what do you add to Macaroni cheese to make it more interesting?

I dont use the box mac & cheese. I add veggies and/or tuna to make it a meal.

I usually add bullion and some green peppers to add color. Yesterday I made it with ground beef, onions, and sweet red peppers. It's different all the time.

Here in the United States one can buy a box mix called hamburger helper that has you add browned beef. I don't care for box mixes but have made my own by adding the browned beef to my own mac and cheese. I also give the cheese just enough hot sauce to give the dish a bit of zing. We also have a product that combine tomatoes, onions and jalapeño peppers. It come from mild to hot. It add a nice touch to mac and cheese.

A sprinkle of sugar in addition to the salt is one of my kids' favorite ways to eat it. And of course you can add crumbled bacon, chili powder, a splash of tomato sauce, or sausage. Pretty much anything goes well with macaroni and cheese.

Put some garlic powder, some crushed red pepper and it should work.

I usually make it with sharp cheddar, but if I have it on hand, I also sprinkle the top with grated Parmeson or Romano cheese. Adding diced ham or crumbled bacon perks it up some. I've thought about sauteeing onions and throwing them in, but I'm usually too lazy for any extra steps. I look at those boxes of mac and cheese mixes and wonder if people know what they're missing if they've never had home-made.

There are some good variations here: http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/2471756.aspx

I just add a little cayenne pepper powder to my pasta and it usually does the trick. It's either that or a little fresh or dried parsley. Adding a few herbs to the dish according to your taste makes it extra special. Or since you don't use the packet mix, try other type of cheeses and see if that will spice up your mac and cheese.

I don't usually add too much to it...but I use it for a base for making many dishes. One I used to do when the kids were little was to make the mac and cheese then put it in a 9x13 cake pan. I baked the mac and cheese for a while then topped it like we would a pizza.....I made it alot when the kids had a sleep over!

hi how about the dish I found one time when I was cooking for myseof and id not have quite as much mac abd cheese as I wanted but had maybe two thirds of a serving of good chili so I mixed it with the mac and cheeese adding some garlic and some chopped sweet green peppers and some minced fresh onion and it was so good. the chili pepped up the mac and cheese and the macaroni smoothed out any over spicyness of the chili . I never eat hot spiced chili mine is always the milder version anyway I called my dish chiliMac.

I saw this sandwich that a traveling food vendor sells loads of. Take the macaroni and spread in in a 1" layer in a pan. Set it in the fridge and let it chill a touch. Toast pieces of Texas toast available in any store and butter generously. Cut a slab of macaroni the size of the bread, put it on the bread. Add barbeque (available ready made in the stores), top with caramelized onions and the other slice of buttered toast. It is probably a heart attack in a sandwich, but, oh my, it looked so good and people were looking up on the Internet where his stops would so they could get one of these sandwiches, so it must be good.

I like the ground pepper idea that the first person had. I've also known people who eat it with ketchup, which seems kind of crazy. You could experiment around with things like cilantro, spices, etc to make it interesting. I've also heard of people putting in cut-up hot dogs. Not sure if that's your piece of cake, but I thought I would throw it out there.

i have not had macaroni cheese in such a long time. I guess that now you have mentioned it i really should make it as i like to have different things. I also never use a packet mix, i like to make it fresh myself, it tastes a hell of a lot better, the only thing that i really add to mine is ham. I buy some thinly cut ham in and slice and dice some small pieces and just add it, it just gives it that little extra, i like to add quite a bit of pepper also.

Mmmm. Mac and cheese is awesome. Sometimes I add hotdogs that are cut up. You can also add cream of mushroom soup and canned tuna. It is delicious!

I have added diced ham to my mac and cheese before and it's pretty good. I've also added hamburger meat to my mac and cheese to make kinda like a homeade hamburger helper type of thing. And it's pretty good too.

Ohh great idea, it sound very tasty, now i wanna eat that... I think you can add on it some cream and Mushrooms..