Best Ways to Make macaroni and cheese

People tend to look down on boxed macaroni, but it's a great tool if you're feeling lazy, and doesn't have to be the fattening sodium-bomb people make it out to be. There are tons of ways to round out a box of macaroni and make it into a delicious, and slightly more balanced meal. There are also now tons of options for boxed macaroni - if you're really worried about the stuff in the blue box, there are tons of organic, low-sodium, and even vegan options.

You can add veggies to boxed macaroni, cauliflower and broccoli are classics, but you can add anything you like. Some add peas, diced carrots, or onions, which add a bit of variety in texture and flavor. Leftover meats, like chicken or beef, also round out the meal a bit more.

You can also consider adding seasonings, like mustard powder, paprika, garlic powder, to your mac and cheese. You can also consider garam marsala for a sort of curry mac and cheese.

Finally, you can also add extra cheese. If you have a bit of parm or cheddar in your fridge, grate it and mix it in near the end of cooking. It amps up the flavor and makes you feel like you're really cooking!

The most reliable way to make a smooth, delicious mac and cheese is with a bechamel. It sounds fancy, and kind of scary, but it's not hard and uses ingredients you likely already have in your pantry or fridge.

To start, take a saucepan that will hold the capacity of sauce you'd like to make. Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in the saucepan, and add the same amount of flour. Whisk to combine and cook for a couple minutes, or until it's homogenous and the raw flour smell is gone.

Add milk, a little at a time, and stirring after each addition. Adding it all at once may produce lumps, so go slow to start. Add milk until the mixture is just a little bit thicker than plain milk. This should be about a cup and a half to two cups. Then, let cook for a couple more minutes until it thickens a little bit more.

Then, off the heat, add grated cheese to the bechamel. Technically, this now makes it a mornay. Add about a cup and a half of cheese and stir until it's fully melted and incorporated into the sauce. From there, add your cooked noodles and it's ready to serve as is.

If you're really strapped for ingredients, it's possible to make mac and cheese with only three ingredients. You'll need a can of evaporated milk, cheese, and pasta.

Cook your pasta to the desired doneness. Then, in a saucepan, heat up a can of evaporated milk. Add in your cheese and stir until melted and fully combined. Season to taste, mustard, paprika, and garlic powder make great additions.

This works only with evaporated milk, as opposed to regular milk, because of the higher concentration of proteins once the milk has been evaporated. Do not attempt this with regular milk, or you will end up with a gloppy, separated mess.

Add your macaroni and from there it's ready to serve or be baked with breadcrumbs if desired.