We whipped up 6 of these, mini macaroni pies, last night. That's a Ritz cracker crust in all its fatty and salty glory. It all started with a little negotiation session with Spud where he announced that he feels left out when he doesn't get school lunches. We've done the program in the past, for one day a week, and it's fine. He gets his fill of macaroni and cheese, pizza and California rolls. But Hubs and I thought it would be better to save the money and instead make a promise to include one of the above said items, or variation thereof, each Friday. Well, at 10 o'clock last night, it was pretty much the last thing that we wanted to do, but together we made it happen pretty painlessly. And we watched Master Chef in between oven checks. Here's the recipe (modified from epicurious):
INGREDIENTS
1.25 C. Ritz crackers, crushed
1.75 C. cheddar cheese, grated
2 T. butter, melted
2.25 C. elbow macaroni, cooked and drained
1 egg, beaten
1/4 C. milk
1/4 C. cream cheese, cut in pieces
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 6 cups of a muffin pan. In a bowl, combine the crackers, 3/4 cup of the cheddar cheese, and the melted butter. Divide the mixture among the prepared muffin cups and press firmly in the bottom and up the sides of the cups.
In a large bowl, mix the macaroni with 3/4 cup of the cheddar cheese. In a small bowl, combine the egg, milk, and cream cheese. Stir the milk mixture into the macaroni.
Divide macaroni mixture into each cracker crust and top with the remaining cheddar cheese. Bake about 25 minutes or until cheese is browned. Allow to cool a bit before unmolding.
So here is this school year's first "homemade school lunch".
LEFT
· mini carrots
· apple chunks
· cucumber stars
RIGHT
· mini macaroni pie
· wiener octopus
Now we have 5 more mini pies. Hopefully these freeze well! Stay tuned for our pizza and California roll renditions.