The other day, I saw a video of Mac and Cheese on Tasty, maybe. Someone said to make it, and since I have the ingredients, I decided to cook it today. So I hunted down for a good recipe. I have a go to recipe on my Evernote for a No Bake Macaroni but I wanted to try something new. I checked a lot of recipe blogs. The weird thing is, up until now, I did not realize that American Mac and Cheese have no tomato sauce unlike this Easy Cheesy Beef Lasagna Recipe.

What we do is cook the macaroni like we do with spaghetti, then top it with cheese sauce and bake.

So I realized that this is actually good, I can cook the same dish, with the same ingredients, and less the spaghetti/tomato sauce. Budget winner!

*I have adapted this Mac and Cheese recipe from Ree Drummond’s recipe at Food Network.

8/8 Mac and Cheese Recipe

Ingredients:

• Macaroni 400 G (cooked according to package directions)
• 1/2 cup stick butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 4 cups milk (I just reconstituted powdered milk, 3 tbsp per cup of water)
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• Cheddar Cheese 185 g x 2 grated (Or you can buy those pre-grated cheese to save time)
• 250 gms bacon (fried and chopped)
• a pinch of nutmeg (optional)

Instructions:

1. Heat pan and add butter. Slowly add flour to make a roux and whisk for 3 minutes taking care not to burn it.
2. Add milk bit by bit, stirring very well as you add the liquid. Whisk and whisk and whisk for a couple of minutes to cook the flour and avoid the floury taste. (I think my arms are out of practice because it was sooo hard to mix but don’t skip this part!). Add half of the salt.
3. Slowly add the beaten egg while continuously mixing. Do this quickly so the egg will not be cooked on top of the sauce.
4. Add your cheese and continuously mix until incorporated. (By this time my arms are totally crying in pain.)
5. Add the rest of the salt. Add the chopped bacon. (At this part I threw in a pinch of chili powder and I poured the bacon grease -no judgement please but I can’t let that goodness go to waste, can I?). Do one last mix. Reserve some cheese sauce for topping the mac and cheese.
6. Add the macaroni slowly. (Just in case you think it’s too much or there’s not enough cheese sauce).
7. Transfer to baking pan or aluminum foil tray, top with remaining sauce and bake for 15 minutes.
8. Rest the macaroni and cheese for 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Notes:

It was a great merienda. So cheesy and very kid friendly. My son, a growing teenager who is always hungry loved it and I think I’m gonna use this a lot just to fill him up. This would also be a good one to bring for pot luck parties. If you’re serving it for adults, you can add a bit more chili powder or paprika, not only to add color but to spice it up and remove the cheese “umay” factor.

PS: I called it 8/8 Uber Cheesy Mac and Cheese because it has 8 ingredients and 8 steps. :P

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