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Smoked Bacon Macaroni and Cheese

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A delicious 4 cheese macaroni and cheese dish filled with smoked bacon. This dish was inspired by Patti LaBelle’s Over the Rainbow Mac n Cheese. Seriously delicious mac n cheese that is loaded with cheese, cheese and more cheese. Plus some bacon for good measure!

Smoked Bacon Mac and Cheese by Cravings of a Lunatic

Thanks for stopping by today. I have a delicious mac n cheese recipe for you. This dish was inspired by Patti Labelle’s Over the Rainbow Mac n Cheese. If you have not tried hers yet you are really missing out. It’s beyond decadent, it’s filled with 10 kinds of cheese. She does a version with lobster too which makes me wish I wasn’t allergic. I made a couple of small changes, more due to geography than anything else. Some cheeses can be hard to find here. Plus my daughter, mini-me, is picky about cheese. The apple does not fall far from the tree since I am too.

Mac n Cheese Mania if being hosted by Rachel Cooks and Nutmeg Nanny. I am thrilled to be involved. You can hop over to both their sites to see what they cooked up for you today.

Head over to either, or both, of their sites and you can link up your favourite mac n cheese recipes for chances to win amazing prizes.

Mac and Cheese Mania is being sponsored by Door to Door Organics and OXO.

Prizes up for grabs include Door to Door Organics Gift Cards, OXO Gift Baskets, Zak Designs Prize Pack, a year’s supply of Cabot cheese, a Vermont Creamery gift basket, a risotto kit from Marx Foods, Barilla pasta, Anolon Advanced Bronze 4.5 Qt. Tapered Stockpot, Rachael Ray Stoneware Casseroval, Wusthof CLASSIC Studio Block Set, Microplane Graters and Kitchen Tools, a SavorX Starter Block with spices and Le Cordon Bleu by Swissmar oven to table roasters. All giveaways open to US residents over the age of 18 only.
Mac n Cheese Mania Event

I had a blast making my mac n cheese. I don’t make it very often so I got a little carried away and made three versions to try out. Needless to say our freezer is well stocked with pasta right now. The perks of getting carried away. Hope you love this version. It’s my favourite. What can I say, I’m a bacon girl.

Smoked Bacon Mac and Cheese by Cravings of a Lunatic

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Smoked Bacon Macaroni and Cheese #maccheesemania
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
45 mins
 
A delicious 4 cheese macaroni and cheese dish filled with smoked bacon. This dish was inspired by Patti LaBelle's Over the Rainbow Mac n Cheese. Seriously delicious mac n cheese that is loaded with cheese, cheese and more cheese. Plus some bacon for good measure!
Ingredients
  • 500 gram package of dried noodles I used Cappelletti
  • 8 tablespoons 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 cups of shredded mild Cheddar cheese
  • 2 cups of shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
  • 1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
  • 2 cups half-and-half
  • 1 cup of Velveeta cheese cut into small cubes
  • 2 large eggs lightly beaten
  • Salt to taste
  • White pepper to taste
  • 1 pound smoked bacon cooked and cut into large chunks
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray. Set aside.
  2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat, once it's at a rolling boil add a generous amount of salt. Toss in the noodles, and cook until tender, about 1 minute less than the package instructs..Don't overcook the pasta, you don't want it to be mushy. Remove from heat, drain the pasta and set aside.
  3. In a medium sized saucepan, melt eight tablespoons of butter. Stir in the cooked noodles. Then toss in all the cheeses, but reserve 1 cup of sharp cheddar. Add the half-and-half, and the eggs to the pot and mix well.
  4. Sprinkle with salt and white pepper.
  5. Transfer the mixture to the casserole dish that you had set aside earlier. Toss the rest of the cheese over top and add the remaining butter as well.
  6. Pop it in the oven and bake it until it starts to bubble up, and you can barely contain yourself from eating it right out of the oven. This should take about 30 to 35 minutes.
  7. Remove from oven.
  8. Serve with a big old cheesy smile!
Recipe Notes
Recipe adapted slightly from Patti LaBelle's Over the Rainbow Mac n Cheese

Smoked Bacon Mac and Cheese by Cravings of a Lunatic

Other Fabulous Bloggers Participating Today:

Jalapeno Popper Mac & Cheese by Heather’s Dish
Buffalo Cheddar Mac and Cheese by Eats Well With Others
Creamy Spinach Artichoke Macaroni and Cheese with Gouda by Sarah’s Cucina Bella
Light Sweet Potato Mac ‘n Cheese Recipe by Cookin’ Canuck
Macaroni and Cheese Fritters by Amuse Your Bouche
Skinny Chicken Mac and Cheese Casserole by A Zesty Bite
Creamy Pancetta + Leek Macaroni and Cheese by Simply Scratch
Pizza Mac and Cheese by Very Culinary
Crab Mac and Cheese by Dine & Dish
Bacon & Eggs Breakfast Mac & Cheese by Sweet Remedy
Fried Mac & Cheese Balls by The Little Kitchen
Sweet Pork Macaroni and Cheese by Oh, Sweet Basil
Butternut Squash Quinoa Mac n’ Cheese Bake by Queen of Quinoa
Lightened Up Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese by Prevention RD
Butternut Mac and Cheese with Pretzel Crust by Healthy. Delicious.
Skinny Greek Mac and Cheese with Crunchy Pita Chip Topping by The Law Student’s Wife
Potato Skin Mac and Cheese by Eat Your Heart Out
Homestyle Baked Mac & Cheese by Pocket Change Gourmet
Bacon Mac and Cheese Egg Rolls by Miss in the Kitchen
Pepper Jack Mac and Cheese by Crunchy Creamy Sweet
Blue Cheese Bechamel Mac and Cheese by Sweetphi
Korean Mac & Cheese by Cooking with Books
Black and Blue Mac and Cheese by Fabtastic Eats
Tomato and Leek Mac and Cheese by Susie Freaking Homemaker
Healthier Mac & Cheese with Chipotle Peppers by Go Gingham
Mac and Cheese Ice Cream by Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body
Blue Cheese & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese by Gimme Some Oven
Poutine Mac and Cheese with Andouille Gravy by Climbing Grier Mountain
Double Smoked Chicken Mac and Cheese by Girl Carnivore
Creamy Greek Yogurt Mac and Cheese with Peas and Bacon by Running to the Kitchen
Nudel Gratin by Crumbs and Chaos
Mushroom and Truffle Sea Salt White Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese by Big Bear’s Wife
Roasted Poblano and Goat Cheese Mac by Daisy at Home
Creamy Cauliflower ‘n Cheese with Bacon by Barefeet in the Kitchen
Wisconsin Cheese, Brats, and Onion Macaroni and Cheese by a farmgirl’s dabbles
Spinach Queso Mac & Cheese by Bake Your Day
Roasted Garlic Mac and Cheese with a Pancetta Parmesan Crust by Mountain Mama Cooks
French Onion Mac & Cheese by Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts
Healthier Macaroni and Cheese by Texanerin Baking
Pulled Pork Mac and Cheese by CafeTerraBlog
Macaroni and Cheese Stuffed Peppers by Cook the Story
Jack Daniels Mac and Cheese by The Slow Roasted Italian
Lobster Mac and Cheese by FoodieCrush
Green Chili 5-cheese Baked Mac and Cheese by A Southern Fairytale
Homemade Elbow Noodle Tutorial + a Recipe for Roasted Veggie Mac by Bakeaholic Mama
Salsa Verde Mac-n-Cheese (two ways) by Eat2Gather
Cauliflower Mac and Cheese with Crispy Panko Topping by The Lemon Bowl
Mushroom and Swiss Mac and Cheese by Cookistry

Smoked Bacon Mac and Cheese by Cravings of a Lunatic

Thanks so much for joining us today for this fun event. Be sure to hop around and see all the amazing mac n cheese recipes on the list.

Toodles and smoochies! xx

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Comments

    • Would work beautifully with veggie bacon. I like bacon of all kinds. My daughter’s bestie is vegan so we do the vegan bacon often. It’s really good. Would be perfect in a vegan version of this recipe. xx

      Reply

    • Ha, I’m reading it going “I should likely go on a diet sometime in my life”. But then I think, “nah”. Thanks Amy. xx

      Reply

    • If it’s a wrong I broke the rules a lot this week.

      Thanks lady. That glitter spoon is one of my favourites. So cute.

      Reply

    • I had only ever had boxed growing up so now it’s a brave new world out there. So much fun. Thanks so much Annamaria. xx

      Reply

  10. OMG smoked bacon?! That is so good in mac and cheese. You totally have my attention. Again. It’s been so rainy here that some cheesy comfort food is really what I need. Thank you for making this for us!

    Reply

    • Me too. I’m such a bacon freak. I always have to make double the amount because I’m stealing it out of the pan as I go.

      Reply

  14. TEN DIFFERENT CHEESES?! Whoa. I’m not sure I could even list ten different cheeses! Yours looks crazy cheesy even though there aren’t quite SO many as all that!

    Reply

  15. You’re the first blog that is teasing me with Mac n cheese. You see, I’ve never made it myself… How weird is that? The reason is probably that my husband is not a big cheese fan so I’d have to eat it all myself, but seeing this… You have me drooling early in the morning!! Although the ten cheeses from the original sounds like a bit of overkill… 🙂 I’ll stick to your version!

    Reply

    • I never made my own till last year. I always hated the stuff, but I’d only ever had the box stuff. Making your own is a game changer. Easy and delish.

      Reply

  18. Smoked bacon? Heck ya, sign me up!!! I love the Cappelleti noodles! Seriously, who wouldn’t want bacon and Mac n’Cheese right? Your four different cheeses all together in one happy dish look bloody fantastic:-) Hugs, Terra

    Reply

    • Thanks lady. I loved this mac n cheese. And I love different noodles, they are hard to find here so I scour stores in the city for ones I can’t find locally. xx

      Reply

  21. Whoa. This sounds incredible! Definitely saving this for later. I’m just about mac-and-cheesed out. 😉 Like you, I also made several versions!

    PS – None of the links after Mountain Mama Cooks work. They all direct us to one of your images. Just so you know. 🙂

    Reply

    • Thanks Erin. I had so much fun doing this event.

      I fixed all the links the first day so I’m not sure why they aren’t working for you. I just checked them again and they’re working for me. I spent a couple of hours fixing links the day we posted because so many weren’t working. Made for a long day.

      Reply

      • Haha. What?! I swear they weren’t working when I posted my comment! I even checked from two different browsers. CafeTerraBlog’s link had been strikethroughed (if that’s even a word) and they all pointed to an image. Bizarre! Happy it seems to have been a fluke. 🙂 And links not working? I better go through the ones on my post! I remember people not posting on time but I didn’t recall any of them not working (maybe because I’m bad and haven’t gone through them all 🙁 )

        Reply

        • Do you have broken link checker Erin? Email me for deets if not. It’s an amazing plugin, it notifies you when links are dead. Works awesome. I only know because I had thousands of broken links from a photo incident with G+ (never delete albums if you were ever on blogger, even if you’re not now). So now I check them weekly.

          I run so many group things that I’ve gotten used to clicking through all the links. But it could have been a glitch. If a plugin went wonky or my site got weird it could make it do weird things. I know I had an issue the other day where some of the pin it buttons were interfering with images. It’s never ending. Anyone who says blogger is a hobby and not time consuming is on crack, I swear. It’s a full time job.

          I think all of mine are correct now so just copy mine. Or email me and I’ll send you my html.

          I appreciate the heads up though. How would we ever know there are issues if people don’t speak up. I never mind peeps popping by to tell me stuff. Twice now I’ve had promosimple knock my ads completely off my page. Once for half a day, a very busy day, but luckily a friends notified me so I could fix it as soon as I got home. That was freaking horrible. I think I missed 20K is ad impressions by the time I fixed it. I hate promosimple so very much.

          xx

          Reply

  26. Kim, I just found this recipe today and it looks amazingly! I hate to be picky, but I want it to be just right when I make it. Except for the ingredient list, I don’t see any further mention of the bacon! I just wondered if you mixed it into the pasta and cheese and then baked e whole thing, or did you add it on top and bake, or just add it on top after it finished baking? No matter what, bacon can only enrich Mac and cheese, but I want to get it right! Thanks for the recipe and the bacon info!

    Reply

    • Hey Cindy, I’ll pop in the post and check that immediately. Thanks for the heads up. The downside of working for yourself is not having an editor to proof read.

      Pop it in before you bake or after. I tend to add half before then save half for sprinkling over top with dishes like this.

      Reply

    • Ha, I don’t blame you. A lot of people feel that way. I hadn’t eaten Velveeta since I was a kid and my mom used to make us cheese & crackers with it, lol. But I figured what the hell, and went with it. If you can’t stomach using it I’d swap it for more cheddar. You could also give colby a try, I love it but it’s a bit hard to find in our town. Try giving it a kick with some Tex-Mex cheese, it’s a mix of Queso Quesadilla, Pizza Mozzarella, Cheddar, and Monterey Jack cheeses. I use that for making fundido and it melts beautifully. I have to admit I’m a sucker for Pizza Mozzarella. I tend to prefer white cheeses over all the orange ones out there. I don’t know why, maybe just a personal preference. Costco sells some fabulous pizza mozzarella. And their parmesan reggiano is to die for. I pop the rind in with my spaghetti sauce as it simmers and it gives it such a rich flavour.

      Reply

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