Otter's Rock

As I was taking a few minutes to make myself some home-made macaroni and cheese, I thought to myself, "Self, there are probably other people on teh intarwebs who would love to make themselves a really-easy single-serving of homemade mac-and-cheese, if only they knew how."  And lo!  here is my Christmas gift to you all.

You will need:
a bowl
a spoon
a microwave
Macaroni (idk, half a cup? however much you will eat? remember that it expands when you cook it)
water (enough to cook the macaroni)
Cheese (a couple of slices)
Salt & Pepper
Optional:
a plate
Milk
flour/bisquick
dried onion flakes

What you do: you pour macaroni in a bowl, the same bowl you plan on eating out of.  Remember that macaroni grows, so like, a little more than half of how much you think you will want to eat.  Then you pour water in the bowl, so there's more water than macaroni (but not too much more).

Microwave your macaroni-and-water, stirring occasionally.  It'll take like five minutes?  Maybe six?  You'll want to stir it a couple of times in there to keep it from clumping up and to check you have enough water in there.  You can add more water as needed.  Also, the water will bubble over as you cook it so I would recommend putting a plate under the bowl to catch it.  If you have too much water when you're done cooking the macaroni, you can pour some out. But you do want some water still in there for the sauce.  Basically, if water is visible from the top it's too much, but if you don't see any when you dig down to the bottom of the bowl there's too little.

Once the macaroni is tender enough to eat, put your cheese in.  I put in like two slices of velveeta and some Parmesan (maybe a tablespoon or two?  Idk, I just dump some in).  (I also tear up the cheese into small bits so that it melts faster.)  If you've got dried onion flakes in your spice rack, a few shakes of those can pep it up.  Adding a splash of milk and a tablespoon or two of flour or bisquick will make the sauce creamier.  You stir all this up and microwave it for another minute or so (enough for the cheese to melt).  Then you stir it and add salt and pepper to taste.  If it's not cheesy enough, you add another slice of cheese.  If it's too cheesy ... realistically, is it ever too cheesy?

Tada!  There you have it!  In five minutes, with very little more effort than it would take to make the boxed kind, you have homemade macaroni and cheese.  And all you have dirtied is a bowl, a spoon, and a plate.