Oh no, Addy couldn’t find the Crock-pot Mac and Cheese recipe – Easy Mac and Cheese
I left at 9:30 a.m to drive to Norwich University in order to bring a son home for the weekend. He wanted to pick up some warmer clothes, he wanted some home cooking, and he wanted to do some laundry. I wasn’t going to say no.
When we stopped for lunch on the way back I texted my daughter Addy.
“For dinner, start the crock-pot mac and cheese and keep it on low for four hours.”
The plan was to have a hearty mac and cheese with salad for dinner.
When I got home at about 4:30, Addy greeted me at the door, “I couldn’t find the recipe” she told me.
Okay, I turned to one of every mom’s mantras – “Keep Calm and Cook On.”
I went into the kitchen and took stock of what we had and thought why couldn’t I just make the mac and cheese in a fry pan?
I boiled up a box of elbow noodles.
And then in a large deep fry pan, on low heat, I added the pasta along with:
- 1 can of evaporated milk
- 1 can of cheddar cheese soup
- 2 Heaping Tablespoons of Green Mountain Mustard – Deli Dirt Everything Bagel mustard
- 2 cups of shredded very sharp cheese
I stirred everything and let it sit covered in the pan on low for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally)
This recipe was faster (it took the same amount of time it would take to make Shells and Beef – one of our family’s go-to winter dishes) and it turned out to be a less heavy mac and cheese (my original recipe called for butter and 2 more cups of cheese.) Plus the Deli Dirt Mustard added a surprisingly adult not-at-all-sweet tang with the added bonus of an assortment of beautiful seeds throughout the dish. (feel free to add more to taste, next time I will based on the kids’ feedback.)
There were no leftovers.
Listen, I know there is nothing like a good crock-pot mac and cheese recipe (especially when you are contributing to a pot luck) but this one is going to go into the favorites file because not only was it tasty and less dense, but also because it saved the day.
Note: I am not being compensated by Green Mountain Mustard, they sent me two jars of their mustard to try and I intend to take full advantage of that – I’ll be posting recipes until the jars are empty.
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
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