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• Just Like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Mix

• March 14, 2012 1:55 pm
• Crystal
• 9 comments

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MARCH IS FOR MIXES!

Well, my last post was The Best Ever Pancake Mix. (For those of you wondering how to do it with fresh eggs, I’ve included the original recipe). Well today for lunch, I decided it was high time I figured out how to make my own Macaroni and Cheese mix. I’ve been a little reluctant to try this because I tried it once in a pinch before the babysitter arrived and it didn’t work out….at all….AT ALL. Plus, I’m not a huge fan of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese…at least whatever they did to change it from when I was a little kid. (Anyone else noticed it has changed? It’s all watery and bland and not CHEESY) Anyway, the heavens smiled upon me today because it really came together. In fact, once I finished it I sat down and had a bowl myself right along with my kiddies. It was cheesy and thick. Like the kind of macaroni and cheese you order off of a kids meal at a restaurant. Super delicious! You’ll need Cheese Powder to do this with…you know….so it is legit like the blue box Macaroni and Cheese. Cheese powder is actually also great to use on popcorn to make it cheese popcorn…just sayin’
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MACARONI AND CHEESE MIX

(makes enough for 6 mixes)
heaping 1/2 C. non-instant dry milk powder or heaping 1 C. instant dry milk powder
heaping 1/2 C. cornstarch
2 C. cheese powder
1/3 C. butter powder (if you don’t want to or don’t have this powder just omit it and add fresh butter later)
Mix ingredients WELL and store in an airtight container.
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MAKING MACARONI AND CHEESE FROM THE MIX

2 C. noodles
heaping 1/2 C. Just like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Mix
3/4 C. water
1 T. fresh butter (if you didn’t use the butter powder)
Cook noodles until al dente and drain but DO NOT RINSE. Put noodles back in pot, add water, mix and fresh butter (if you’re not using butter powder) Stir until thickened.
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ORIGINAL MACARONI AND CHEESE RECIPE:

1.5 T. non-instant dry milk powder or 3 T. instant dry milk powder
1.5 T. corn starch
1/3 C. cheese powder
1 T. butter or butter powder
3/4 C. water
2 C. noodles, COOKED
Combine ingredients together over a warm stove. Serve warm

 

I love the Mac & Cheese Shapes! I like to add an extra slice of cheese into mine and lots of milk and a little bit of butter! YUM!!

 

Nice to know I am not the only weird one out there. I am thinking if I put them in a square pail that I can close up that would keep them for a couple of years?

 

Make sure you buy the packages with best dates and then store them the way you said and I think they will last quite awhile. I like it too, but dh, not so much! LOL Ate too much of it growing up!

 

I guess we do things the hard way. We buy elbow macaroni at Sam's, it comes in a pantry pack of 6 1 pound packs. Then we buy cheddar cheese sauce powder from bulkfoods.com in the 5 pound bags. We put the macaroni in the freezer for about a week, to kill anything that might be in it, and then divide into roughly dinner size portions. Next, into the mylar w/o2 absorbers.

We started doing this when we noticed the portions in the Kraft box had been noticeably reduced, but the price stayed the same.

 

Good ideas, everyone, on ways to do it differently! I also like instant mac & cheese, but cannot eat Kraft because of the rennet they use in their cheese... Nice to see some more options!

 

I guess we do things the hard way. We buy elbow macaroni at Sam's, it comes in a pantry pack of 6 1 pound packs. Then we buy cheddar cheese sauce powder from bulkfoods.com in the 5 pound bags. We put the macaroni in the freezer for about a week, to kill anything that might be in it, and then divide into roughly dinner size portions. Next, into the mylar w/o2 absorbers.

We started doing this when we noticed the portions in the Kraft box had been noticeably reduced, but the price stayed the same.

I only do the mac and cheese stuff rarely so this makes sense to me; those little boxes are really very expensive if you are not into a meal or 2. I've been tempted but never purchased bulk cheese powder yet I can see portioning it out to store so it can be used in other ways...coating for popcorn or stirred into sauces or whatever/wherever you want cheese.

 

I love the Kraft Deluxe American mac & cheese, the kind that has the cheese sauce already made in the silver packet, no mixing necesssary, just squeeze the sauce out and stir into the hot macaroni. It tastes the closest to homemade to me, and living alone it's just easier sometimes.

I thought maybe it could be used for relatively long-term food storage (2 years maybe?), however, I was wrong. I bought some about a year ago as an experiment. I opened some and took the macaroni and froze it to kill any bugs, then taped it back up with the cheese packet. The others I just stored as they were, in a sealed plastic bucket.

I opened them last week. The first one that I didn't freeze had bugs in it (as did the others once I then opened them, ick!). The ones that had been frozen didn't. All the cheese sauce packets were still soft, but came out sort of ugly brown looking as opposed to orange. They had a slight change in texture and just barely a change in smell, but when I cooked one and tried to eat it....hock ptooey! That was some bad stuff, lol! And this was in a controlled environment (heat and AC pantry year-round, just imagine if the power was out).

So I just have to hope that the homemade kind with the powdered mix will taste a lot better to me in a SHTF situation, lol, and make sure I use my own treated pasta, some bought already sealed by a company into a #10 can or make the pasta from scratch if possible, given the situation!

Bree, your recipe is almost identical to the one I have, but haven't tried yet, so glad to know you think it's good, thanks!

P.S. My son talked me into buying a generic brand one time (Pasta Luigi's or something like that), because he said it tasted as good if not better than Kraft. However, I didn't freeze or do anything but put them on the shelf. When I went to try it about a month later, it was just crawling with bugs, so not sure if they grew in it that fast or if they were already there when I brought them home. So my advice is to never store pasta without checking it and pretreating it in some way! I was just lucky I didn't lose my entire pantry to bugs or moths.

 

cool dry place....I have some generic 3-4 yrs old pd 5 for$1

 

I've got Kraft and store brand mac and cheese boxes in my pantry. Some are the dry cheese powder and some are the foil squeeze cheese. I've had some for 2-3 years and the squeeze cheese get a little hard and darker. But the flavor seemed the same. The dry cheese powder is in a mylar bag, and did just fine for several years.

Elbows will last for many, many years if you make sure they're bug free and sealed up against moisture and oxygen. I've got buckets of them because they're great for hamburger casserole, tuna casserole, spaghetti sauce, and soups. I started stocking cheese powder a few years ago, and I find it a lot more economical and useful than buying the boxes of Mac and Cheese.

 

I got the dry cheese ones , froze them first then sealed with some other items in a 5 gal pail. They came out fine .

 

Firehousepantrystore.com carry Kraft cheese sauces, just like what you get in the mac and cheese boxes.

 

My kids love mac & cheese, but I can't use Kraft brand, as they use artificial colors in their cheese powder and I have kids with allergies to dyes. Costco's house brand (kirkland? I think that was it) was okay, but they've stopped carrying it, and most of the "organic" brands are way too $$$$$. Anyone know if I can get cheese powder with annatto-based coloring, like the costco brand? So far all the ones I've found have the red and yellow dye #s.

 

I've gone a little different direction with mac & cheese. The kids LOVE it, I can't stand it. For a while I was buying the Annies - they have the white cheddar that doesn't have the artificial colors, and it is whole wheat pasta. but it is so expensive.
And one day they were asking for some and I didn't buy any the last time I was shopping.
I took some noodles and cooked them. Then I added the powdered Parmesan cheese (you know the one in the shaky can. A little milk, a tablespoon of butter, salt, pepper, and a touch of onion powder. It was delicious. The kids loved it, and 3 out of 4 said it was BETTER than the boxed mac & Cheese. And I felt it was much healthier for them too. All of those ingredients are things that I'd have on hand in a shtf.

 

I love Kraft Mac & Cheese , I add a couple of slices of Yellow Kraft American Cheese and just use Butter , No Milk .
Bandit

 

Then we buy cheddar cheese sauce powder from bulkfoods.com in the 5 pound bags.

Really interesting idea that my wife and I want to try. How well does the cheese powder store?

 

I think as a kid, my tastebuds were not so well developed and I could eat a box of Kraft Dinner that had been stored for 5 years or more, no problem.

Today, I can detect the slight hint of rancidness in a product 1 year past the due date. Maybe they're not making it as storable anymore? Maybe my tastebuds are getting more sensitive.

I bought a case of the stuff a few years ago. My wife can't stand it. So I'm only able to make it once every year or so. It may take me 10 years to finish off the case!

 

ImiriD, the powdered cheese sauce keeps very well. The sauce we are going to use in the next year of so we just put in plastic gallon containers from Walmart. Our long term storage foods all go into mylar bags (usually 2 gal or smaller) with o2 absorbers.

One thing we've learned about mylar bags - when bagging powdered materials, wipe the powder from the inside lips of the bags to help them heat seal.

 

i can eat it once in a while. i do have a bunch stored for hard times but it is just on shelves in the pk they came in. i have not frozen them. they have been there 4 years at least. after reading this thread i checked one of the pks. everything looks okay. cheese tastes the same. ~Georgia.

 

Firehousepantrystore.com carry Kraft cheese sauces, just like what you get in the mac and cheese boxes.

Thanks for that link! I just placed an order for lemon powder and prepared mustard powder. I saw a few others things I'd like to have, but I'll try these first and then go back.

 

I've never been hungry enough to have to eat Kraft Mac and Cheese and hope I never am.

 

I wonder how long canned pasta keeps? Like Chef Boyardee.

 

I wonder how long canned pasta keeps? Like Chef Boyardee.

Not too long after the expiration date it will develope a tinny can taste. (I've eaten some Ooooold ravioli)

I guess as long as the can is not bulging and does not hiss when you open it, it should be OK. Taste and nutritional value might have gone down a bit.

 

While I'm good at freezing flour (I keep the bags stored in the freezer until needed), I'm unsure how to do it with pasta. Can I simply put the boxes in? How long do I need to keep them in the freeze to kill anything? When I pull out the boxes I'm guessing they will be damp - do I just let them dry out? I have a couple more than will fit in the freezer so I'll have to rotate in/out.
Thank you!

 

I hate to admit it but yesterday I found several boxes of Mac Cheese i had fogatten about.Two years outdated well, the noodles were fine but the cheese pkg smelled strange and looked rather dark.Noodles we ate,but cheese got pitched By the way it was the K brand.