Macaroni & Cheese cups

Who doesn't love Macaroni & Cheese?  This cheesy goodness can be made with lots of different cheeses resulting in slightly different cheesy delicious flavors.  For todays, cooking playdate we thought this would be a perfect kid friendly bite sized meal/snack.

I originally saw a photo of this from the blog cupcakes and cashmere (here) while browsing the internet for food ideas for a bridal shower I'm hosting in May.  Yes, I know its a bit early but I wanted to test out the recipes beforehand and not wait until the last minute!  Today, we kept it simple so the kiddos would enjoy it as well.  I followed this simple recipe from allrecipes.com as suggested from her blog post. 

Ingredients:

2 c uncooked elbow macaroni
1 tbsp butter
1 egg beaten
1 c milk (I used 2%)
1 1/2 c shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 c mozzarella cheese
1 c parmesan cheese
1/2 c seasons dry bread crumbs
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Cook pasta until al dente.  Drain and return back into pot.

Mix in butter until pasta is evenly coated.

Beat egg in separate bowl then stir into pasta until evenly coated.

Stir in cheese until melted.

Stir in milk until all the pasta appears to be evenly covered.

In separate bowl mix together olive oil, bread crumbs and salt.

Spray muffin tins with cooking spray then spoon pasta mixture into each tins.
sprinkle bread crumb mixture over each and then top with a pinch of cheese.

Bake in 350F oven for 30 mins.

Remove and let cool before popping out of the muffin tin.

*We tripled the recipe and ended up making about 54 bite sized macaroni & cheese cups which was plenty to share amongst the three of us.  I think they turned out well and were quite tasty although I did add 1 c parmesan cheese to give it a little kick.