Mac n Cheese Special

Mac n Cheese Special
Home Cooking



This week, when I'm busy bludging around and trying to avoid study, I usually spend the afternoon having a nap. The downside is that by the time I'm actually supposed to be asleep, the brain's not tired anymore so I end up staying awake till past twelve.



Around 10pm, I start getting all kinds of food cravings. I call it the night time munchies. I worked out that even if I'm not physically hungry (as in, even after I eat something), I still want to eat probably just out of boredom. Once I start planning all the wonderful things I'm going to eat the next day, the anticipation makes it even harder to sleep. I must have some kind of crazy food-lover's insomnia.



Usually, there's not much to do late at night so I always end up talking to my friend on MSN about food and restaurants. He gave me a recipe recommendation for a macaroni and cheese 'but not like the usual'.

I LOVE recipe recommendations (so long as it's not something impossibly hard) and when people send me/tell me something they know I'll love, I'll totally commit to it.



Case in point: this recipe had a few brand-specifications, namely Kraft processed cheddar cheese (it's stored on the shelves and not in the fridges) and Heinz canned tomato soup (as in, NOT Andy Warhol which is apparently Campbell... but the other red can).

I actually went out to buy these ingredients especially, plus bacon, a capsicum and an avocado, and then came home to find that I didn't actually have pasta. Argh. So annoying. After toying with the idea of making my own pasta (and realizing there's no way I can make the macaroni shapes), I had no choice but to make a second trip to the shops.

Mac n Cheese
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

• 100g dried macaroni pasta (approx 1 cup)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• approx 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup (approx 50g) Kraft processed cheddar cheese (you can use normal cheddar cheese, grated)
• 2 tbsp Heinz canned condensed tomato soup (I suppose you could use other brands or even tomato paste?)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 slices of bacon (I use the mid-section only i.e. no fatty bits), diced
• 1/2 capsicum, diced (I was told to use green but I rebelled and bought red)
• 1/2 brown onion, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 ripe avocado

Procedure:

1. Cook the pasta to the instructions on the back of the packet. Drain and set aside.
2. In a small, non-stick saucepan, melt the butter on high and add the flour. Mix with a wooden spoon till it forms a dough. Turn down the heat to low.3. Gradually add the milk, bit by bit, stirring to incorporate until it turns from dough-consistency into a thick sauce.4. Break up the cheese into smallish pieces and drop it into the sauce. Stir so that it melts in.5. Add the tomato soup and stir to incorporate. Season to taste.6. In a small frying pan, heat up the olive oil on high and brown the onion, bacon and capsicum. It shouldn't take very long.7. Add the onion, bacon, capsicum and cooked macaroni into the sauce and mix.8. At this stage, you can serve it as is or spoon it into a dish with some extra cheese on top and grill at 200 degrees Celsius until the cheese on top becomes golden and bubbling.

Served as is

9. Serve the mac n cheese hot with some avocado (sounds weird but it actually works really awesome).

This turned out so yum I was caught up between taking photos for this blog or just forgoing that so I could sit in front of the TV and pig out to my heart's content. I ended up resisting so I could get a few shots (things I do for you guys) but yeh... really easy recipe to follow and it was awesome to eat. The flavors are nice and mild, very creamy and cheesy with nice meat and vegetable pieces interspersed throughout.

Great supply of hangover food

I stored the left-overs in an heat-proof dish so that whoever gets hungry can just microwave some. Great for a snack, side or as a main. I normally hate watching TV but this was just so typically TV food that I found myself watching Friends and actually enjoying myself.

Close-up shot