Skip to main content

homemade mac&cheese recipe

this was one of my FAVORITE dinners as a kid, although my mom now claims that she made it differently than the recipe she gave to me… I’ll try my best to make this recipe ‘usable’, but you’ll probably have to refer to my recipe disclaimer and accept my apologies, once again, for ambiguous measurements!

003

in case that won’t actually cut it for you, allow me to try and translate.

  1. cook 2 cups of macaroni according to package directions. drain. put in 2.5 quart casserole dish or 9x13 pyrex dish. (I only use whole wheat pasta and actual elbow macaroni can be hard to find – although a friend recently alerted me that whole foods sells it. i use shells, rotini, bow ties, whatever the kids choose.)
  2. in a separate bowl, combine 1 can of cream of something soup (I usually use celery), 1 can of milk (meaning you measure your milk in the soup can you just emptied), and several good shakes of the following spices: parsley, celery seed, onion powder, garlic powder, and basil. mix WELL with a whisk.
  3. pour over cooked noodles.
  4. cube cheese (I do this while the noodles are cooking). the amount of cheese is kind of hard to specify. i’ve been making this for years and I just kind of eyeball it. maybe about a cup? maybe a little more?
  5. stir in cheese, making sure to get it well distributed throughout. this is also where I like to add some diced ham, if we’ve had it recently and have leftovers, but it’s just as good without it too.
  6. sprinkle parmesan cheese and paprika over the top.
  7. cover and bake at 350* for 30-40 minutes, until bubbly and all cheese is melted. remove cover for the last 5 minutes of baking.
  8. allow to set for a few minutes before serving.

enjoy!

Comments

you may like...

week 46 in pictures

sunday: when dave went in to wake up layla, this is how he found her. face, essentially, smooshed between the bunk bed rail and the mattress, and the covers pulled up over her head. monday: roscoe, chilling on the pooh couch. dakota figured out how to get it to open up to make a nice little doggy bed. roscoe just took advantage when it was vacated. tuesday: my 2 pages of allergy test results . the red ones have to go! wednesday: micah fell asleep during quiet time, snuggling a domino. he had been pretending it was a phone or a video game and insisted on taking it in with him for quiet time. thursday: the missing lug nut . friday: crazy busy day. kids had half days at school because of conferences. I has my workout in the morning, then came home and tidied up because tina was coming over at 11:30 to cut my hair, shane’s hair, and my mom’s hair. I even went to the bus stop w/ part of my hair clipped up because she wasn’t done drying it! then I had to run off to do back-to-back ...

today…

my alarm went off today at 6:10. A full 40 minutes later than usual. Sick days (when you’re not dying and you actually have a pre-arranged sub) are awesome. I went downstairs, poured some coffee with eggnog, made a sandwich for shane, let the dog in, turned on the christmas tree lights, and sat down to catch up on all the excitement that is my FB newsfeed. The highlight is always the “on this day” reel. It’s fun to relive who I used to be. I also read about 2 different friends who have stomach flu going through their houses and made me want to put a plastic haz-mat bubble around the house and not let anyone out. took meds to rid myself of stupid pink eye and sinus infection which are the reason behind my second sick day in a row. after shane left for the bus, I woke up my other kids. micah is still sleeping in his tent. he says he doesn’t want to take it down until the first day of winter. you know, because camping in the winter is not the best idea. layla was not so enthusiastic to ...

an eventful weekend

so it's not quite noon on sunday, and already we're totally wiped out. it's been outrageously hot here (for seattle) and it seems like stuff always happens all at the same time. here's just a short rundown, beginning friday afternoon. 1. went to target to buy new goggles for shane - they were out. 2. while at target, layla fell out of the shopping cart. yes, i know. mom of the year, right here! 3. she was okay. 4. went over to sports world since we had to go order shane's soccer shirt anyway. they didn't have any goggles, but i did get his shirt ordered and got him some black shorts and socks. practice starts tuesday this week. aaaaggghhh!!! 5. when we got back in the car, layla managed to get her fingers smashed in the car door. 6. again, she was okay. 7. went to the ymca for shane's swim test. he borrowed some goggles, and tested at fish level... impressive since he finished in june at minnow . he was stoked about that. 8. went to kat's birt...

week 30 in pictures

sunday:     our neighbors, who live on the lake, invited us for dinner. we had a lovely salmon dinner on the deck on a lovely summer evening. the kids enjoyed their hot tub, we had an amazing fly-by by two hot air balloons, and then we took a little paddle on the lake in one of their canoes. it was a very fun evening. we are blessed with a lot really wonderful neighbors. monday:      looked out the front window in the morning to see this pair feasting on my neighbor’s huckleberry bushes. we watched quietly and took pictures until they made their way across the street and toward my garden… then there was much shouting, window banging, and shane chasing them out of the yard! tuesday:    well, not really. this was actually sunday, but I don’t have a picture for tuesday, but had 2 from sunday. the weather was FINALLY nice enough for shane (and micah and layla) to try out the slip & slide he got for his birthday. it was VERY entertaining to ...

poop phobia

i'm going insane! my daughter is the most neurotic person i have ever met. not to mention aggrivating. we are now on day 3 of this particular round of what i have come to call 'the poop dance'. every 3 days (or so, depending on how long she is physically able to keep it up), we have to deal with layla's absolute insistance not to poop. when i tell people about this, they get all concerned and say that she's constipated and that we should give her miralax, because that's what worked for their kid when they were constipated. well, let me just clear this up. she's not constipated. it's not that she can't poop. it's that she won't. she flat out refuses to poop. eventually it does happen, obviously, but everytime it does, she freaks out, cries, and then apparently makes a mental note of what caused that to happen and then remembers not to do that next time. she used to say, 'i need to poop.' now, you could pay her a million dollars (or m...