I think I perfected the mac and cheese box hacking in my super-broke days right after college. You can only eat the bluebox so many times before you actually do get the blue box blues, and it’s boring as hell to eat anything straight-out-of-the-box. Throwing in mix-ins to a box or two of the store stuff and baking it for a few minutes with breadcrumbs makes everyone at the table get more nutrients while also satiating junk food cravings that usually lead us to reach for boxed mac anyway.
Though this is super easy, it goes deeper than adding just any old vegetable. You have to up the cheese and seasoning if you want it to still taste like mac and cheese, not just seasoned pasta.
If you want it to be a repeat hit in the house, tweaking to the point of cannabis casserole perfection is not hard at all. Break out all of those combos you have been dreaming about, because with the box as a stepping stone, you’re just a hunk of cheese and some frozen spinach away from an acceptable and marginally well rounded dinner.
Baked Mac and Cheese Bake
Danielle Guercio, 2017
Serves 5, 9mg THC per serving estimated
- 2 Boxes mac and cheese
- 6 Tbs plain unsalted butter
- 2 Tbs cannabis infused butter*
- 1 bag frozen broccoli
- ¼ lb shredded gouda cheese
- ¼ cup half and half
- 5 cloves minced garlic
- ¼ cup water
- Pepper to taste
- ¼ c breadcrumbs
- ¼ c fried onions
- 1 Tbs olive oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large oven and microwave safe casserole dish. Boil a large pot of water and add some salt. Cook boxed pasta for 7 minutes until al dente.
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Related Story: This Genius Pasta Morphs Into 3D Shapes When Added To Water
Defrost frozen broccoli by either adding to the boiling water, roasting with the garlic, or microwaving. Strain pasta and/or vegetables and add to casserole dish.
Using the hot pot you cooked the pasta in over low heat, melt the plain butter and add the manufacturers cheese pouches, along with the half and half and water. Add half of the additional cheese and stir until melted. Add cannabutter and some pepper and mix until smooth.
Pour cheese mixture over the casserole and stir until well mixed. Smooth the top of the mixture to make a quasi even surface. In a small bowl or mug, mix together breadcrumbs, fried onions, and oil. Spread the mixture over the top of the Mac and cheese.
Bake the whole thing for 20 minutes at 350 degrees to heat through and toast up the top. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving if you want it to have some shape, then serve! You can also dig right in if presentation doesn’t matter. Try not to eat the whole thing because it makes fabulous leftovers.
*Cannabutter
Decarboxylate 3.5g of finely ground cannabis at 225 degrees for 20 minutes in a tightly sealed, oven safe container. Put cannabis in lidded mason jar or vacuum sealed bag with cannabis and one stick of butter. Heat in water bath just under boiling for at least 1 hour. Strain and chill to use in recipes.
Make this mac your emergency dinner fallback, because it comes together from, mainly pantry and freezer items in as little as 30 minutes. Keeping butter and milk on hand helps to make nights like this run even smoother, and if you medicate your meals, same goes.
