Single Serve Mac & Cheese

Macaroni & Cheese.  It's one of my bigger non-processed food fails.  Not that I can't make good homemade mac & cheese, at least by adult standards, but my children have different standards apparently and I have been consistently shut down in lieu of the "blue box."  Score one for Kraft.

Often times only one of the three want Mac & Cheese though and if there's one thing I hate more then processed cheese powder it's wasting food.  Yes, the logical portion of my brain reminds me it's only $.50 worth of food, but it's still a full serving or sometimes two.  I'm pretty good at mixing in a bit of milk to regain the freshly cooked texture (and avoiding the howls about leftovers) but I would rather just cook what will be eaten and not have it sitting in the frig for the better part of the week only to be thrown out on Saturday anyhow.

So I started pre-dividing each box in half for single (ish) size portions.  For my kids come to a regular bowl and enough for a small second, or a full serving for the 10 year old. 

 

I'm blogging this as much as a reference for myself as anything, although there's clearly a market for single servings since Kraft charges a hefty price per serving for those.

Word to the wise, write the additional ingredient instructions on your baggie first!  

"Add 2 Tbls butter and 1/8 cup milk"

In each of two plastic bags separate:

3/4 cup macaroni

In separate containers divide

2 Tbls powdered cheese

The ingredients will come in just a hair less then these amounts, so under full not over full.  It goes without saying you really should know how to make mac and cheese since there are no instructions here, but seriously my 10 year old does it completely on his own (score one for Mom!) so it's not rocket science.

Anyhow, if you've found yourself tossing a pan full of Mac and Cheese, or buying the single serves at a buck a pop, you might find this helpful.