Recipe – Mac and Cheese Muffins

The Happy Hubby couldn’t be happier than when he has a giant plate of homemade Mac and Cheese in front of him.

Usually we just use the recipe from the back of the Mueller’s Pasta box (see it HERE), but I was feeling the urge to mix it up a bit.

Plus, everything looks cuter as a muffin, right? 🙂

Mac and Cheese Muffins

Ingredients:8 oz. pkg. elbow macaroni, cooked

1 tsp. olive oil

1 1/2 cups milk

2 T. cornstarch

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste (not shown in pic)

2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (I am all about the packaged pre-shredded cheeses, but for homemade Mac and Cheese, there’s really nothing better than the fresh stuff.)

1/2 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs

Directions:

Step 1 – Toss cooked macaroni with olive oil and set aside.Step 2 – In a medium saucepan, whisk milk and cornstarch until blended.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.Step 3 – Stir in mustard, salt and pepper.

Step 4 – Reduce heat and simmer until thickened, stirring frequently.Step 5 – Add cheese and stir until melted. Step 6 – Fold in the macaroni (We transferred everything to a nice, big bowl when the noodles were added.  Plus, the Happy Buddy liked stirring all that cheesy goodness!).Step 7 – Grease 12 muffin cups with butter (a great step for your Happy Buddy to do!  Our Happy Buddy liked ‘painting’ the muffin cups).Step 8 – Coat with bread crumbs and shake off excess.Step 8 – Spoon in macaroni mixture.

Step 9 – Bake at 350 degrees for 15-25 minutes, until golden.

Step 10 – Let your muffins cool for a long time so that they actually look like muffins when you take them out and not one giant, hot, cheesy glob (as we learned the hard way!). 🙂ENJOY!

What a great snack to have on hand when your Happy Buddies go back to school!

Just pop into the microwave when you see them hopping off the school bus.

Happy Mac and Cheese Muffin-ing! 🙂