# What can you make from a boxed Mac & cheese?



## Backyardcreek (Aug 24, 2014)

Likely I went overboard but could not pass this deal up. Boxed Mac & cheese was 0.50 ea. (lg box 4 servings, cheese is not the dried kind.) I bought 4 cases (14 boxes in a case) of them. Note: in my area that is a good deal. So now I'm looking for at least 24 (or more) different types of recipes that I can make 'dinner in a jar' type meals these. 
Any ideas are appreciated. 
Btw big fan of Chef Tess / honeyville so anything along that line is really wonderful


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## BlackFeather (Jun 17, 2014)

Add hamburg, and a vegetable like string beans or broccoli, maybe a spice (kind of like hamburg helper) or add tomato sauce and meat like beef or chicken maybe some green pepper (kind of goulash), add bread crumbs, maybe sour cream and eggs bake in oven till set (the more traditional kind of mac and cheese,) make cheesy cream of broccoli soup and add the cooked pasta when done. That's just off the top of my head, I'm thinking something with potatoes maybe scalloped potatoes and cheesy pasta together. Casserole with vegetables, meat and cheese and pasta and maybe some gravy topped with bread crumbs or potato chip crumbs, or maybe stove top stuffing. Beef vegetable soup with pasta and cheese added near end of cooking. That is just some quick thoughts If you get on all recipes.com you probably could find more, after all who doesn't like cheese or pasta in a dish.

http://allrecipes.com/


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## hawgsquatch (May 11, 2014)

Add tuna and peas, top with cracker crumbs spray with Pam, bake until browned

Add a cheap can of salsa or rotel and some shredded chicken. 

Mix with chili for chili mac

Mix with a bit of blue cheese and hamburger, spray muffin tins with pam, put in tins with a spay of pam and a popsicle stick bake until you have cheeseburger macaroni on a stick.

Mix with cream cheese and some shredded chicken, cook in sprayed muffin tins top with scallions and Franks red hot sauce for Buffalo chicken muffin thingys.


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## my3boys (Jan 18, 2011)

My boys always liked it when I cut up ham or hot dogs in chunks, saute them until browned, and added into the mac and cheese. I usually baked mine afterwards too. With shredded cheddar cheese on top of course :grin:

I mostly make my mac and cheese from scratch, but boxed mix is fine too.


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## fixitguy (Nov 2, 2010)

Household favorite dishes.

Mac N cheese, hamburger and a can of corn. EZ hotdish

Spam (chopped up) and Mac N cheese


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## northergardener (Dec 12, 2007)

mac and cheese pizza

make mac and cheese as directed on box. Add an egg to the mac and cheese and stir well.
Pour into greased 9x13 pan, bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.
Pull out of oven, put on top pizza sauce, meat and toppings, cheese, put back in oven for 10 minutes.


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## snoozy (May 10, 2002)

Am I the only person who thinks that boxed macaroni and cheese is an abomination? I have never actually made it. When I was 10 years old and my mother was at university getting her PhD, she would not get home until 6pm, so I would make macaroni and cheese from scratch :stirpot:, using the recipe in Joy of Cooking for baked mac. So easy even a 10 year old could do it. 

So call me a snob, but I would make landfill out of it. (Powdered cheese?? :facepalm: )


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## copperhead46 (Jan 25, 2008)

I can remember many days when I would have loved to have a box of mac n cheese to feed my kids, and if I had some hot dogs or spam to go in it, we were happy campers.


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## hawgsquatch (May 11, 2014)

snoozy said:


> Am I the only person who thinks that boxed macaroni and cheese is an abomination? I have never actually made it. When I was 10 years old and my mother was at university getting her PhD, she would not get home until 6pm, so I would make macaroni and cheese from scratch :stirpot:, using the recipe in Joy of Cooking for baked mac. So easy even a 10 year old could do it.
> 
> So call me a snob, but I would make landfill out of it. (Powdered cheese?? :facepalm: )


I am a heretic. As a foodie I am supposed to disdain such day-glow orange processed food like substances. I don't. I love the stuff so much that in my survival storage food I have an 8lb. bag of Kraft cheese dust so I can make my favorite comfort food after the zombie apocalypse. You can get the cheese essence on Amazon.


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## MCJam (Dec 27, 2012)

I'll have to agree with snoozy! Make the real stuff. Eat real food. Food should not be manufactured, it should be grown and cooked or processed. It has no business in a factory!


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## CJ (May 10, 2002)

You can make some doctor wealthy. Otherwise, not much. Bleh.


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## frugalbunny (Jul 8, 2006)

I know this is an old thread, but really, the OP asked for ideas not opinions or snide comments. We are not all alike in what we eat. and because you do not agree with their choice of foods they buy, does not make you a superior person.


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## CJ (May 10, 2002)

You are correct. The OP asked for suggestions. I should have worded that differently. My suggestion should have said not to eat it period, because there is no nutrition in food like that.

It wasn't meant to be snide, just an honest assessment. I don't consider myself superior because I don't eat boxed foods. I'm happy that I learned young how bad they were for my health and quit.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

snoozy said:


> Am I the only person who thinks that boxed macaroni and cheese is an abomination?


Nope, I am the same way when it comes to boxed mac and cheese. I dont have any problem with the pasta.... but that "cheeselike product" that comes with it is a bit different. Its just nasty!


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

I confess that I love the boxed mac and cheese once in a (great) while. I like it with no milk added but only the butter. Try it like this - your kids might like it. It seems cheesier. 

For as much as you have, I think I would be making and serving smaller portions along side a good fresh salad, veggies, and some broiled chicken or fish. In this way you will still eat up your mac n cheese and get nutrition as well.

Oops, I see this is an old thread - hope that mac n cheese is gone by now!


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

To all of you naysayers dissing the powdered cheese -- read the OP -- " cheese is *not *the dried kind" (emphasis mine). 

I used to like the boxed mac and cheese occasionally mixed with ham, sautÃ©ed onions and green peppers. It made a quick to fix main dish.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

Belfrybat said:


> To all of you naysayers dissing the powdered cheese -- read the OP -- " cheese is *not *the dried kind" (emphasis mine).
> 
> I used to like the boxed mac and cheese occasionally mixed with ham, sautÃ©ed onions and green peppers. It made a quick to fix main dish.


Heck, I am not dissing the cheesy powder - that is what makes it so special. No doubt a close relative to "cheese" of cheese puffs - another tasty item that I very much avoid cause I end eating the whole bag. I think these items could also be used to dye your white t-shirts orange in an emergency situation where you needed a bright orange t-shirt right now - another plus. 

But how do you have a box of mac and cheese that uses real cheese? If this is unrefrigerated, it might be even as scary as the traditional boxed M&C. Which of course might make it ever so tasty.


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## snoozy (May 10, 2002)

Macaroni and cheese is not meant to be packaged up in a single box with endless shelf life. You have your pasta in a bag in your pantry. You have your cheese in the fridge where it belongs. You add egg and milk, also from your fridge. How hard is that?


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## chickenmommy (Aug 24, 2004)

snoozy said:


> Macaroni and cheese is not meant to be packaged up in a single box with endless shelf life. You have your pasta in a bag in your pantry. You have your cheese in the fridge where it belongs. You add egg and milk, also from your fridge. How hard is that?


Sometimes you want that cheese powder that's in that Mac n cheese to put on your freshly popped corn. Where else will you get that lovely chemical cheese flavor? And sometimes you have a whiney child at your house that will only eat box Mac n cheese so you whip it up to shut it up. And sometimes you don't have cheese in the fridge but have emergency Mac n cheese to go with those super healthy hot dogs you're about to warm up for lunch. You have your standards, others have theirs. Neither is wrong.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Anybody put corn flakes on the top, extra cheese and bake it? Some crumbled bacon mixed in is good. We eat swisschard with our mac and cheese, dice some onion fine, good glob of butter, (bacon grease and bacon crumbs, even better) cooked until translucent, add washed swisschard and cook until well wilted. A little butter and some Mrs. Dash sprinkled on top (or more crumbled bacon). Dinner is served....James


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

I even make most of my pasta from scratch these days. It does not replace that craving you have sometimes for the feelings and taste of childhood of boxed macaroni and cheese. I could scoff at those that use pre made pasta, from scratch is not hard to make at all.


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## BlackFeather (Jun 17, 2014)

After reading the debate on mac and cheese I'll be a heretic, We had boxed mac and cheese tonight, went to the doctor and you know how long it takes with some doctors, by the time we got home I needed something quick for dinner. A box of mac and cheese (the gooey in the metal envelope kind) found some left over refried beans (heated in the microzapper), and cooked up some hamburger I had in the fridge and added taco seasoning to it. Since my one daughter doesn't like taco I left everything separate and we who liked taco just layered one on top of the other. With everything in separate bowls she could pick and choose what she wanted. You could mix it all together into a casserole. We sprinkled extra hot sauce on it, but you could use taco sauce or just extra taco seasoning depending on what you have. Taco mac and cheese tasted good and the refried beans made it filling. Along side this we ate some left over vegetables we had in the fridge.

Aside from mac and cheese, those envelopes of noodles and powdered sauce you can buy for 99 cents (Knorr's I think is the name), advertised as a side dish, I use them frequently in the summer for supper. I add fresh cooked vegetables to it and some type of meat, it makes a quick skillet dinner when I've been working outside all day, and it is just right to feed the four of us. I'm not proud, I'll use a packaged noodle with powdered cheese sauce when I'm busy.


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## TerriLynn (Oct 10, 2009)

We eat both, homemade and boxed. I have been known to stir leftover boxed mac and cheese into leftover vegetable beef soup, or a bowl of chili.

We also have used the boxed to make a quick casserole, just add a can of cream of chicken soup, some left over meat or cut up hot dogs or smokie links, and a cooked veggie and you have a meal.

Boxed mac and cheese used to be a cheap meal, but I don't think it is anymore. Just like everything else the price has gone up and for us its just cheaper to make cook pasta and sauce from scratch. I do still keep it in the house.....its something the boys can make on their own if they are in a pinch for lunch, and they seem to like it.


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## summerdaze (Jun 11, 2009)

Being a single parent to 3 ravenous boys, we ate a LOT of hotdogs and mac and cheese. (They were about 4 for 1.00 though, and hotdogs have always been cheap) 
We ate so much boxed mac and cheese, that one day when I whipped up some on my own, my oldest asked "What's wrong with this mac and cheese? The Cheese tastes funny!" I realized with a sigh, that the poor kids had eaten the boxed stuff for SO long, that the real stuff tasted weird to them!

Now I have 4 grandsons (and DIL) living with me, and yes, I still buy it! Was thinking about making a Johnny Marzetti type meal tomorrow with it. I like to cook for them, but sometimes, this kind of stuff DOES come in handy.


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## 358156hp (Jan 19, 2015)

Try mixing some chunks of ham, and mixed vegetables in it, and experiment with using a half can (or more) of beer as well. The result is a beer-cheese soup that always seems to go over well for me.


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## sniper69 (Sep 23, 2007)

If you really want to do something different with macaroni and cheese how about macaroni and cheese pizza? This pic of the recipe is from an ad from 1983.


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## frogmammy (Dec 8, 2004)

There's a bar down in Matlacha, Florida that serves deep fried mac & cheese....GOOD stuff! Probably be good to dip in maple syrup!

Seriously, some OTHER place, somewhere likely has the deep fried mac & cheese...but I've been looking for three YEARS and haven't found them! Yet!

Mon


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## whistech (Sep 11, 2014)

Frogmammy, if you have a Macaroni Grill in your area they serve deep fried macaroni and cheese balls a an appitizer.


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