Grown Up Macaroni and Cheese with Meatballs

Mains | 30 Minutes or Less, Cooking for One or Two, Kid Friendly | Beef, Eggs & Dairy, Pasta & Grains

SERVES 2* - START TO FINISH: 20 minutes
Recipe Scoop Grown Up Macaroni and Cheese with Meatballs

Cooking Notes

Turkey meatballs can be used.

Recipe may be doubled.

Grown Up Macaroni and Cheese with Meatballs

1 cup uncooked macaroni pasta
8 frozen meatballs*
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup milk, (at least 1 percent)
1 1/2 cups grated Pepper Jack cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add macaroni and cook until tender. While macaroni cooks, grate cheese, (if necessary). Microwave the meatballs to thaw, about 2 minutes. Cut meatballs in half and set aside.

Melt butter in a medium-size saucepan. Add flour and, stirring constantly, cook on medium-low heat for 1 minute as mixture forms a paste. Add milk slowly, stirring constantly, and cook for 3 minutes until milk thickens slightly. (You will have a few lumps. Ignore them.) Add cheese, stirring until it melts. Remove sauce from heat until noodles are done.

When noodles are just tender, remove from heat and drain thoroughly. Pour drained noodles into pan with cheese sauce, add meatballs, and stir to mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve at once.

Grown Up Macaroni and Cheese with Meatballs

Approximate Values Per Serving: 759 calories (53% from fat), 44 g fat (22.5 g saturated), 169 mg cholesterol, 39 g protein, 50 g carbohydrates, 2 g dietary fiber, 678 mg sodium

Comments

From B. J. - April 03, 2011

A comment on your "Grown-up Macaroni and Cheese with Meatballs" which appeared in THE BLADE March 27, 2011. The recipe sounds very good and I do plan to give it a try. My comment is in regard to the grammar of the recipe. Sorry - but I am a stickler for good grammar and for the beginner cook reading this recipe I can well see how they could be confused. In the write-up before the recipe all you mention is Mac & Cheese and macaroni. In the recipe: 1 cup uncooked macaroni pasta (macaroni pasta is redundant) - in other words, pasta pasta. Macaroni is pasta. Macaroni says enough. First paragraph of the directions says to cook the 'macaroni'. The third and fourth paragraph mentions 'noodles'. So what is the ingredient, macaroni macaroni or noodles? Noodles are noodles and macaroni is macaroni. Just a suggestion - have your articles proof-read before they go to print. Can't wait to try the recipe however.

From Nevermind - April 14, 2011

What a mouthful! Just a suggestion - why don't you refrain from imposing your cultural bias on others? Where I come from we refer to it the same way: macaroni pasta, macaroni noodles.. it's a CULTURAL THING and your standard is not superior! It's sort of like the way we refer to all soda as "Coke," ya know? So save it for class. And get some. grin

From patti - April 14, 2011

Hmmmmmmm, "B.J" -- really sums up the post, and is quite fitting for the comment...sorry, couldn't resist.

From Cathy - April 19, 2011

My box of pasta has the words "macaroni" "pasta" and "elbows" all on the front cover. Go figure. I'm just so thankful to Beverly and Alicia for such a great recipe and for helping me figure out "what's for dinner?".

From Cindy - April 22, 2011

The recipe says "grown-up" but my kids loved it!

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