Trying Viral RECIPES So You Don’t Have to
I saw this recipe on Instagram and was intrigued. It’s bacon cheeseburger mac and cheese that’s high in protein, with an easy Crock Pot recipe and tons of leftovers. What’s not to like?
You start with the beef into the pot, with some crushed tomatoes, garlic, and a few spices, and salt and pepper. I used two pounds of beef, although I noticed today the recipe says 3 pounds.
To make the cheese, you blend up cottage cheese, shredded cheddar cheese and American cheese. This recipe calls for 150g of each type of cheese, but we only had shredded, so I used 300g of that. That didn’t look like nearly enough cheese for the tub of cottage cheese, so I added another handful. I used a stick blender and am wondering if the blender or food processor would have had more fire power for better consistency.
After the beef cooks, you add the pasta, caramelized onions, and the cheese sauce. We added two diced red peppers too to up the veggie content.
We’ll be eating this stuff for days to come, but it didn’t come out very good. Hannah said it was trying to be too many things, the bacon was unnecessary, everything barely made it into the Crock Pot, thankfully I didn’t add that third pound of beef. The texture was off, more soup like that mac and cheese like. It has potential, but trying to wing it with the cheese mixture was probably not the best idea. Also, the amounts of the ingredients were annoying. For example, my full tub of cottage cheese has 680g in it, the recipe calls for 900g, which I can’t fathom fitting into the pot with a whole extra pound of ground beef too. Also, with 300g of cheese and 8 slices of bacon, I’m just a touch skeptical on the macros listed in the video.
Not the easiest Crock Pot recipe, either, because the beef cooks first, before adding the half-cooked pasta, you have to have two separate sessions of cooking to get this all ready, no set it and forget it.
Grade: 5/10
Justin Miner
@justinminergain