Try It Sunday: Macaroni & Cheese

When it comes to food, I am literally the pickiest eater. People cook to accommodate children, but I cook to accommodate myself. Often times I'll cook something which everyone else eats and I'm sitting there with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because I may be 33 but I am a child.

But one thing I absolutely love is macaroni & cheese. I have tried lots of different versions, but this is one of my favorites. It's absolutely creamy and you can literally feel your thighs get larger but who cares. This recipe is originally from this blog if you want to see nicer pictures than mine.

Macaroni & Cheese
3 cups of elbow mac
6 tbsp flour
6 tbsp butter
3 cups of milk
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar
1 pound of Velveeta, cubed
2/3 cup of sour cream (I used a 1/3 cup because Matt ate the rest. Jerk.)
1 1/3 cup of small curd cottage cheese
3 cups of cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cups of mozzarella cheese, shredded

It's an easy recipe that just requires a LOT of stirring. First, you make a roux with your butter and flour. Just be careful you don't burn your flour because I've done that before and it's gross. After that's done, add your milk. You HAVE to stir it until it's like a thick gravy. Mine didn't get as thick as I thought it was going to, and it turned out fine. Then add your salt, sugar, and Velveeta.

*pro tip: cube your Velveeta small, otherwise that crap takes forever to melt.

After that's melted, put the cottage cheese and sour cream in, and stir until melted.

 It looks like this and your elbow will hurt.

Then you have to get the largest bowl you own. Put your cooked macaroni in the bowl, pour the cheese mixture in, and then put your shredded cheese in. Stir like crazy.

*pro tip: only cook your noodles until they are half done, otherwise they get mushy in the oven. Blech.

You now have to pour it into a 9x13 pan you've greased. I will say that it came to the VERY TIPPY TOP of my pan, so I had to put that onto a cookie sheet to bake. It also still bubbled over so thank goodness I did that.

If you want to put a crunchy top, you can smash up some crackers and mix with melted butter and sprinkle on. I actually forgot to do that and it was fine. Bake at 350 for about an hour.

Oh, you wanted a finished picture of the dish? Well, next time I'll totally do that. We literally ate this entire pan in one dinner. Except for Olivia because she is weird and refuses to eat anything with melted cheese. Cripes, even I eat melted cheese.

This comes out incredibly creamy. I think it tastes like a better version of those little frozen macaroni & cheese pot pies you get for cheap at the grocery store. Matt says that's dumb, but whatever. I lived off those in college so that basically makes me an expert.

If YOU have a favorite recipe, join us at the link party! I'll be playing along each Sunday. Stay tuned for a really great post on Tuesday, July 21 about how to save big on your grocery bill!