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Easy Baked Mac & Cheese Appetizer

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This post is sponsored and this shop has been compensated by BabbleBoxx.com on behalf of RAGÚ®.  All opinions are mine alone. #RAGUPartyPleasers #sponsored

This easy baked mac & cheese appetizer recipe couldn’t be any easier.  The hardest thing about it is cooking the elbow macaroni and, as we know, that isn’t hard.  The mac & cheese is saucy, delicious and fun to eat right out of the muffin cup!

A hand holding the bitten in easy baked mac & cheese appetizer

Cheesy Goodness

Can you see how saucy and cheesy this easy baked mac & cheese appetizer looks?!  It actually sticks together better than the photo above because I took a bite and then had to take a photo and then another photo.  All the while trying to keep the muffin cup filled with cheesy goodness in my hand.

Where is Christopher when I need him?

I talk about how easy it is to make the Best Appetizers for game day in my other RAGÚ® post: saucy beef appetizer cups.  But I will touch upon it here as it bears repeating.  I encourage you to go to the RAGÚ website for tips and other recipe ideas.

Have you tried this RAGÚ® Double Cheddar sauce yet?  If you haven’t, you must run out and get some!  This delectable sauce features cheddar, Parmesan and Romano cheeses! Truth be told, I could eat it by the spoonful, straight out of the jar.  It’s that creamy smooth and cheesy rich.

AND the premium blend of cheeses in the RAGÚ® Double Cheddar sauce makes the best mac & cheese!  Your kids are going to love it.  They will turn up their noses on boxed brands and demand in their tiny high pitched voices, “RAGÚ! RAGÚ! …”

I found myself chanting it in my head as I made this delicious and easy baked mac & cheese appetizer.

One thing I love about this quick and easy appetizer is that you can eat it directly out of the muffin cup.  Another thing I love is that you can adjust how saucy you want it to be by adding more of the RAGÚ® Double Cheddar sauce, or less, though why you would want to add less is a complete mystery to me.

On to the Easy Baked Mac & Cheese Appetizer

Double Cheddar RAGÚ with Traditional old world style RAGÚ in front with pasta and ground beef in the background

As I stated before, I made two recipes using RAGÚ sauces, so I photographed them together.  I can’t even decide which is my favorite.  I will have to experiment over and over to see.  The trials we food bloggers have to endure!

I start by setting some water on to boil.

Elbow macaroni, RAGÚ Double Dheddar<sup>®</sup> and some muffin tins in the background

I measure out 1/2 a box of elbow macaroni, crush some butter crackers and get the RAGÚ® Double Cheddar sauce ready.

Did I mention that there are only 3 ingredients in this recipe?

Cool!

Once the water comes to a boil, I salt it and add the elbow macaroni.  I stir it and set the timer to 8 minutes.

DING

I drain the macaroni and place it in a metal mixing bowl.  I also preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Elbow Macaroni cooked, ready for the RAGÚ to be poured in!

Time to pour the RAGÚ® Double Cheddar on the macaroni.  Look at how thick and creamy that is!!

Hand pouring the double cheddar RAGÚ in the cooked elbow macaroni for the easy baked mac and cheese appetizer

I use a rubber spatula and stir in the sauce so that it coats all the elbow macaroni!

double cheddar RAGÚ mixed with the macaroni for the easy baked mac and cheese cups

Mmm.  I let the messiness of the bowl stay just as it is, because we love keeping it real here on Dishes Delish.

I fill each muffin cup full of mac & cheese appetizer.

RAGÚ coated Elbow macaroni spooned into muffin cups for the easy baked mac and cheese cups

Time to sprinkle the crushed butter crackers on the mac & cheese appetizer!

Butter crackers sprinkled over the easy baked mac and cheese appetizer ready to be baked

Sprinkle, sprinkle!!

I place the pan in the oven for 15 minutes.

Plated easy baked mac and cheese appetizer with some other appetizers in the background

Then I pick a baked mac & cheese appetizer up and take a bite, but you’ve seen that one already!

A hand holding the bitten in easy baked mac and cheese appetizer

So delicious!  When you serve these at your next game day party, all you are going to hear are people saying, “Mmmmm!”

I hope you enjoyed this recipe!

Please feel free to Yum the recipe to Yummly, Pin any photo to Pinterest and leave me a comment.  What is your favorite game day appetizer?

And as always, may all your dishes be delish!

5 from 17 votes
A hand holding the bitten in easy baked mac and cheese appetizer
Print
Easy Baked Mac & Cheese Appetizer
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
28 mins
 
Saucy, delicious and easy!!!
Course: Appetizers
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: mac & cheese
Servings: 12 pieces
Calories: 76 kcal
Author: Elaine @ Dishes Delish
Ingredients
  • 1/2 pound elbow macaroni
  • water to boil
  • salt for water
  • 1/2 jar RAGÚ® Double Cheddar Sauce or more
  • 1/4 cup crushed butter cracker crumbs or bread crumbs
Instructions
Make it
  1. Set water on to boil
  2. Salt water
  3. Place elbow macaroni in boiling water
  4. Time for 8 minutes until al dente
  5. Preheat oven 350 F
  6. Drain elbow macaroni and place in a mixing bowl
  7. Pour as much RAGÚ® Double Cheddar sauce as you want over the macaroni
  8. Mix to combine
  9. Fill 12 muffin cups with mac & cheese
  10. Sprinkle butter crackers on top of mac & cheese
  11. Bake 15 minutes
  12. Plate
  13. Eat
  14. Smile
  15. Enjoy
Recipe Notes

If you used a lot of this delicious sauce, you can serve the muffin cups with spoons if the mac & cheese is too gooey

Nutrition Facts
Easy Baked Mac & Cheese Appetizer
Amount Per Serving (1 pieces)
Calories 76
% Daily Value*
Sodium 12mg 1%
Potassium 42mg 1%
Total Carbohydrates 14g 5%
Protein 2g 4%
Calcium 0.6%
Iron 1.7%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Comments

  17. Such a great idea to put the mac and cheese into a muffin paper. Your cheese ragu sounds fantastic and I would put it on everything. I am a cheese fanatic, you know

    Reply

  19. That is so clever making these in the muffin pan, so convenient. I am a big cheese head so saving this for maybe tomorrow if its not too late. Thanks for sharing your recipes!

    Reply

  25. I never thought of myself as a “big” eater, but there’s something so satisfying about eating a bunch of these cups as opposed to a pile of mac n’ cheese on a plate that I have to wonder! Fun recipe and great appetizer.

    Reply

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