Home Made Mac N Cheez

This is one REALLY GOOD, yummy comfort food!

Ingredients:

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 onion (sauteed)

1 lb of pasta (I used rigatoni)

1 cup mayo

box grater full of grated cheeze (I used medium cheddar)

2 soup spoons full of sour cream

1/2 package of turkey bacon

Topping:

3 tbs butter

big handful of crackers, smashed

How I made it:
Start off by getting getting your pasta pot on the heat. Preheat oven to 350. You will have everything else done by the time your pasta is finished cooking. Mince onion and saute with oil or butter and salt and pepper until transparent (5-10min).
Slice strips off the end of turkey bacon until you reach the middle. Place strips on a plate and microwave for 1 min ( I freeze my turkey bacon so I do this to warm it up so I can separate the pieces, If you like crisper bacon increase microwave time). The great thing about slicing off the end is they end up in perfect small strips.
In a large bowl combine soup, mayo, sour cream and cheese. Mix well. Add bacon and onion. Drain pasta ( as rule I always salt my pasta water for enhanced flavor). Add pasta to bowl, stir together.
Melt butter and add crackers. Spray 9/13 pan with pam and add mixture, top with cracker mix. Bake uncovered 30-40 min until cheese is bubbly and top is crisped. Feeds and ARMY!




I served my mac with broccoli, it was AMAZING! Normally I don't add sour cream, but I was running short of mayo and had a little left over sour cream so I just threw it in. I really like the added richness and tang, but just the mayo is great too.
VARIATIONS: I'm not the greatest with measuring things out and like to throw things together so I vary this recipe a lot. I normally use 1 lb of italian seasoned ground pork (SO GOOD) instead of turkey bacon, I didn't have any pork so I used the turkey bacon for the first time last night and really enjoyed it. The great thing about turkey bacon is it is precooked and LESS fattening. I have also added some mushrooms to the onion saute and that was great too. This recipe is perfect when you have left over cheeses in your fridge, different cheese combos work really well ( ie colby, monterey jack, havarti) they just give better flavor so BE CREATIVE! To make it less fattening you could definitely use low fat cheese, mayo options and like i said it tastes great with or without sour cream. IF you have any leftover/stale chips they work great in this too because the heat of the oven crisps them back up-I never throw away chips (they are my favorite casserole topping). Egg noodles also work really well with this.

It might sound like a lot of steps ( I was trying to be thorough in writing it up), but it comes together so fast. Most of it is just throwing the ingredients in the bowl. If anyone does any different variations I would love to hear about it as this is a dinner staple in my house and I love to mix things up!