mac and cheese casserole

Today I decided to take boxed mac and cheese to the next level. This was definitely not the first time something like this has happened - the last time I added goat cheese and sour cream to a Trader Joe's boxed white cheddar mac and cheese shells.

This time I made it into an extra cheesy casserole. I started with two boxes - one of the white cheddar shells and another of the regular cheddar noodles. Once cooked, I put in the cheese sauce packets, some heavy cream, some salted butter, cayenne, black pepper, and a bunch of shredded Italian cheese.

I packed it into a buttered casserole dish, then sprinkled a layer of cheese on, then a layer of panko (because I didn't have breadcrumbs, and another layer of cheese.



I put it in the oven with the broiler on high. Be sure to watch it because mine started to burn before I pulled it out. The beauty though, is the solid layer of crust, and how it crunched when I cut it. As anticipated, it was fully cheesy underneath.



I ate it with some roasted broccoli, some roasted eggplant in tomato sauce (in a can from Trader Joe's), and some salsa + sriracha + greek yogurt (to make up for the fact that I didn't have sour cream). Delicious.