Yesterday I was making lunch for the boys and two of them requested mac and cheese. I was out of the boxed stuff so I went to the pantry to try to find some easy mac. Of course, there was only one in there. Then I remembered that I had pinned something about making easy mac without all of the fake cheese in the Kraft stuff. Perfect! I even had everything on hand. Even more perfect!
So I made one thing of easy mac for Makai and set out to make the "real easy mac" for Tanner.
*Special Note: Yes, I am a professional photographer. However, I do not specialize in product or food photographs. I am also a busy, working mom of three and I don't have time or energy to make these pictures look amazing. You might call it laziness, I like to call it "Keepin it Real". Some days I feel lucky to even get the challenge done and pictures taken. So sorry if they are not perfect. Rest assured I am good at taking pictures of PEOPLE not necessarily things.
So I added the water to the noodles and started to microwave. They said it should take 4-6 minutes. Easy mac takes 3 in my microwave, so I started with 3 minutes. I pulled it out and they were still rock hard. I added 2 more minutes. Still hard. 2 more minutes. Still pretty hard. Now I am up to 7 minutes. I decided to add the cheese and milk. Then I did it for another minute (now up to 8 minutes) as they suggested to warm the mix and have the cheese melt. I pulled it out and stirred for quite some time to get it to smooth (as they said it would get (and had to add another minute in the microwave making it 9 minutes of cooking time and several more minutes of prep and stirring). From these first two pictures, it looks pretty good.
Despite my vigorous stirring, the cheese never really mixed in. It formed a gelatinous glob similar to silly putty. I drained the excess water out and then took the silly putty out, added some salt and gave it to Tanner. Luckily he is my least picky child and didn't say a word about it tasting funny. He said it was pretty good.
The verdict: This was NOT easy mac. There was nothing "easy" about it. I would have been better off cooking the noodles on the stove (for 7 minutes) and adding some cheese and milk. It probably would have turned out better than this strange concoction.
Day 11 (really part two of day 10 but who's counting):
My glue gun is getting a workout....and I love it!
In the midst of the "Easy Mac Incident" (as I like to call it) I was working on this project.
Do any of you have a problem known in my house as "the cups spilleth over"? My kids use about 3 cups a day. My poor dishwasher is constantly filled with transformers, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Avenger....and every other boy character known to man. They get a cup out, take two sips....and leave it abandoned on the kitchen table (or other places throughout the house). Then an hour later, they are thirsty so they repeat the process. My kids usually only drink water so luckily there isn't gross milk or juice in cups all over the house, but it is still annoying!
So I found this project on Pinterest and I was super excited to get going on it!
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| Note this is not the one I pinned (it is a similar picture from the same website) but I can't find it on my boards. Don't you hate that! It is from danamadeit.com if you want to check it out. |
I went to several different stores looking for plastic cups to use, but I had a hard time finding ones that I liked. I finally settled on these from the dollar store. They only came in 3 colors, but luckily, they were in the 3 favorite colors of the boys.
For this project you will also need magnets (From Hobby Lobby) and a glue gun.
All you do it glue the magnets (I used two per cup) to one side of the cup and stick it on the fridge. Easy peasy!
The boys were pretty excited about this. But mom was even more excited! We will see if the dishwasher misses its daily washing of all of his friends, but I will surely not miss loading and unloading those guys from the dishwasher.
Note: Tanner filled his up with water, took a drink and then put it on the fridge. The magnets are not strong enough to hold the cup and water! So it fell to its demise. As always, if anything bad is going to happen....it is to the middle child. Is there such a thing as the middle child curse? Do you notice this in your house? If they all get the same toy, the middle one breaks first....etc. Poor thing, he always gets the shaft. It is true in my sister's house too. Just an observation.
This was genius and super easy. I would highly recommend it. It took less time than the "Not so Easy Mac". Seriously, I did this while the easy mac was cooking and I finished this before the easy mac was done.
This is from my ?????? board. I couldn't find it (even with the new (it's about time) search method of your own pins). I am not sure what I labeled it, so I couldn't find it. It is probably in my Summa Time, Good Ideas, or Chanchos Board. Kudos to the person who can find it for me!
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