cheeses. The deli at our local grocery store will let you buy “cheese ends” if you ask for them. That’s the slices of cheese that get trimmed off before the first slice is the right thickness. They save them and sell them cheap; about $1.49 per pound if I recall correctly. We occasionally use these for a surprise flavor mac and cheese and it’s always been delicious.
I have tried to replicate the boxed mac and cheese as well, both to get a healthier real food product and to make it easy. I love the kind of homemade mac and cheese with the cooked sauce, but it is a bit more of a time investment than just stirring up the box stuff. And it does not taste the same. To me, of course, it tastes better LOL homemade mac and cheese is one of the yummiest things ever. But if what they want is the blue box, the baked stuff is just different. So I feel your pain.
When mine were little (toddlers) I used to use whole wheat elbows, drained and hot, add cream and a handful of grated cheddar, and stir till melted. They loved this and it was so easy! Then somehow they got a taste of the box stuff and developed a preference for it.
One thing I have done is to buy some powdered cheese from amazon. You can actually buy the stuff just like in the blue box and use your own pasta and that is probably a step in the right direction and you could create a nearly identical product. But it has hydrogenated oils and stuff… So I bought the organic cheddar powder – basically just dried powdered cheese. http://www.amazon.com/Frontier-Cheddar-CERTIFIED-ORGANIC-package/dp/B000WRZWOA/ref=sr_1_6?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1380456058&sr=1-6&keywords=cheese+powder You can also use the powder for other things – topping for popcorn is good! There is about a lifetime supply of powder in that bag LOL
It is not identical to the blue box cheese powder – it is not orange for one thing. And it is not as salty. And it tastes different and does not mix as smooth. But I talked to the kids about what it was and why I wanted to try it and got them to go along with me in figuring out a recipe. I basically use the same proportions of ingredients as in the box, it is about a cup and a half of pasta, a couple T of butter, 1/4 milk, a couple of T of cheese powder, and I add a big handful of grated cheese (this adds creamy-ness and helps with the problem of the cheese powder being lumpy) – over low heat mix it all together and add salt to taste. These are not exact measurements as I often just eyeball it, but you get the general idea.
This is not as delicious as the homemade by a long shot. But it is quick. You could even pack up baggies with the pasta and cheese measured out to make it faster. And it does not taste exactly like boxed mac and cheese. But it is similar and it is real food 🙂 I wish there was a good quality orange powder to buy – that would go a long way toward making this a better substitute.
Hope that helps!
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