There’s nothing like a bowl of warm, creamy mac & cheese* to dull the pain of studying. It will cuddle with you and stroke your tummy while whispering: “ssshhhh you’ll still get a job even if you get fail intro to microeconomics.”
In other words, mac & cheese will lie to you. No one’s getting a job.
But that boxed, microwaveable Kraft Easy Mac is a bad liar. It’ll try to comfort you but the watery powdered-cheese sauce will instead whisper: “you’re going to eat me every night because you won’t have a job and I’m cheap.” That doesn’t help.
Luckily, Paws & Go has a new local cheeses section. You can make a fancier, better mac & cheese with ingredients that are all purchasable at Paws & Go. And you don’t need a stove!
First, put the pasta (Paws & Go sells whole wheat penne) in a large microwaveable bowl and cover it with water. Then microwave the bowl for 10-14 minutes, stopping it occasionally to check for doneness.
Meanwhile, dice your cheese. I picked up 6 oz of Harvati cheese (because it’s creamy) and 6 oz of Garlic Herb Cheese Curds (to add flavor). I should’ve grabbed some parmesan. They also sell pepper jack and cheddar, which would be good additions as well.
Drain your pasta without burning your hands (seriously though, this can be difficult. I use a fork to hold back the noodles and tilt the bowl slowly so that a waterfall of boiling water doesn’t pour onto my hand).
Then, pour half of a 16 fluid ounce bottle of 2% milk into a large bowl. Add about 2 tablespoons of flour (you can use a spoon and measure out two heaping spoonfuls) to the bottle, put the lid back on and shake the bottle vigorously. Then pour that in with the rest of the milk.
Microwave the milk-flour mixture for five minutes, stopping it about once a minute to stir. After five minutes, it should thicken and have a texture close to that of heavy cream.
Add all of the cheese and microwave that for 3 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir until any of the stray cheese clumps have melted. Add the cooked pasta and microwave for two more minutes.
Enjoy!
Warning: if everyone on the South 40 suddenly turned into chunks of cheese and those chunks all had cheese-baby triplets, there’d still be less cheese per square mile than there is in this dish. It is intense beyond what I believed was possible.
*Yes, I have to use the & symbol instead of writing “and.”
