Annie's Mac and Cheese With Breadcrumbs and Bacon (Yay, Bacon!)

I have been compensated by General Mills for this post; however, I am sharing my own thoughts. All opinions are my own. #DiscoverWhatsGood #ad Annie’s Mac and Cheese with breadcrumbs and bacon. We’ve also made it with broccoli, butternut squash, peas, and leftover taco meat or shredded chicken.

As all busy Moms know, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish everything we set out to do. Although my sister and I really try hard to keep our children as “unscheduled” as possible, when it comes to religious education, they go when they’re told to go.

In our hometown, there are many children receiving religious education through our church, so they do the best they can to fit all of our little ones in. Truth be told, I have no idea how they manage to balance the schedules so well, but they really try hard to make sure that the younger kids get the better time slots. As it should be, right?

For years, we’ve happily benefited from this as our kiddos were in the earlier time slots, but now that our oldest two are almost in middle school, they go to religion much later now. This means that they’re usually in class during our traditional dinner time schedule. So what’s a Mom to do to keep her kids satiated and focused in class when they’re really thinking about what’s for dinner?

Well, this is where we switch gears completely and serve them a much heartier after-school snack than we do on most days. Usually, they just eat something small to tide them over like an apple or granola bar because we eat fairly early around here. But on religion nights, they don’t get to eat until after 7:30 pm (yikes!).

So on religion nights, we give them a small, piping hot bowl of Annie’s Mac and Cheese as their after school snack. It’s just the right amount of food they need to make sure that they’re not starving when they go to class, but that they still have room in their bellies for dinner when they get home. Our kids love that they get to eat their favorite brand of mac and cheese and we love knowing that they’re really paying attention in class.

Since this little snack is now on our weekly menu, we always make sure to pick up extra boxes of Annie’s Mac and Cheese whenever we’re at Walmart. They have a wonderful selection of natural and organic products for us to choose from each week.

To keep this after school snack interesting, we like to jazz it up with different add-ins each week. The recipe below simply includes some added breadcrumbs and bacon. (Yay, bacon!) But we’ve also made it with broccoli, butternut squash, peas, and leftover taco meat or shredded chicken. The options are really endless.

ANNIE’S MAC AND CHEESE WITH BREADCRUMBS AND BACON

Ingredients:

1 box of Annie’s Classic Macaroni & Cheese
3 slices of crispy cooked bacon
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 TB butter
3 TB milk

Directions:

Step 1: Boil pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Step 2: In a saucepan, combine cheddar cheese, butter and milk over low heat until melted. Add pasta into saucepan and mix together.

Step 3: Pour mac and cheese baking dish and top with breadcrumbs and bacon. Broil in oven for 5 minutes, or until breadcrumbs turn light brown. Serve hot.

Happy snacking,

Denine