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So I bet you’re probably thinking that having parents who write a food blog would mean that our six-year-old daughter is a little ‘foodie’ herself? And she’s willing to try many of the delicious foods that we make for our blog?
Nope.
Our six-year-old is a very picky eater, and we can count on two hands the foods she willingly eats. (And it’s not for our lack of trying to get her to try new foods!)
Like most kids, one of Emma’s favorite foods of all-time is macaroni & cheese – and this recipe for our Copycat Kraft Macaroni and Cheese comes very close to recreating both the flavor, as well as the distinctive yellow-orange color of the cheese sauce from the package. (As anyone with a young child knows, sometimes, it’s as much about how the food looks – never mind how it tastes!)
We’ve used a blend of cheeses and seasonings to create this copycat recipe. Also included in the recipe are ideas for adding in some pureed vegetables like sweet potato or cauliflower to the cheese sauce, just to get some vegetables in somehow!
And our toughest critic? What does she think about how this mac & cheese sauce tastes? Her words: “This is VERY GOOD!”
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Copycat Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients
- Pasta of your choice
For the cheese sauce
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup WisPride
- 1/2 cup Velveeta
- 8 slices yellow American cheese
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon Colman’s dry mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2–3 drops Tabasco sauce
- Orange food coloring (optional)
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions.
- To prepare the cheese sauce, place all ingredients into a medium sauce pan and heat until the cheese is melted and the mixture blended. Remove from heat and store in refrigerator for later use or mix one cup of heated cheese sauce to three cups of cooked pasta and serve immediately.
- Note: If you want this to look and taste just like the boxed mix, use all of the salt, butter and use orange food coloring. Otherwise, you can cut back on the salt and butter and omit the food coloring for a healthier version. This will all depend on how finicky your child is.
- Another tip to make this extra healthy is to add cooked pureed sweet potatoes and/or cooked pureed cauliflower with a little milk to thin them down. The taste only changes a bit and you are getting a healthier version of the copycat recipe into your child. We slowly added these vegetables over time to get our daughter used to the taste and now her cheese sauce is 1/3 cheese sauce, 1/3 pureed sweet potato and 1/3 pureed cauliflower. (She knows we add in the vegetables and is fine with it!)
- In our house we keep prepared sauce and cooked pasta in the refrigerator. When someone is hungry for macaroni and cheese, we just heat 3 parts pasta to one part sauce and microwave. In about two minutes, hungry children are eating lunch or dinner.
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Hello Martha,
Thank you for posting this recipe. I have to eat gluten free so I make everthing from scratch. I finally found a pasta I like and wanted to get the flavor of the box, for comfort food, although I like your vegetable additions. The pasta I use is Ronzoni GF, it tastes close to regular pasta, and holds up in recipes.
Thanks for the gluten free suggestions Rae – we hope you enjoy the recipe!
It looks great however they failed to mention what WisPride is. I googled it and saw it was cheese but which kind? Cheddar? sharp? Help
Hi Deborah – You can really use any variety of Wispride you’d like, but if you are cooking this for a child, I’d probably recommend the cheddar.
What is wispride?
Hi Melody – Wispride a flavored cheese spread that you can usually find in the refrigerated section of your supermarket.
Hi, This recipe sounds great but I have a question. What is Wispride please? I want to try this but I’m missing this ingredient. Thanks.
Hi – Wispride is a cheese spread – usually found in the refrigerated cheese section at the supermarket. Hope that helps!
I have never seen Wispride, either. I noticed the mention of Cheese Wiz in another comment, is this similar or is the commenter just being sarcastic? Thanks, in advance, for your comment.
Hi Linda – Yes – Wispride is a cheese spread similar to Cheese Wiz (probably found near the Velveeta) – although Cheese Wiz is in a can and you’d spread Wispride with a knife. The commenter was indeed being sarcastic about using processed ingredients. With this recipe, we weren’t trying to go the all-natural route – just trying to come up with an alternative to paying so much for a small box of mac & cheese. Hope that helps!
Have you compared the cost of this recipe and Kraft?
No Sally – we haven’t!
If your going to use artificial cheeses like Velveeta and WisPride and orange food coloring, you might as well just feed your kids the boxed stuffed!
Thanks for the suggestion Kristine!
I totally agree. I was just about to ask how this is any healthier than the boxed stuff. It’s actually LESS healthy than a natural/organic boxed mac and cheese like Annie’s … it’s got cheese wiz and food coloring for gosh sakes!
Key words “COPYCAT KRAFT MAC & CHEESE”. I don’t think she made any claims on her mac & cheese recipe being organic and natural (although I would eat this over boxed any day since I know exactly what is going in it and how much). It’s so easy to go on someone’s page and make negative remarks. I think it’s just bad manners. It’s like going over to someone’s house for dinner and just picking it apart. If you don’t have anything nice to say, may as well not say it at all. *shaking head*
Thanks Sandra!
Hi,
I came across this on Pinterest andit looks WONDERFUL!! Jut the thing my 9yr. can cook on one of his cooking days!
I was wondering however, which type of WisPride did you use? (Sharp or Extra Sharp?)
Thanks!
Kat
Hi Kat! We used the Sharp version! Hope you all enjoy the recipe!
I’m cooking for 4 children under 7 and LOVE trying to get my family eating “out of the box”. I managed to stumble across your blog and have fallen in love. Beautiful blog, beautiful food! I just moved my blog and have started over from scratch to be self hosting… Ugh! I can’t wait to refill my new homestead with great posts like these! Keep on cookin’! Hope you’ll find time to stop by and check out my place. 🙂
Sweet Hersey Living
Hi Cara – Thank you so much for your very nice feedback – you’ve made our day! The food over on your site looks delicious! (I think we have similar tastes in food!) Thanks again for stopping by and introducing yourself! Martha
I love mac & cheese and have a picky eater too..mine just happens to be a grown man. I’ve tried different mac & cheese recipes and although he’s admittedly not much of a mac & cheese fan anyway, he’d just as soon have the stuff in the blue box to anything else so I’ll definitely give this a try!
Thanks for visiting Justin! I hope he likes it!!
I have a picky 4 year old and I’m sure he’d LOVE this! Sounds wonderful. New follower. 🙂
Hi Kelly – I hope he likes it! Thanks for visiting our site!
Martha