Simple Easy Mac 'N' Cheese Recipe

Today I'm sharing this very simple, easy and fast recipe of Mac 'N' Cheese. I'm using this recipe for my Cheesy Farm Animals Pasta Bento.
About one month back I saw one of my cousin's friend being tagged in a Macaroni Cheese photo. That certainly looks and sounds yummilious to me because I'm a SUPERB CHEESE LOVER since young！ I asked for the recipe immediately and also went Google Searched. 
My Mom still remembered how much I loved eating cheese and I could eat just the slice of cheese alone w/o any breads to go with almost EVERYDAY！Now I seldom eat just the cheese alone but a MUST HAVE, at least one slice if I'm having breads in the morning.   

Cheesy Shells Pasta cooked on 20th March 2011.  Here I used the left-over Shells Pasta from my previous cooking.

   Ingredients For 4-6 Servings :

• 1 Packet of Macaroni or Pastas you prefer 
• 1 Packet of Bacon Strips (Cut about 2cm wide)
• 1 Small Packet of Sausages (Sliced)
• 1/2-1 Bottle of Thick Cream 
• 1/2-1 Block of Yellow Cheddar Cheese
• 1/2-1 Packet of Mozzarella Cheese/Parmesan Cheese
• 1/2-1 Packet of Fresh Milk/2 Cans of Evaporated Milk (I prefer evaporated milk as it's nicer and richer in taste than the fresh milk I used-low fat milk)
• 1 Big Red Onion (Sliced)-Optional 

   How To Cook :

1. Cook Macaroni/Pastas as directed on packaging, drained, put under running tap water to cool it and set aside.
2. Sautee bacon strips and sausages (sliced onions if you're adding) in a separate pan till browned, set aside.
3. Boil thick cream in a pot under low heat. 
4. Once there is bubbles shown, add in all the cheeses and keep stirring to melt them until smooth. (Still using low heat)
5. Pour in fresh milk/evaporated milk and boil with high heat.
6. Once boiled, lower down heat, add in Macaroni/Pastas, bacon strips and sausages.
7. Stir to mix all well for 2-3mins and it's done！
8. Put in the oven to bake few mins if you prefer the baked ones.

I'm waiting for my new conventional oven when we move to our new flat (my hubby finally agrees to buy for me ) and I'll try out the baked Mac 'N' Cheese！
 

Happy Weekends Chicken Kara-age Bento

I'm reposting this again because I found the link to the tutorial of making cherry tomato rose！I'm gonna share with all of you here！Enjoy！
Last night before bedtime, I asked the girls what they want for tomorrow's bento and both of them wanted bread again. I guessed they wanted the imitation crabstick (kani) mayo buns (I have yet to post) that I made for them yesterday again. 
Hmm... gotta crack my brain for new designs using the same ingredients again haha...
While getting all the things ready, I saw my new Alphabet cutters and my inspiration strikes me！TGIF！TGIF！No school tomorrow！So I cut out 'HAPPY WEEKENDS' using the pandan flavor bread and stacked with 2 different colored cheeses to make it looks more 'fun' and nicer. I used a mini straw to cut holes in certain letters to make it more visible.  

Messy's Chicken Karrage Crepe Wrap with Mayo. In 2nd tier : A food cup of Kani mayo, Rabbit molded hard-boiled egg & Cherry Tomato Rose resting on a piece of crepe.

Closed up of the Rabbit molded hard-boiled egg & cherry tomato rose decor. I learned to make the rose from one of the Bento Mama's blog but I forgot which blog (browsed too many blogs on that day) and can't find thru all my bookmarks, will keep on searching for it and update here once I found it.  YES！ YIPPIE！I FOUND THE BLOG！IT'S HERE  

I made a total of 4 different designs molded eggs and let Messy choose. She's lucky to choose the Rabbit because its the nicest among all... 

A bear W/O ears！Nice visible features though...

A Hello Kitty W/O ears too！Even the details are not so clear... 

Today there is no bento for Cheeky because she has got slight fever so I decided not to let her attend school but she ate the Star molded hard-boiled egg that turned out to be a Flower. 

Mini Tiny "Curry Puffs" Sammies Bentos

I thought I can finally rest after 3 continuation days of bento makings but last night Messy asked if I could prepare for her again this morning！I was surprised by her request！She's always so lazy and sometimes so reluctant to bring bentos to school when I wanted her to but now she wanted to bring, moreover today (every Fridays) she doesn't need to stay back for any activities！ Of course I'm more than happy and readily agreed to her request！Till now the question mark is still in my head but I can't be bothered to ask her, as long as she likes to bring. 
Today's sammies for both girls are only with butter spread and nothing else. They don't feel like having any fillings for their breads. I'm already done with all the apple wedges last night so these two bentos are my 1st real speedy ones among all！I just took less than 15mins for one bento.  

Messy's Mini Tiny "Curry Puffs" Sammies Bento with 3 Apple Wedges Rabbits

I used nonpareils color balls for the rabbits' eyes

 Cheeky's Mini Tiny "Curry Puffs" Sammies Bento with 2 Apple Wedges Rabbits

Messy cleared her bento box in school and even bought a fishball claiming she's still hungry after that. I think she just feel like eating it... 
She had plain porridge with some fried sweet preserved radish and olive vegetable for lunch, ate about 2 spoonfuls of rice, some spinach and a small bowl of wanton soup for dinner. Her intakes for this week are lessen by about 2/3 of her normal portion of a meal although she told me her appetite is getting better and she seems so tired. Went to bed at 10pm even though there's no school tomorrow. 

Cheesy Farm Animals Pasta Bento

The girls are having sammies for their bentos for the past two days so today I decided to cook Mac 'N' Cheese for a change. I didn't use macaroni here because I just bought 2 boxes of cute colorful animals shaped pastas and can't wait to use them！ This is the 2nd time I cooked Mac 'N' Cheese after my cousin gave me the recipe. Messy requested to have it again but NOT TOO CHEESY PLSSS... The 1st time I added ALL the cheeses because they have very short life-spans and I don't know when I'll be cooking this again as the responses are not very good due to TOO CHEESY... heehee 
So today, I cut down all the cheeses by half, add slightly more water and fresh milk (so it won't be too dry few hrs later when Messy eat for her recess break in school) hoping it taste just nice.  
I add a few of her favourite Sandwiched Tofu in flower shapes with Decor Blue Pearl Glimmer Gragees in the middle and fried spaghetti as the stalks but no leaves... Haha    

Messy's Cheesy Farm Animals Pasta Bento

Organic Farm Animals Vegetable Pasta

There's no bento for Cheeky because she prefer tomato sauce pastas. Anyway it don't really matter as more than enough foods are provided in her school. 
For me, I still prefer MORE CHEESE for this pasta (I'm a cheese lover) and find today's Mac 'N' Cheese too bland for me. When Messy came back from school, I noticed she didn't finished up her pasta, only those flowers are gone and asked her why? She told me it's too bland for her too！ Maybe her taste buds haven't return yet after recovered from fever. Hopefully she'll be better in a few days' time...   

Girl Sammies and Rabbits Sammies Bentos

Yesterday when Messy came back from school, she told me that one of her classmate, Brinda, tried the Flower Sammies I prepared for her in the morning and said it's very nice but she was too shy to have another. Brinda thought I made the salmon tuna fillings and Messy told her it is those canned tuna spread.  Upon hearing this, I told Messy I could prepare one set for Brinda the next day since I'll be doing for her anyway and she said okay. 
Actually Messy told me to make the same mini sammies because it's fast and easy to eat, just pop it into her mouth but I want to make something different. Haha... 
I just finished with two big round sammies (w/o any feature details yet) with salmon tuna spread + addition corn kernels for more sweetness and crunchness when Messy woke up at 6AM. She told me that she just want to have ONE sammies today. 
"The other is for Brinda, Darling." I told her... (has she forgotten??? ) "No need... her Mommy will be preparing food for her every Wednesdays." Messy said. "But I thought you said okay last night when I told you I can make a set for her too?" She smiled apologetically and replied "Hee... I wasn't really listening to you because I was watching the show. Never mind, give this to 妹妹 then." Haiz... what can I say besides "okay..."
Frankly, I'm a little disappointed...  but that's okay, at least I know that her friends like the bentos I made and there are always chances to make for them！   

Messy's Girl Sammies Bento with 2 Bear-shaped Fishcakes and 2 skewers of Edamame.  

Cheeky's Rabbits Sammies Bento with 2 Bear-shaped Fishcakes and Salad. The salad consists of Edamame, corn kernels and imitation crabsticks mixed with mayo.

Like what I'd mentioned in my post yesterday, Cheeky don't really like salmon tuna spread, she asked for the same butter + kaya spread again.

Flower Sammies Bentos

Hi friends, it's been a few days since I last update my blog. Actually I'm here everyday but went around viewing and reading posts from other Bento Mamas. Hee hee... 
Poor Messy has been sick from Good Friday (Easter Day) till now. She got slight fever suddenly on that morning when she woke up. Normally I'll have Paracetamol for stand-by inside the fridge so I gave her a dosage. Few hours later, her fever subsided but I still continued giving her the medicine according to the timing apart for the next dosage so that the virus would go away completely but this virus is so reluctant to leave her body！ It went on and off for 2 consecutive days and on the 3rd day, Sunday, her temperature shot up to 39 degrees and accompanied by cough！Me and my Mom hurried brought her to the nearest 24Hrs Clinic. The doctor prescribed some medications and put Messy on medical sick leave from her school the next day to make sure that she had adequate rest. 
Luckily the fever virus finally went away on Monday and Messy was well enough to go back to school on Tuesday although still has got slight cough and running nose. 
Her appetite wasn't so good after recovery so I decided to make her some sammies with canned salmon tuna which is her favourite and she only wanted that for the fillings.  

Messy's Flower Sammies and Friends Bento

Cheeky's Flower Sammies and Stars Bento

I make some sammies with butter and kaya fillings for Cheeky as she don't really like salmon tuna. 

Fried Udon Bento

On Thursday, 21st April, Messy is craving for one of her favourite fried Udon. It's been 1-2 months since I last cooked this. Hmm... I find Messy's likings in food somehow are slightly different from most of the kiddos. For my info, all the kids and most adults I've known don't like Udon as it is tasteless and you really have to add lots of seasonings and strong flavoured ingredients to make it delicious but still they won't like it. Haha...
I just add any ingredients Messy likes, light soy sauce and mirin when frying Udon. She like it so much and will have it for her breakfast, recess break-time in school and after school when she reach home. 

Messy's Fried Udon Bento.

Enlarged view of the quail egg flowers. 

These quail eggs are molded using flower shaped cookies cutters. I learned it from one of the Bento Mamas in Facebook. Here are the steps :

1. Boil the quail eggs and peel them while still hot.
2. Use a small cookies cutter (those metal types with deeper hollows) with the cutting part facing downwards. 
3. Put in one quail egg, press on it gently with your thumb or the back of a blunt plastic utensil for about 2-3mins or as long as you like. 
4. Now you have an egg flower w/o a mold！
5. Pop it in the fridge until it is completely cooled and done！

Easy uhh... Have fun trying this out and you can use other shapes！

This is cooked on 18th Feb 2011. 

Cheeky's Fried Ee-Mee Bento on 18th Feb 2011.