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The boy and I really like macaroni and cheese as a staple easy dinner—it's warm, filling, and comforting, and even if one or both of us is feeling ill or finicky it's usually on the list of things that are okay to eat. The problem is that while it's not hard to make from scratch, it's not the fastest thing in the world.
A few days ago, I was planning to make it for dinner, and it occurred to me to make extra and freeze it, since it's no harder to make twelve servings of macaroni and cheese than it is to make four. I was trying to figure out the best way to do it (make a big batch in a pan and then slice it up? freeze it in a big block and then chisel off pieces? what?) when it occurred to me that I could make it in a muffin tin and have individual macaroni and cheese servings ready for whenever, that I could warm up for a quickie dinner or the boy could warm up on his own when I'm not around.
This worked far better than I would have expected! I decanted the frozen blobs from their muffin tins today, and they're now in the freezer. I'm including the method I used under the cut, in case you want to try this yourself.
( Single-Serving Prepare-Ahead Macaroni and Cheese )
I'm also experimenting with making steel-cut oatmeal in the rice cooker. If it comes out nicely, that will solve my steel-cut oatmeal dilemma. (The dilemma, in short: it takes longer to make than I want to spend in the morning. But if I can use the delay function on my rice cooker to get it to start my oatmeal automatically at 7am....) Will report back on how that works!
EDIT: The oats cooked up with a beautiful texture, but an odd, bitter flavor. On a hunch, I sniffed the can of uncooked oats; same odd aroma. I think I've had these too long and they've started to go rancid. Oh well. Will call the cooking method a success and buy a new tin of oats!
A few days ago, I was planning to make it for dinner, and it occurred to me to make extra and freeze it, since it's no harder to make twelve servings of macaroni and cheese than it is to make four. I was trying to figure out the best way to do it (make a big batch in a pan and then slice it up? freeze it in a big block and then chisel off pieces? what?) when it occurred to me that I could make it in a muffin tin and have individual macaroni and cheese servings ready for whenever, that I could warm up for a quickie dinner or the boy could warm up on his own when I'm not around.
This worked far better than I would have expected! I decanted the frozen blobs from their muffin tins today, and they're now in the freezer. I'm including the method I used under the cut, in case you want to try this yourself.
( Single-Serving Prepare-Ahead Macaroni and Cheese )
I'm also experimenting with making steel-cut oatmeal in the rice cooker. If it comes out nicely, that will solve my steel-cut oatmeal dilemma. (The dilemma, in short: it takes longer to make than I want to spend in the morning. But if I can use the delay function on my rice cooker to get it to start my oatmeal automatically at 7am....) Will report back on how that works!
EDIT: The oats cooked up with a beautiful texture, but an odd, bitter flavor. On a hunch, I sniffed the can of uncooked oats; same odd aroma. I think I've had these too long and they've started to go rancid. Oh well. Will call the cooking method a success and buy a new tin of oats!
