macaroni monday..crock pot mac 'n cheese.. so easy and some of the best mac 'n cheese ever!

 

 

 

 i'm backkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!! did you miss me??? well i missed you.. i haven't posted in a month :( and i apologize for my absence.. we had a 50th b day party for pete this past weekend and planning and executing my plan has been all consuming!! but i am pleased to report the party was a huge success and we had a wonderful time!! check back on wednesday for more about the party!! when planning the party i knew i wanted to do bbq.. and i knew i wanted simple hearty sides that were not much fuss!! so i set out to find a recipe for crock pot mac and cheese.. a lot of them called for eggs and i didn't want to deal with that after reading reviews of cooks having problems with the eggs and milk "curdling".. several recipes called for pre cooking the noodles and i knew i didn't want to do that.. and the other recipes called for canned cheese soup, processed cheese or cream cheese and i just wasn't feeling it.. so i took the best from all three methods of making it and came up with my own!! easy peasy lemon squeezy!! it was so amazing.. i made it for the party, here is a tip.. if your having a party of let's say over 50 people don't try a new recipe that morning ha ha it can be a little daunting.. also if your having 50+ people don't just double it you must triple it.. we ran out!!!! i was sooooooo embarrassed :/.. blah.. but what can you do?? now since i didn't have any left overs and i really wanted to share the recipe with you today i made it again on sunday.. i did it a little different than i did on sunday so i will tell you both ways!! i didn't get any of the mac 'n cheese i made for the party but i was told it was good.. maybe even better than the local bbq joint!!

 

 

you toss everything into the crock pot.. set it on low and cook for 4 hours.. i stirred it about every 1/2 hour!!

 

it comes out creamy and cheesy!! my 2 favorite things in mac 'n cheese..

when i made it saturday i forgot to spray the crock pot with non stick spray and there was a lot of "burnt" melty cheese which got rave reviews.. sunday's batch i remembered to spray the pot with the spray and there was a lot less of the burnt melty cheese so i will leave it up to you if you as to if you use the non stick spray or not :)

crock pot mac 'n cheese

prep time: 5 minutes
cook time:3-4 hours
servings: 8 as a side dish and 4 of our meal

ingredients:

1 package {16 oz.} of elbow macaroni
1/2 cup melted butter {i forgot this step in sunday's version and it was still super yummy}
1 can {12 oz.} evaporated milk
2 cups milks with a 1/2 cup being reserved for the end {saturday's batch i only used 1 cup and found i needed to add milk 2 times during the cooking process}
4 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp. mustard powder
1 tsp. cayenne
salt and pepper

directions:

spray the inside of your crock pot with pam {or don't its up to you} add butter {if using}, evaporated milk, 1.5 cups of the regular milk, 2 cups of the cheese, spices, uncooked noodles then the remaining cheese.  set on low and cook 3-4 hours.. stir every 1/2 hour.. the last hour of cooking add your remaining .5 cup of milk and stir.. if you think you need more add more.. check at 3 hours and take a sample bite and see if your noodles are almost done if not cook another hour :) serve immediately..

enjoy and get cook'n!!