STORY BY SHELBY JENSEN
Confession: I love boxed macaroni and cheese.
Something about that bright orange almost-cheese sauce is repulsive, but also comforting and delicious.
Back when I lived at home, it was easy to make a whole box, eat what I wanted, and store the rest for later.
Now, in the dorms, the nearest stove is four flights of stairs away, and I don’t have 20 minutes to boil water and follow instructions.
Luckily, Easy Mac exists. Single-serving, microwaveable cups of the same stuff as in the box.
Problem solved, right? Well, mostly.
My experience with Easy Mac is that it simply does not measure up to the boxed kind. It still has the same unnatural color, but it’s not as gooey, cheesy, or delicious.
I got fed up with this fact and set out to make an improvement. This is what I came up with.
Recipe:
1 cup Easy Mac
Butter or margarine
Milk
Extra cheese (optional)
Instructions:
• Fill the cup with water until just below the fill line. Add milk to make up the difference.
• Cook for 3.5 minutes, or however long the directions specify
• Stir the noodles. Add a little less than a tablespoon of butter, then cheese powder. If you have any cheese (parmesan is my go-to, but anything works), throw in a generous amount of that. Stir again.
• Marvel at how much better it is than normal Easy Mac.
This is currently the only way I will eat Easy Mac.
I think it tastes much more like you would get from the box. I recommended the changes to my roommate, who agrees, “It does make it taste a lot better.”
While it is far from gourmet, it’s still a quick and easy meal you can make pretty much whenever.
You can also add butter and cheese to your Ramen, if that’s more your style. I tried it, and it tasted fine, but the texture was too mushy for my liking.
And there you have it folks. It’s not revolutionary, it’s not healthy, and it’s not perfect, but it is an improvement on the original.
I highly recommend you try it out!
