Frozen Dinner Diner: Macaroni and Cheese

As the picture shows, I pair this with frozen veggies to make the overall meal a little healthier.

This recipe came from allrecipes.com. (The direct link to it is here.) First I will list the recipe exactly, then I'll show how I altered it (only partly on purpose).

Baked Macaroni & Cheese

2 1/2 cups elbow macaroni
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups milk
1 pound shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 sleeve buttery round crackers, crushed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Fill a large pot with lightly salted water, and bring to a boil. Stir in the macaroni, and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally until the pasta has cooked through but is still firm (about 8 minutes.) Drain well.
3. Combine 1/4 cup butter, flour, milk, salt and cheddar cheese in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir until the cheese is melted and the mixture thickens (7 to 10 minutes). Add the macaroni, and stir to coat.
4. Pour the macaroni and cheese sauce mixture into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
5. Mix the 1/4 cup melted butter and crushed crackers together in a bowl; scatter the cracker mixture evenly over the macaroni.
6. Bake until golden brown on top (about 45 minutes).

When I made it, I left off the topping. I like a little crunchiness on top of my homemade mac-n-cheese, but because my husband and I are trying to cut calories, I omitted that.

What I did accidentally, though, was cook too much macaroni. For some reason, I read "2 1/2 cups" to be 32 ounces by weight. It still tasted good, though, I personally prefer a little more salty taste than I got. This made a bunch of mac-n-cheese, though. The above recipe should make 6 servings, but I got a lot more than that.

Reheating

I microwaved it for 4 minutes and stirred it. It was heated through well.

How Did it Do?

As a frozen dinner, it did very well and tasted just as good as it did right after I made it. However, the next time I make mac-n-cheese, I'll likely find a different recipe. This one was tasty, but I'd like to find one that's a little more low-cal. Of course, it's mac-n-cheese; there's only so low-cal it can be.