It doesn’t get any better than some homemade Mac and Cheese. This dish is wonderful for a busy family and it’s a great way to get a few servings of cheese into your family in a delicious way. Also, it’s easy to add frozen veggies to this recipe to help your kids eat those too! Broccoli and peas are great in homemade Mac and Cheese.
“Farmer Fannie’s Classic Baked Mac and Cheese” from Food Network.
Ingredients:
(8 ounce) package macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded good quality
1/2 cup breadcrumbs, buttered
This is what your ingredient group should look like. Make sure you don’t forget anything!
Turn your oven to 400°F and leave it on while you get everything ready. While starting the sauce, also get the water boiling to cook your elbow noodles in. For my noodles, I picked the whole wheat ones, which is why they’re darker in color. They taste the same and it’s a great way to get more of those whole grains that are healthy for you as well.
To get the sauce stared, begin by melting butter in a large saucepan. After that’s done, add flour mixed with salt and pepper, using a whisk to stir until well blended.
This is what your butter and flour mixture should look like. Make sure to whisk it enough!
Now, pour milk and cream in gradually; stirring constantly. Stirring it constantly is very important because we don’t want this to burn! It will ruin the entire sauce if you burn it. Bring the sauce to its boiling point and boil it for 2 minutes, again stirring constantly. After you boil it for 2 minutes, reduce the heat and cook stirring constantly for another 10 minutes. I know this sound monotonous, but don’t skip these steps. Cooking it for these 12 minutes exactly is very important to getting the right consistency of the sauce.
Keep stirring that sauce. Whatever you do, DO NOT stop stirring.
Next is the fun part! Now, I can’t lie to you. I didn’t add 2 cups of cheese… I added 3 cups of cheese and the next time I make it I just might add 4. What can I say, this girl loves her cheese. Don’t be afraid to add more cheese, more is always better when it comes to cheese! Add the shredded cheddar little by little until the cheese melts. I encourage you to get some great blocks of cheese and shred them, there’s nothing like some great freshly grated cheese.
Don’t forget to add the cheese! And a little more, and a little more and a little more
After you have the cheese melted into the sauce it will be a rich yellow color with the same thick consistency as the plain sauce. When this is done, turn off the flame on the burner. Add macaroni to the saucepan and coat the macaroni with the cheese sauce.
Make sure to coat each noodle is covered completely. If you don’t, you will regret it!
Now, transfer the macaroni to a greased baking pan and sprinkle with the bread crumbs. Bake the pan for 20 minutes at 400 degrees until the top is golden brown. Don’t be afraid to add a few of your own additions to the dish. If your family likes a kick to their food mustard and cayenne pepper are great in this dish as well. Enjoy and make sure to get your three servings of dairy a day!
Yummy! That’s all I can say.
Look at all that dairy goodness! I’m going to keep hoping my carrots for lunch turn into the deliciousness you made, the photos of which are now making me drool. At least I have yogurt for dessert! 🙂
Thanks Emily! I’m so glad you took the time to read my post. I’m not going to lie, the calories and carbs were worth every last bite of deliciousness.