Macaroni and Cheese

Home-made macaroni and cheese, does it get any better than this? This beats the stuff in the box hands down. I actually didn't feel guilty serving this to my kids because it was made completely from scratch. It's not low-fat of course, but it isn't full of processed ingredients I can't pronounce!

This is a Pioneer Woman recipe so you know it's gotta be delicious!

printable recipe

Macaroni and Cheese

serves 6

16 oz box dried macaroni

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

1 egg

2 1/2 cups milk

1 tsp dried mustard

1/2 tsp each of salt, seasoned salt, and black pepper 

1 pound cheese, I used half monterey jack and half cheddar but you can use whatever sounds good to you!

Preheat oven to 350F. Boil macaroni until it is very al dente (still firm but chewable), about 6 minutes. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium low heat.

Add flour and whisk for 5 minutes, do not let burn!

Add milk and mustard and continue whisking for another 5 minutes, mixture will thicken to gravy consistency. I had to cook it a little longer and turn the heat up to medium to get this to happen, just depends on your stove.

Reduce heat to low. Whisk an egg in a separate bowl. Add 1/4 cup of milk mixture slowly to the egg, whisking continually. 




This is called tempering and will bring the temp of the egg up gradually so you don't have chunks of scrambled egg when you add it to your sauce. (This happened the one time I tried to make alfredo from scratch, disgusting).

Add egg to milk mixture, whisking constantly until well-blended. Stir in salt, seasoned salt, and pepper. Add more to taste, if desired.

Stir in all but about 1/2 cup of the cheese. I was in a hurry and accidentally dumped it all in, oops. Stir it all together until blended and cheese is melted.

Stir in the cooked macaroni. Pour into a buttered casserole dish, 2 quart or 9x13 and top with remaining cheese (assuming you aren't an airhead like me). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

I don't have a picture of the finished product in the baking dish because Nathan high-jacked my camera. He took this picture.

And this one. My husband was trying to entertain Hannah, who was getting fussy and hungry.

And this one. I have no idea what I am doing here.

Eventually we dished up the food. It was delicious.

I just happened to have an avocado so I sliced it up. It was so good eaten with the macaroni and cheese. Who would have thought?

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 8.