My T-Tapp friend, Kayla, is sharing her Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese today – cheese just makes life better. Thanks Kayla!
Virtually any processed, packaged, let’s-preserve-as-a-mummy-forever-food can actually be made at home. It’s true! For those rare instances where you can’t make the real thing at home without all the preservatives, you can whip up a suitable substitute.
One of the things I struggled with as I switched to mostly real food was how to decide who was right. I read stacks and stacks of books, each one sounding so convincing, but each one just a little different. “Eat more whole bran. No, whole bran is bad for you, sprout it or sour it. No, white flour is actually better because it does not have the bran in it…that’s why most cultures have always sifted the bran out. No, that’s all wrong, you should never eat wheat again…” And so on the ideas go.
Do you ever wonder what’s actually true?
Seriously! I’ve read “research” and so called “studies” that “prove” the exact opposite of each other!
In this lifetime, I have concluded that people will never agree on what is best because that is the nature of people. However, my research and my own experience tells me there are a few things you should eliminate from your diet:
- Bleached White Sugar
- Corn Syrup
- Sugary Sodas
- Fast Food
- Preservatives and additives like MSG, colorings, etc…
- Margarine
- Soybean, Cotton Seed, Crisco and Canola Oil (in fact, I only actually use a handful of oils)
When you eliminate corn syrup and soy oil, it becomes very difficult to buy ANYTHING prepackaged from your grocery store. Granola bars, canned soups, crackers, cookies, chips, yogurt, any many other things contain one of those two ingredients.
And, just because it says “organic” does not mean it’s good for you. Organic companies still make junk snack foods that are expensive and unnecessary.
I’m not all righteous about what I eat anymore. I’ve done that and didn’t enjoy it. Over the years I have found a way to blend all I’ve learned into a realistic and delicious way of eating. It is not designed for illnesses or times of crisis in the body. It’s just a simple way of eating real food for regular, normal families. (See Stacy’s post – Food is Not Your God)
Macaroni and cheese is usually very much enjoyed by regular, normal families. Recently I fell in love with this simple, one dish version that cooks up nicely in the crockpot or slow cooker. I started with a recipe from allrecipes.com but altered it a bit. 🙂
Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese
- 1/2 pound uncooked elbow macaroni (regular, gluten free, spelt, you name it on the variety of noodle)
- 3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
- 3 cups whole milk (I use goat milk)
- 2 eggs
- ½-1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
- Mix all ingredients except 1/2 cup cheese in a slow cooker, then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
- Cover and cook on low for 5 hours. Enjoy!
Kayla Howard is a stay at home wife and homeschooling mom who loves to teach the T-Tapp method of staying fit in 15 minutes a day from the comfort of your own home. She is a Biblical Health Coach and Senior T-Tapp Trainer, certified to teach all forms of T-Tapp. If you’d like to know more about becoming and staying fit and healthy, Kayla is happy to answer your questions! Visit her website: www.kaylahoward.com or Send an email to: [email protected]
Is the macaroni precooked or put into the pot uncooked?
It calls for “uncooked elbow macaroni.” Hope that helps!
Yeah, this didn’t work for me. The sides and bottom burnt and the cheese and milk didn’t meld together. Just a mess.
I’m so very sorry to hear that. A lot of crock pots cook at higher temperatures and times need to be adjusted.
when looking for recipes I definitely want to be preached to about my diet. THANK YOU!!!!
You’re welcome? LOL
I want to make this but cant eat egg any suggestions or can i just leave it out?
Egg works as a binder in this recipe…you could try it, but I’m not sure because we haven’t made it that way.
Do you think it would work to add meatballs to this?
It should work just fine. And that actually sounds really good!
Making this tonight!
I would so love to try this recipe for a come home from work dinner. However, I am gone from the house for about 9-10 hours. Will a recipe such as this survive the low setting for that long? I’m afraid that I would wind up with a slurry of cheese. Any thoughts or suggestions that I could consider? Thank you. Merry
I don’t think the noodles could make it that long. 🙁
That’s when a programmable croc pot comes in handy! Some turn off after cooking come switch to warm! Something to consider!
Have you ever thrown all of these ingredients in a freezer bag and popped it in the crockpot the day of use? I was wondering if that might work?? I kind of want to try but I’m scared!
No – I don’t think macaroni would do well this way. 🙂
It smells good, but the texture is a little weird! Seems grainy. Maybe it is the noodles I used? We didn’t have any elbow macaroni so I just used whatever noodles I had on hand.
Sometimes it can be the cheese and milk combo. 🙂
If it’s grainy is because the milk was too hot by the time the cheese melted completely. It’s a form of curdling. It won’t make you sick, but it’s an odd texture. I’m going to try this with a few different types of cheese and I’m going to lower the cook time to two hours with a two hour “warm.” If the noodles aren’t done by then I’ll put it back on low but we’ll see. Oh, I’m also adding cooked, crumbled bacon, because bacon.
I sure hope this works with gluten free pasta that’s not elbows!
I hope it worked!!! Did it??
Alas, it did not 🙁
I don’t think it was the pasta shape though, we really didn’t like the texture- it was much too eggy for us, and not nearly cheesy enough, and I don’t understand why! 3 cups of sharp cheddar for 1/2 lb of pasta should have been plenty! I was able to eat a small portion, but my toddler spit his out back onto his plate, and my husband just looked sadly at his plate after a taste. Looks like our mac n cheese journey is not yet at a end.
I think part of the problem is that I didn’t grow up on homemade mac n cheese so the texture seems off to us (I actually really like boxed mac n cheese taste-wise since I grew up on it- it’s just the whole gluten and chemical things that we can’t have!) We tried the “deceptively delicious” mac n cheese that you put squash in, and it was made with cream cheese as part of it- we about died gagging. 🙁
On the up side, the salad was fresh, and the GF chicken nuggets turned out well, despite needing to change it up for lack of potato flour!
Booo! 🙁 So sorry Loni. Have you tried my homemade mac and cheese with the gluten free pasta? It’s a baked version….
Well, I guess there was that time my sister made homemade mac n cheese. That was awful! The top wasn’t properly on the garlic powder and instead of a shake, we got about 1/2 a cup!
Oh my word…..BLECH!
Wait!! Have you tried this: http://www.vitacost.com/annies-homegrown-rice-pasta-and-cheddar-gluten-free
We like Annie’s!
I be fair, my sister DID scrape off what garlic powder she could. 😛 I like- nay, LOVE garlic, but that was even too much for me!
We haven’t tried your baked recipe yet, but I looked it over and it looks yummy! Does it get all- crunchy or dry on the top? I think that’s my pet peeve with baked mac n cheese- I don’t like the top, and the bottom seems to get mushy sometimes too. Also, living in Texas, it’s too hot to have the oven on 8 months out of the year- the baking step doesn’t seem necessary to me- maybe I’m wrong though- how do you think it would it be without baking?
I might have to try to Annie’s mac n cheese- to have on hand for those “uh oh” nights. Before my husband had to go gluten free, we were very big on pasta and rice sides. Of course now, we understand how many chemicals and whatnot are in them, and don’t even think about them, but Annie’s might be a good place to start until I get a well loved mac n cheese recipe up my sleeve! We’ve only tried Annie’s brand once, and we weren’t gluten free yet, they were animal crackers of some sort and sooo yummy!
We’ve been very pleased with all the Annie’s products so far. 🙂 The ketchup is rockin’!
It doesn’t get too crunchy…but it will get a TAD crunchy around the edges. If you want to make sure it’s not too mushy, just undercook the noodles a bit. I like mine really soft. 🙂
Wow, I didn’t realize you could just dump it all in the crock pot like that, even with the uncooked noodles. Hmm! I will have to give this a try!
Yes, this recipe is right up your QUICK AND EASY route. 🙂
Hi, this looks fabulous! I will try it today. I was wondering if I could get your thoughts on milk, specifically regular store bought milk vs. organic vs. raw. We are big milk drinkers in my house and I recently switched from low fat to whole. I have read so many articles about milk and would love to buy raw milk but unfortunately we live in a very rural area in the middle of the desert and there is nowhere to buy it. I feel terrible every time I read an article that states regular store bought milk is bad for you. I figure it’s certainly better than a lot of the alternatives! Oh and what about soy milk? Thanks Stacy!
We try to avoid soy as much as possible – it sorta scares me a bit. As for milk, I just buy whole milk from the grocery story. I try to buy it from a local dairy when I can, but it’s not raw. In Virginia, it’s illegal to buy raw milk, but you can purchase a share in a cow and get milk that way – it’s too expensive for our budget because of how much we go through.
I’ve read that buying organic milk is just a waste of money…but I buy it if it’s on a good sale.
We do like almond and coconut milk and buy that occasionally for a treat. 🙂 I comfort myself with whole milk and don’t let it worry me. Hope that helps!!
Do you have any idea how many this recipe serves? Thanks.
Above, Tammy says this: This easily feeds 4, (maybe 6 to 8, if you have those who would only eat 1/2 c).
Really impressive. Over 200% of the daily recommended saturated fat by the Feds, over a day’s worth of fat in general.
Can you say “heart disease?” “obesity?”
Are you planning to eat the whole thing?
I used 1 cup less milk and 1 cup less cheese. Still plenty cheesy! Also, I lightly coated the inside of the crock with crisco and cooked on high for 1.5 – 2 hrs. I didn’t have 2 c of cheddar, just 1, so I substituted the other cup with shredded mozerella. This easily feeds 4, (maybe 6 to 8, if you have those who would only eat 1/2 c).
Based on my results I think you could easily double this recipe by just adding another 1/2 pound of pasta to the recipe as originally written.
Thanks for chiming in, Tammy!
http://www.simplyhomemaking60.blogspot.com/2012/08/perfect-crockpot-macaroni-and-cheese.html
I think I’m in love… 😉
HA!
I am going to put this on before I head to the office. How nice to come home to homemade mac and cheese. One of my favorite comfort food. Thanks for sharing.
And an excellent reason to hurry home from work. 🙂
What do you use for bleached, white sugar when sucanat won’t work? I don’t want the heavy “molasses” taste in everything and sometimes the texture is just wierd. Sometimes white is the taste I want, is there an alternative to that? I have bought organic before but not sure it’s any better. Thanks.
I guess we’re just mostly used to it by now, but I can’t really taste a difference in most things (except ice cream)…I use it almost exclusively. When I don’t want that taste in ice cream, I use turbinado sugar, honey, or syrup. 🙂 Hope that helps!
This sounds yummy! I will give it a try and see how my family likes this. With school starting, anything in the crockpot works for me.
I sometimes hug my crock pot.
bahahahaha! nerd! luv u anyway
🙂
Okay, I am trying this recipe today! Sound too fantastic to miss.
Keep us posted!
Okay, as promised, I made this recipe today for the family and it was absolutely yummy!!
I did make the gluten free version and despite really missing the texture of wheat based pasta, the brown rice macaroni worked well for this recipe.
My 15 year old son had 2 or 3 helpings of it, and my hubby and 19 year old daughter thoroughly enjoyed it as well.
This is definitely a must make recipe again!
Thank you very much for having shared it!
Angie
I have wondered about brown rice pasta…is it yummy?
Brown Rice pasta is a pretty good substitute when having to go gluten free. I can tell you that it is tastier than the ‘corn’ based pastas. Quinoa pasta is also pretty tasty but has a tendency to not hold together as well as the brown rice ones. Asian, white rice pasta is also good. I use the angel hair type for most of my summer time pasta salads as its super light and has great texture.
No gluten free pasta ever tastes or feels like wheat. There is something magnificent about wheat based products and even after 3 or 4 years I still miss not being able to have them. But there are plenty of good g.f. alternatives, I just wish they weren’t so darned expensive.
I had wanted to try it for curiosities sake…I like trying new things. However, the price tag has kept me from that. Ha!