OAMC 9 Cheese Mac n cheese

OAMC 10 cheese mac n cheese mix !

Lidls in our area has pretty good prices on cheese and some flavors are put on sale. Yesterday I got 6 packages of 12 oz shredded cheese in 3 flavors- Sharp, colby/jack, and italian blend. Plus 1 package of sliced swiss. That ends up being about 10 kinds of cheese. From these I made 8 packages of ready to use mac and cheese mix, just add pasta!

Using a scale (because I am somewhat OCD about duplicating a recipe once I like it) I took 3 oz from each bag, plus a slice of swiss and bagged them together. I added a half stick of butter and 1/4t salt and garlic powder. With some careful planning I even reused the bags,leaving 3oz in the bottom of each bag and mixing other kinds appropriately- but you still need an extra couple of 1qt bags.

I added labels with directions and placed them in a long cardboard box (recycled from Aldis) that perfectly fit that size bag and store them in the freezer. When needed, grab one bag of cheese and a box of pasta. Ready as fast as Kraft but so much better!

To make, I cook a 16oz box of pasta, adding only enough water to cover so there is no draining, then when it is done I dump in the bag of cheese and butter and stir to melt. Add milk as needed for desired liquidity. Once melted I turn it off and may sprinkle toasted buttered bread crumbs on top.

I typically use my rice/multicooker as it has a nonstick liner, requires little supervision and keeps it warm after cooking even when turned off. (Don't leave it on warm ,the bottom will brown or burn.)

I may add bacon, I get a supply from Golden Corral to-go whenever I am near enough, but that would increase the cost per meal.

Price breakdown:

item	amount in package	cost per package	cost per recipe	amount used per recipe
colby jack	12oz	1.65	$0.41	3oz
cheddar	12oz	1.79	$0.45	3oz
italian blend	12oz	1.59	$0.40	3oz
swiss	10 slices/8oz	1.65	$0.09	1 slice
Butter	16oz	2.5	$0.31	1 half stick
pasta	16oz	0.88	$0.88	1 full box
final cost per meal			$2.54

This could probably be made in a thermal cooker, once I get the hang of pasta in a thermal cooker. Thermal cooking post coming soon...