February 20, 2022

Tomato Macaroni

Want a delicious weeknight recipe that will
satisfy both children & adults alike?

I love having recipes that not only are super easy to make, that my kids all like, but that are comfort food for me as well!

Tomato Mac is one of those recipes. It was a meal that my mom made when I was growing up & when I was newly married it was one of my go-to recipes because I knew how to make it by heart! My children will all eat it, 1 will eat it every day if I gave her that option. And the best part is that in its simplest form it only needs 4 ingredients!

It’s not a gorgeous meal when plated, but does that really matter for kids? 😊 But I bet you, if you try it, it’ll become a staple for your family.

Ingredients:

1 lb. elbow noodles
1 24oz jar of favorite spaghetti sauce
1 package of hot dogs, cut into pieces
2 C shredded Cheddar or Colby Jack cheese (more or less depending on your preference)
(optional) Spices to taste

Steps:

Get some water boiling in a pot. Once the water is boiling, I dump the uncooked pasta as well as the cut up hot dogs in together.
Once pasta is cooked, strain & then pour pasta & hot dogs back into the pot.
Pour the spaghetti sauce over the noodles & hot dogs, if adding extra spices add those in now. Mix well.
Pour the pasta & hot dogs into a 9” X 13” baking dish.
Top with cheese
Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is starting to get crispy/brown

Serve with some delicious garlic bread & Caesar salad!

NOTES:

Now I know, some people are looking at the hot dog ingredients & think I’m crazy. But seriously! My kids hate it when I don’t include the hot dogs, and as an adult, it really does add a unique (in a good way) & delicious flavor.
I’m not sure about your family, but my family believes cheese it a food group all its own. So, when I wrote the recipe out, I had to guess on the 2 Cs of cheese, because I honestly just grab handfuls of cheese when I’m putting the cheese on the noodle mixture until it looks right! So, use however much your family likes. But the goal is to bake it until the top is slightly bubbling & the noodles on the edges are starting to get crispy.
Sometimes if I’m running short on time, instead of baking this dish at 400, I’ll just put it under the broiler (watch it carefully) & then pull it out once I see the cheese start to bubble. It usually takes about 5-10 minutes, depending on how high you have your broiler.

Let me know if you make this & what you think of it!