Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese

My grandchildren love macaroni and cheese so I always include it in my Thanksgiving menu. Making it in a slow cooker is helpful because it frees up the oven for the turkey and the stove top for other side dishes.You can put it together several hours ahead of time and then forget about it until it's time to serve dinner. When I make it myself, I know exactly what is in it. Did you know boxed macaroni and cheese often contains sodium tripolyphosphate, an ingredient that is also used to make detergent and soap? 

This recipe is flexible. It can be adjusted to fit the size of slow cooker you use. The amount of cheese and kind of cheese you use can be adapted to suit your taste preferences and the size of your slow cooker.

Some notes about cheese
I use only white cheese with no added color. Artificial dyes are harmful. Even a natural coloring agent may cause problems. Annato, a red plant extract that comes from achiote shrub seeds, is used to give many types of cheese an orange color. The Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology did a study which linked annato to IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) If you want your mac and cheese to be more colorful, add a pinch of the spice turmeric. Turmeric is high in anti-inflammatory nutrients and it will give your mac and cheese a nice golden hue. Buy block cheese and grate it yourself. Packaged grated cheese contains cellulose which is commonly made from wood pulp, Cellulose is used to keep the grated cheese pieces from clumping together. It is currently being debated whether this is harmful. But do you really want to eat wood pulp with your cheese?

Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese

I have a large size slow cooker. The amounts listed are for a 6 quart slow cooker. If you have a smaller slow cooker, use only half the amount for each ingredient.

Cook two 12 oz. packages of elbow macaroni according to the directions on the package. 

Drain the macaroni.

Rub butter over the inside of your slow cooker. Some folks like to use plastic slow cooker liners. But I'm skeptical about their safety. There's no proof that the chemicals used to make the plastic liners leach into the food but there are no definitive studies that show that the chemicals don't leach either. Since I'm trying to avoid chemicals and eat real food, I just don't take the chance. Besides, the butter adds an extra oomph of flavor.

Dump the drained macaroni into the slow cooker. If this seems to be too much macaroni to fit in your size slow cooker, take some out and save it to use in another recipe such as macaroni salad. You need to have at least 3" to 4" of space left after you put in the macaroni so that you have room to add and mix in the remaining ingredients. 

Add 1 tsp. of salt, 1/2 tsp. of ground black pepper and a dash of turmeric.

Stir in 4 beaten eggs.

Grate 4 cups of your favorite kind of white cheese or a mixture of these. White cheddar, mozzarella, and monterey jack are all good. . 

Stir 3 c of the grated cheese into the macaroni.

Pour enough milk over the macaroni mixture to just cover and stir again.

Sprinkle 1 c of cheese over the top of the macaroni mixture. Do not stir.

Put the cover on the slow cooker.

Cook on high for four hours.