Monday Night Recipes: Markie’s Baked Mac & Cheese
When I’m running low on groceries (and let’s face it, time and patience), I often make one of my husband Steve’s favourite meals and that is a my baked mac and cheese!
Why do I find this so easy and affordable to make? Well let me list the reasons why for you;
Photo by Vicki Bartel Photography
It’s easy to make, just prep the ingredients in advance of starting your cooking to ensure that the cooking process is a breeze.
You can use a ton of different ingredients in it and customize it in anyway you want. I sometimes will throw leftover chicken or ham into it and if I have veggie scraps I want to use up I will throw those in too (hello cheesy broccoli delicious-ness)
I use all of my cheese “bits” meaning you know that block of cheddar cheese that’s almost on it’s way out/growing mold? I grate that up. I save parmesan rinds and throw those in to boost the flavour and I’ve used leftover brie, spiced gouda, pizza mozzarella, smoked cheddar, cream cheese, boursin, whatever you have that you want to use up generally fits right in.
Typically you have all ingredients on hand, I almost always have some sort of pasta noodles, a can of diced tomato, and a can of cream of mushroom (or chicken or brocolli soup). Milk or milk substitutes I normally have as well and I will grind up croutons or toast up old baguette (or english muffins) and pulse up fine to make bread crumbs.
It can be eaten and re-heated which makes it perfect as a main dish, a side-dish, a leftover, or even prepped for lunches.
It’s relatively in-expensive to make and you can stretch it quite far with larger families or larger crowds.
Have I convinced you yet that it should be a staple you make in between grocery trips yet? I can keep going with more reasons if not.
Anyways, let’s get to the ingredients list and instructions on how to make this delectable dish!
So the basic ingredients are:
2 cups of uncooked noodles (I like Rotini because the cheesy sauce gets in every nook and cranny and I sometimes make this with gluten-free noodles)
1 small can of diced tomato - +/-546ml (depending on how much tomato you like, I’ve also used half a can and frozen the other half for next time in a freezer safe bag or container)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup - +/-284ml (Campbell’s or other brands, and if you don’t like mushroom you can sub for cream of chicken or cream of broccoli)
1 cup of milk (or non-dairy milk or heavy cream - whatever you have, the heavier the milk/cream the creamier it will be).
2-3 cups of grated cheese (whatever cheese you decide and you will use 1 to 1-1/2 cups in the sauce and save 1 to 1-1/2 cups for the top when you bake it)
2 tbsp of butter (you could use olive oil too or margarine but I like butter so I use that typically).
1 cooking onion (omit if you don’t like)
2-4 cloves of garlic (I overload on the garlic but that’s just me)
Italian herbs or parsley (or whatever herbs you like to use, I use dried Italian herbs and parsley but you could use fresh)
1/4 cup of bread crumbs (or more if you like that)
Salt + Pepper to taste
Things I’ve added to it that amped up the dish:
Meat (I’ve put chicken, shrimp, ham, pemale bacon or regular bacon)
Veggies (broccoli, mushrooms, chopped carrots, celery, peppers, and the list goes on)
Nutritional yeast (I love it and the nutty flavour it adds to the meal plus I will take the extra nutritional value it brings to this dish)
Parmesan rinds (adds extra flavour to the sauce and I usually remove them before baking or eating)
Pesto (I’ve added this in or drizzled on top for extra flavour)
Cream cheese or boursin (as mentioned above, I throw whatever leftovers I have in there and this makes the dish just a touch more scrumptious)
This recipe makes one heaping casserole dish (9x12) or a large dutch oven and I also like to make them in bake-able ramekins/individual bowls too if I’m feeling fancy (like photo below). I would say it feeds about 6 people (with maybe a side-dish).
When eating this meal, I typically serve this on it’s own (if there are a good amount of veggies in it) and if not, I serve it with steamed veggies on the side or a light salad.
I like to be healthy and include 1-2 servings of veggies with my dinner but that’s totally just me and optional.
To prepare:
Chop up your onion, mince your garlic cloves, and any other veggies you’re adding into it in small pieces (you want small pieces so it incorporates into almost every bite). Put these ingredients aside in a small bowl.
Prepare your meat ingredients if adding this in. If the meat is cooked, I cube it up typically into small bite size pieces. If it’s not cooked, I cook it up and let it cool slightly. Put this aside in a bowl or on a plate.
Grate your cheese (trust me it’s way easier to have this all grated beforehand). I grate it onto aluminum foil into piles based on types so I can evenly distribute down the road.
Take out a medium-sized pot for boiling water to cook your pasta in. I usually say a medium sized pot is more than enough (unless you’re making a double batch) and I start the water on high heat just after prepping my vegetables.
Open all your canned items and measure out your milk or milk substitute so it’s all ready to go when needed.
I like to use my dutch oven for this next part but you could also use a larger pot - Add your butter to the dutch oven/pot and start melting it on medium heat. Once melted I add in my onions garlic and other veggies to saute them for about 5 minutes (you want them softened but not mushy).
Once the veggies are done, I add in my can of soup, my milk ingredients to that same dutch oven/pot and start combining them with a whisk.
At this point in the recipe, you should preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
Once combined the vegetables, soup, and milk mixture starts to simmer, I add in a cup of grated cheese (or more if you like more cheese) and stir until combined. This is the same step in which I add in my nutritional yeast, parmesan rinds, herbs and such. I turn the heat down to a LOW simmer and stir often until my noodles are done cooking.
When the pasta noodles are cooked, strain the pasta till the water is out. Once it’s strained I toss it into the cheese sauce mixture by gently stirring it. I then stir in my meat (if I have any) and I gently stir in my diced tomatoes.
Then I flatten it out with a spoon into a casserole dish (or I just flatten it out in that same dutch oven) and I remove the parmesan rinds. I sprinkle with the remaining cheese and then sprinkle with a bit of bread crumb and parsley.
Slide it into the oven and bake for about 25-35 mins (you want it to be bubbling around the edges)
Once it’s bubbling, remove from the oven and let it sit for about 5 mins to cool and then serve.
And don’t forget to enjoy!
Since I personally HATE long food blog posts (cause like just get to the point am I right?) I’m going to end it here and say if you love this recipe let me know and if you want a taste-test on this, maybe hit me up for that hahaha!
THE END.
Oh wait, one more thing; we have more exciting blog posts to come, so stay tuned!
Markie.