Crazy Easy Mac and Cheese

- Meaghan Penrod

So the other day at the grocery store, they had pork shoulders buy one get one free.  Great deal! So on Monday morning, I put my pork in the slow cooker with plans to have pulled pork for dinner.  Usually while I’m at work, I’ll brainstorm some ideas for what else I’m going to have with whatever meat I thawed out…but on this day I was stumped.  We had just had mashed potatoes for dinner the night before and I didn’t want to do potatoes two days in a row….and rice didn’t seem like a good choice.  Then suddenly it hit me, MAC AND CHEESE.  We had pulled pork and mac and cheese at our wedding, so clearly it’s a household favorite haha

Normally I like to make mac and cheese and then bake it to get it crispy, but I wasn’t going to get home until kinda late and I wanted something that would come together fast! I kinda just threw this mac and cheese together (in 15 minutes, no lie) and it turned out SO GOOD.  So I’ll let you guys in on the recipe…really nothing fancy.  Just simple, easy, and DELICIOUS.  I used earth balance vegan butter and almond milk to cut down on the dairy, but you could totally use any kind of butter or milk that you’d like!

Ingredients

 

  • 1 box of gluten free elbow macaroni
  • 1 Tablespoon of Earth Balance vegan butter (or regular butter)
  • 3/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk
  • 3/4 of an 8oz bag of shredded cheddar cheese (white and yellow)
  • Salt to taste
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Instructions

  1. Cook your gluten free macaroni based on box directions.  Drain and set aside.
  2. Leave your pasta in the strainer so you can just use the same pot you cooked the macaroni in! It’s already hot, so that saves time.
  3. Put the hot pot on a burner that’s set to low/medium and add your 1 tbs of earth balance or butter and 3/4 cup of almond milk.  Mix it together until it’s melted.
  4. Slowly add your shredded cheese.  Dump in a little, stir until it’s melted, and then add some more.  Do this until you’ve used about 3/4 of the 8 oz bag or until the sauce is the consistency that you want.
  5. Add 1/2 tsp of garlic powder and 1 tsp of salt to the sauce and mix.
  6. Dump your pasta back into the sauce, mix it up, and serve!

I told you it was easy! haha