Anonymous wrote:my daughter loves the frozen trader joe's one. I also make a homemade one. I usually do a full box of the calcium enriched mac instead of 8 oz and bump up the ingredients somewhat proportionally but definitely do not double the VERY generous amount of cheese in this. Skip the breadcrumbs if your kids don't like:

8 oz elbow mac
3 T butter
3 T flour
3/4 t salt
1/8 t pepper
dash nutmeg
2 C. milk
3 C. grated cheddar cheese
1/4 t dry mustard
1/2 C. breadcrumbs (or less)
2 t soft butter (or less)

boil mac until tender, not done
melt butter add flour, stir until yellow
add seasonings
add milk, stir, use wisk
add cheese and melt
add mac.
grease pan and add mixture
top with breadcrumbs and dot butter
Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes

I recently made homemade Mac and cheese for the first time, it was very similar to this. I added a touch of chili powder and cayenne pepper as well. I also crumbled up some of those frenchs fried onions and mixed with the breadcrumbs for the crust. I loved it!

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My kids will accept Annie's but do not like Kraft. They love restaurant mac and cheese, so I would like to make something similar for Thanksgiving.

OP, I posted the link to the All Recipes mac n cheese.

When I am in a rush and want to put together a simple mac n cheese for my kids, here is what I do:

Cook and drain pasta of choice (use salted water). Put hot pasta back into the pot.

Stir into hot pasta 2 tbsp butter until melted. Tear apart 5-6 (or more) slices of Kraft American Cheese and stir into pasta until melted. Stir in about 1/2 cup (or more) of Sargento finely shredded Mexican cheese until melted. Pour in about 1/4 cup whole milk and stir until creamy. Enjoy.

My family always made this one. It does contain dry mustard, but you can't really taste it. The cheese sauce can be a little tricky, generally you cook it as long as it takes to cook the pasta then slowly add the cheese. I use colby jack when I make it, but you can use any kind.

This is for 8 oz of pasta. I typically use elbows.

For the sauce:
2 tbls butter
2 tbls flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
2.5 cups milk
1.5 cups shredded cheese

Melt butter and remove from heat. Add flour, salt, and dry mustard and stir until smooth. Add milk and return to heat. Cook until it thickens and is smooth (it more becomes less opaque... this is the tricky part. Generally once the pasta is done cooking, the sauce is done).

Add cheese slowly and stir until it is melted.

Pour over cooked pasta in a casserole dish. Top with 1/2 cup of cheese, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, and a sprinkle of paprika.

Bake on 275 for 20-25 mins (until brown and bubbly).

I try about once a week to recreate Cafe Deluxe's mac and cheese. It is stovetop, and i use heavy cream and gruyere or whatever is left in the cheese drawer.

my daughter loves the frozen trader joe's one. I also make a homemade one. I usually do a full box of the calcium enriched mac instead of 8 oz and bump up the ingredients somewhat proportionally but definitely do not double the VERY generous amount of cheese in this. Skip the breadcrumbs if your kids don't like:

8 oz elbow mac
3 T butter
3 T flour
3/4 t salt
1/8 t pepper
dash nutmeg
2 C. milk
3 C. grated cheddar cheese
1/4 t dry mustard
1/2 C. breadcrumbs (or less)
2 t soft butter (or less)

boil mac until tender, not done
melt butter add flour, stir until yellow
add seasonings
add milk, stir, use wisk
add cheese and melt
add mac.
grease pan and add mixture
top with breadcrumbs and dot butter
Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes

OP here. My kids will accept Annie's but do not like Kraft. They love restaurant mac and cheese, so I would like to make something similar for Thanksgiving.

Kraft.

For the kids - box mac & cheese with cut up chicken and frozen veggies added.
For the grown ups - add sriracha sauce and cilantro. Yum!

sorry- 5:36 again. It isn't really bechamel because they don't use nutmeg. I haven't had enough coffee yet and should probably stop typing

Noodles and Co. just uses a basic bechamel and some cheddar. Nothing fancy and it takes about 5 minutes to make (not including pasta cooking time)

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I make it - no mustard (I've never heard of that). My kids beg for this, but they've never had it from a box, so who knows. Sort of writing this by memory.

1. Melt 4 TBSP butter, mix in 4 TBSP flour until bubbly.
2. When thickened, add 2 cups whole milk.
3. Bring just to a boil, reduce, cook for a minute or so until it's nice and thick
4. Add some shredded sharp cheddar (8 oz?)
5. Mix into a box of cooked whole wheat shells
6. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top
7. Bake at 350 until browned a bit

This is similar to this awesome recipe -- http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/05/marthas-macaroni-and-cheese/

Roux based, then add cheese. This looks complicated but once you make it a couple of times it can be streamlined. It's delish.

Anonymous wrote:Whitlows on Wilson has AMAZING Mac and cheese.

I do a roux of about 4tbsp butter/4 tbsp flour. 2 cups milk. Salt and pepper. A block of shredded white cheddar, a few tbsps of cream cheese, and a few slices of fontina shredded up. Put in a greased baking dish, too with sliced white cheddar and fontina and grated parm and cover with Italian breadcrumbs. Brown.

I'm 13:02 - our recipes are the same except you use different kinds of cheese. I wonder where we got it from. My mom used to make it like that so I just kept doing it that way myself.

OP, I don't have a recipe, sorry, but I wanted to suggest that you try velveta (gross, I know...) or cooked and frozen like marie callender b/c imo those are more like restaurant mac and cheese than a box of kraft.

My kid's favorite mac and cheese is Noodles and Company's. Does anyone have a recipe that tastes like their Mac n cheese?

Whitlows on Wilson has AMAZING Mac and cheese.

I do a roux of about 4tbsp butter/4 tbsp flour. 2 cups milk. Salt and pepper. A block of shredded white cheddar, a few tbsps of cream cheese, and a few slices of fontina shredded up. Put in a greased baking dish, too with sliced white cheddar and fontina and grated parm and cover with Italian breadcrumbs. Brown.