photo credit: fred ross lord
One of my family’s favorite, frugal, put-your-comfy-clothes-on meals is Baked Macaroni and Cheese. I always keep the ingredients in the house as a stand-by meal when we just have ‘one of those days.’ It’s nice to have a few quick and frugal recipes in your collection that can easily be made out of things you would ordinarily have in the house. Here’s my recipe. It’s very likely similar to the one you may use.
Baked Macaroni and Cheese
2-1/4 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1/4 cup butter
salt
pepper
1/4 tsp. worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. spicy/deli mustard (if you don’t have it, yellow is fine too)
1/4 cup flour
2 cups low-fat milk
4 oz. monterey jack cheese, cubed or shredded
4 oz. low-fat sharp cheddar cheese, cubed or shredded
Cooked ham or bacon, cubed or crumbled
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook macaroni. While it’s cooking, melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once melted add salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce and mustard, then mix. Mix in flour and increase heat to high. Add milk and stir constantly (use a heat-resistant rubber spatula). The sauce will get very thick. As soon as it begins to bubble remove it from the heat and add the cheese. Stir until the cheese melts. Pour cooked macaroni into an 8×8 pan and add ham/bacon and cheese sauce, mix. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until it’s bubbly and starts to crisp the top. A couple notes: don’t doubt me on the mustard … just do it. I either buy a ham steak, when they are on sale, or I use leftover bacon, both are good.
I serve this with a veggie … and voila, complete, yummy meal.
What’s your family’s cheap and easy meal?
Why I do what I do ~ because today my daughter and I played outside in one of the year’s first snows, then came inside to have hot chocolate with marshmallows, a new treat for her. A happy mommy moment for me.
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