Mac and cheese cupcakes

A surprise gift from my husband and a silk saree along with sweet parcels from my in-laws, wishes and blessings from my parents, facebook messages, phone calls from friends, microwave oven from Karthik's friends, what else I will ask God on a birthday. Everybody made my day very special.

Since I was busy with the phone calls in the morning, I didn't cook anything for the lunch, did a simple yet delicious kesari. I like kesari a lot, my mom always make kesari on my birthday. I wanted to surprise my husband with the special food for the dinner.

I did a couple of different recipes which I did not tried before. One such recipe is this.
'Mac and cheese cupcakes' - These are cutie little pasta, cheese basket with some veggies in it.


Long time ago, I tried a similar kind of pasta cheese cupcakes in a baked potato basket. It was an experimental recipe, combining two different recipe which I saw in the Food network show. I named the new recipe as 'Potato Pasta Basket', you can find the recipe here. On my birthday I wanted to try the same recipe but wanted to have it simple. So I did cheese cupcakes without Potato basket. This is the Gaida's recipe from Food network program.

Ingredients : 2 cups --- Cooked pasta*** 1 cup --- Sharp Cheddar cheese 1 cup --- Mozzarella cheese 1 cup --- Cherry tomatoes halved 1 cup --- Spinach chopped nicely 1 cup --- Bread crumbs Olive oil to drizzle Salt and Pepper for taste ***Any kind of small shaped pasta, I used 100% wheat crown shaped coloured pasta. Cook the pasta as per the instruction given. Method : --- Preheat the oven to 370 F --- Grease the muffin tray and dust with the bread crumbs. This will help the cupcakes to take out of the pan easily, or else the cheese will stick into the pan a lot. --- Mix the spinach, tomatoes with salt and pepper and keep it aside. You can use any kind of vegetables in it. Blanched beans, broccoli, zucchini, eggplant ... --- Fill the half of the muffin pan with cooked pasta. --- Add some cheese of your favorite on top of the pasta. --- Now add the mixed veggies over the cheese and again top them with the cheese layer. --- Over the cheese layer, add left over pastas or veggies if any. Or else top them with the bread crumbs, approximately 11/2 to 2 tsp. --- Drizzle some olive oil on top of bread crumbs. --- Final layer again with loads of cheese. --- This is simply layering different veggies, pasta and cheese inside the small pan. --- Bake them for 12 - 15 minutes, untill the cheese are melt on top, also you can see golden brown color on sides. --- Before taking them out, give some time to cool the cupcakes.


Thanks to Gayathri, (Kitchen - The Chef's Paradise), when she called to wish me, she suggested me a key ingredient 'spinach' for this cup cakes, when I was stuck in a confused stage. You can hide more veggies inside the cheese and can make kids to eat. This Mac and Cheese cup cakes are kids friendly dish.
You can also serve these cutie little cupcakes as an appetiser for any party. Easy and different, I got more applause for these cuties !