Baked Macaroni and Cheese

 Macaroni and cheese is one of my FAVORITE foods of all time! I think I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A friend of mine gave me this awesome and super easy mac and cheese recipe that everyone is always crazy over. 

I had my sister over for dinner last week she asked me to make it for her. Try it out...I promise you will love it too :)

What you will need:

• 1 lb cooked pasta
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• 2+ cups of cheddar cheese (I mixed a white and orange cheddar!)
• Salt and Pepper
• Panko breadcrumbs coated in melted butter
• Crushed Ritz crackers would also be a yummy topping for this!

Pre-heat the oven to 400 F.

Cook the pasta in salted water until it is a little under al dente. Drain and reserve 1 cup of the pasta water (in case you need to thin out the cheese sauce later). Put a little olive oil or butter on the pasta so it doesn't stick together.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan.

Whisk in 3 tablespoons of flour and allow to cook for 1 minute until a light roux forms (it will be bubbly and a light brown color).

Add the milk and heavy cream and whisk over a medium heat until the mixture starts to thicken.

Turn off the heat and add the cheddar cheese one handful at a time. Taste it to see if you need to add more cheese and season with salt and pepper.

Once all the cheese is melted add the cooked pasta. Add a little pasta water if the cheese sauce is too thick. Put the pasta/cheese mixture in a baking dish.

Top with the Panko breadcrumbs melted in butter.

Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes of until it is bubbly and the breadcrumbs have browned (cover with foil and continue to heat of the breadcrumbs start to burn).


**if you want to do individual servings just use small oven safe bowls and top each one with the Panko breadcrumb/butter mixture**