Recipe review: Miracle Mac 'n' Cheese from Budget Bytes

While reading Epicurious recently, I came across to a link to Budget Bytes, a site for budget recipes. I have spent many hours of my time trawling the internet for frugal recipes, and until now I haven't been that impressed. People seem to think that cooking frugally must include using nasty things like cans of cream of something soup, which look like vomit and smell like cat food and I don't even know what they taste like because I don't want to eat that stuff. The terribleness of frugal recipe websites was part of my inspiration for starting this blog. Well, Budget Bytes solves this problem brilliantly. Beth, the woman who writes the website, makes almost everything from scratch, and her recipes look cheap, delicious, and, best of all, entirely free from canned soups. I think she must be an amazing cook. All these recipes look like they work. I hate recipes that don't work.

The first recipe I tried was Miracle Mac 'n' Cheese. I was skeptical at first, because I didn't see how it could work. You're supposed to boil macaroni in milk? Seriously? I tried it just because I was convinced it would be a giant flop. But it was amazing! Just as easy as making the radioactive orange mac and cheese out of a box, and infinitely better. As the pasta simmers in the milk, the starch it releases helps the milk to thicken. Then you stir in your cheese and seasonings at the end. 

This is not just a time-saving recipe, it's actually the best macaroni and cheese I've made. I've been on a quest to find the perfect recipe, and I'm not at all averse to making a cheesy bechamel if that's what I have to do. But this is so, so much easier and less messy. The result is every bit as smooth and comforting as you want macaroni and cheese to be, but it doesn't sit heavily in your stomach the way some recipes do. Since the sauce doesn't have flour, it's not the giant starch trip it might otherwise be, and because of this you don't need a huge amount of cheese for it to taste good.

The only thing I'd do differently next time is to halve the amount of Dijon mustard, which did overpower the flavor a bit. However, it was still delicious, and Baby B happily ate it even though I didn't stir in any pieces of ham (her favorite food in the world). I think you could easily add a handful of frozen peas at the end, or some lightly steamed broccoli. Next time I think I might add a pinch of both thyme and nutmeg for extra savoriness.