Happy Cheese Lover's Day- Bless your Heart Church Extra Cheesy Mac Recipe

 Happy Cheese Lover's Day! I don't know about you but my house has never needed an excuse to eat cheese. In fact, it's one of the only few things that Tiny eats. Tiny is my allergy kiddo who basically needs his own bubble. He has a gagillion food allergies, environmental allergies, immune compromizations, and other things that he makes things a bit challenging sometimes to just make sure he lives. His oppositional defiance disorder, ADHD, and food allergies are constantly at odds with each other in some of the most extreme ways- like the kid practically has an eating disorder because of this shit combination. Because of his allergies, often times, basic foods have to be made from scratch. I do a lot of scratch cooking because he is allergic to soy, ALL the nuts, eggs, and because some nuts- like almonds, are in fruit families (apples) I have to be super careful of giving him too many things that contain apple concentrates or juice because he gets hives. -_- Like I said, it's a whole thing. 

As a typical five year old, Tiny loves mac n cheese. He can't really eat the Blue Box cheesy noodles often because it irritates his eczema. So, we make it from scratch. My favorite recipe is my Aunt Flora's. A born-again southern woman that is a fantastic cook. My aunt is VERY involved in her tiny, southern church. She attends every get-together, social, potluck, and service. There is a lot of food that goes around. A lot of mac n cheese specifically. This is my favorite recipe. I call it the "Bless your heart" extra cheesy mac because as someone that is NOT a southern nor baptist, "bless your heart, child. Here, have a helping to feed your soul," was a common phrase as another helping of something was heaped on a plate. 

Bless Your Heart Church Extra Cheesy Mac Recipe

You need:

• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 16 oz bag of elbow macaroni 
• 1 8 oz package shredded mozerella
• 1 8 oz package shredded mild cheddar
• 2 eggs (ironically, Tiny can have eggs if it is cooked)
• Crispy onions
• Salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 8 oz diced ham or Spam
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/2 green pepper, diced
• 1/2 red pepper, diced

Preheat oven to 350F 

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, sauté onion, and peppers with your ham or Spam. Salt and pepper to taste.
2. Place a medium size pot for boil on the stove. 
3. In a separate bowl, mix eggs and evaporated milk until the eggs are evenly distributed. 
4. In a second separate dish, combine your cheeses. Set aside.
5. Drain noodles. Place half the noodles in a 9x13 baking dish. Evenly distribute half the onion/ pepper/ ham mix. Add a layer of your cheese mix. 
6. Pour half of the milk/ egg mixture over your cheesy noodles. 
7. Continue to layer- noodles, sauté mixture, cheese, milk mixture until all in the pan. 
8. Top with a layer of crispy onion straws. 
9. Bake at 350-degrees for 45 minutes. 
10. Serve hot. 

This dish makes a LOT of mac and cheese. I had leftovers for three days. Largely because after I spent the time to make this, Tiny refused to eat dinner.