Creamy baked macaroni and cheese

From Spend With Pennies

Ingredients

• 12 oz dry macaroni (for 1/2 batch use 2 cups)
• about 1 1/2 cups chopped ham
• ¼ cup butter
• ¼ cup flour
• 1½ cups milk
• 1 cup light cream
• ½ teaspoon dry mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 can condensed cream of cheddar soup (optional)
• 4 cups sharp cheddar, divided
• ½ cup fresh parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain and run under cold water.
3. Melt butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. Whisk in flour and let cook 2 minutes while stirring. Slowly whisk in cream, milk, mustard powder and onion powder. Cook over medium heat while stirring until thickened.
4. Remove from heat and stir in parmesan cheese & 3 cups cheddar cheese until melted. Add soup if using.
5. Toss cheese sauce & macaroni noodles together. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Top with remaining cheese.
6. Bake 18-24 minutes or until bubbly. Do not over cook. Cool 10-15 minutes before serving/

Notes from Jill's Kitchen: This was a last-minute addition to this week's menu after we had a bunch of leftover ham I needed to use up. Sam and I brainstormed what to do with it and this is what we came up with. As far as homemade mac and cheese goes, this one is probably the creamiest I've had. I didn't even use the cream of cheddar soup, which is supposed to make it even more creamy. Although, now that I am thinking about it, I did use whole milk since that is all we had in the fridge, so that probably helped in the creamy department. I cut the recipe in half and used 2 cups of pasta and it was a pretty good amount for Sam, Bean and I.