Homemade Mac and Cheese in a Jar (So Easy a Kid Can Make It)

Raise your hand if “what’s for lunch?” gets asked at your house about 47 times a day.

If you have kiddos, you know the drill. They’re hungry, they want something warm and familiar, and you want something that won’t wreck your grocery budget or take 30 minutes of hands-on effort.

That’s exactly why I fell in love with this classic mac and cheese in a jar. It’s a single-serve, shelf-stable meal your kids can pull right off the pantry shelf and make themselves. No freezer needed. No mystery ingredients. And once you see how simple it is, you’ll wonder why you ever paid for the boxed stuff.

Why Make Mac and Cheese in a Jar?

Boxed mac and cheese is cheap, sure. But when you make it yourself, you get three things the box can’t give you:

• Control over every ingredient — you know exactly what’s going in because you put it there
• A frugal pantry staple — bulk powders cost pennies per serving
• Grab-and-go convenience — a shelf-stable meal ready whenever hunger strikes

This is a single-serve recipe, perfect for a quick lunch or an after-school snack. Want to feed the whole family? Just double or triple the amounts. But I love keeping these single-serve so my kids can make their own without any help from me. (More on that in a minute.)

The Ingredients

Here’s what goes in each jar. You’ll keep the dry sauce mix separate from the pasta, which I’ll explain below.

For the pasta:

• 1/2 cup elbow macaroni (any pasta works, but classic elbows give you that nostalgic feel)

For the cheese sauce (this goes in a small bag):

• 2 tablespoons cheddar cheese powder
• 1 teaspoon whole milk powder (for creaminess)
• 1 teaspoon butter powder
• A pinch of salt (go light — the cheese powder is already salty)
• 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder

That mustard powder? It’s the secret ingredient. You won’t taste mustard, but it’s what gives homemade mac and cheese that rich, tangy depth that makes people ask what you did differently.

No butter powder on hand? No problem. Just leave it out and stir in 1 tablespoon of real butter when you make the sauce.

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How to Assemble Your Jars

1. Measure the dry sauce ingredients into a small ziploc bag and give it a good shake to mix.
2. Place the sealed bag inside a half-pint jar.
3. Add your 1/2 cup of macaroni around the bag.
4. Pop on the lid.

That’s it. If you want extra shelf life, you can vacuum seal the jar. And if you’re trying to cut down on plastic, a jumbo muffin liner can hold the sauce mix in place of the baggie — the standard-size liners are a little too small, but the jumbo ones work.

Mixing the sauce ahead of time is a small, intentional step that pays off later. When your kiddo grabs this jar, the work is already done for them.

How to Cook It

When you’re ready to eat:

1. Boil 1 cup of water in a small saucepan.
2. Set the sauce bag aside and add just the noodles to the boiling water.
3. Return to a boil, then set a timer for 9 minutes, stirring occasionally so nothing scorches on the bottom.
4. Remove from heat. Don’t drain! You’ll have about a tablespoon of starchy water left, and that’s exactly what forms your creamy cheese sauce.
5. Dump in your bag of cheese powder and stir well.

The milk and cheese powders like to clump, so I get in there with a flat spatula and press out any lumps. But honestly? Biting into a little pocket of cheese never hurt anybody.

No microwave in my kitchen, so I do everything on the stovetop. But if you have one, this works in the microwave too — just follow the same method you’d use for boxed mac and cheese.

A Heads-Up on Cheese Powder Ingredients

Now I have to be real with you about something, because it matters.

I’ve ordered from a popular bulk-ingredient company for years, and their products have historically been wonderfully clean — milk powder that’s just whole milk, cheese powders with two or three simple ingredients. So when I grabbed their cheddar cheese powder for this cookbook, I didn’t even think to check the label. I just assumed.

Big mistake. After I’d already filled my jars, I flipped the container over and found Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 on the ingredient list.

Artificial dyes are not allowed in our house. I’ve seen firsthand how they affect children, and that’s a line we don’t cross. So from here on out, I’ll be making these jars with white cheddar cheese powder OR Hoosier Hill’s Premium Cheddar Powder instead (which uses natural colors). Both options skip the artificial coloring entirely and still tastes great!