Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Mac and Cheese Bento

Mac and Cheese Bento by sherimiya ♥
Mac and Cheese Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.
Look, it's a thermal bento. In summer. Is it wrong? I was just in the mood for mac and cheese, so decided to pack a couple in my kids' thermal food jars. It's not essential to pack mac and cheese hot, and in fact I bet my kids would be happy to eat it at room temp, but there's something about ooey gooey cheesy mac that sounds so good to me. Last time I used The Pioneer Woman's recipe (for this bento here), and that was really good, but this time I used a bacon mac recipe. It could have used more cheese, I think, but it was still pretty good. I know the side box looks absurdly huge in the photo, but trust me; it's an illusion (it's actually propped up on the thermal jar lid). There's a lot of broccoli in the mac and cheese, so all I gave him on the side is: corn, carrots, strawberry, cherries and pluot.

Bacon Mac and Cheese (based on the recipe here)

8 ounces macaroni
2 1/2 cups milk
4 ounces each grated provolone and Asiago cheeses
2 eggs
2 scallions, chopped
3 slices sandwich bread, torn into small pieces
3 strips bacon
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 T flour

Preheat oven to 375 F. Butter a 2-quart shallow casserole dish. Cook the macaroni until al dente, about 5 minutes. Drain, transfer the pasta to the casserole dish along with 1/4 cup milk.
Meanwhile, mix the cheeses together. Beat the eggs with 1/4 cup milk in another bowl, add scallions, bread and half the cheese, set aside.
Cook the bacon, remove from pan. Cook the onion and garlic in the same pan, about 4 minutes, then add flour, cook another 2 minutes. Add the remaining 1 3/4 cup milk to the skillet, boil, and whisk until thick.
Remove the sauce from heat and whisk in the remaining cheese, add the sauce to the macaroni and stir to combine. [Here I added steamed broccoli, chopped fine]
Add crumbled bacon to the egg/bread mixture, spread over the top of the pasta.
Bake about 40 minutes.

11 comments:

  1. Mac and cheese! And a fancy version to boot, yum! My kid's fave meal.. Sadly, she won't be able to get past the brocolli or bacon part but minus those, she'd snarf this up in a minute! : )

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  2. She's a purist, that one!
    Thanks Chantale!

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  3. Mmmm...sounds yummy. Do you know if this freezes well?

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  4. Thanks Amy. I don't have occasion to freeze it, but I imagine that it would freeze well. Wrap tightly in freezer. After defrosting, pass under broiler and it should taste delicious!

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  5. mmm...that would make for a tasty mac and cheese! my kid would love it, anything with bacon wins in this house! =) thanks for the recipe!

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  6. ooh...that mac and cheese looks so good! (My daughter and I always do a little bacon chant when we get to buy bacon - so we'll get to do that with this recipe!)

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  7. Just discovered your blog which is wonderful and cheery. This recipe is so yummy and the photo shows it well.

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  8. It is so not fair! That mac n cheese looks incredible and I know A-chan won't eat it :( But I would love to have this bento!

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  9. Thanks Carly, Amy V., Cynthia, and Natakiya!
    Are you sure she won't eat it? But it's soooo tasty :)

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  10. Your mac n cheese looks really good! I'm going to bookmark this and try next time!

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