• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Free Email Series!

5 Time and Stress Saving Cooking Secrets

Free email series of my best tips!

Visit my other Site: Pancake Recipes
  • About
  • Contact
  • Free Email Series!

    5 Time and Stress Saving Cooking Secrets

    Free email series of my best tips!

  • Visit my other Site: Pancake Recipes

Rachel Cooks®

Food, Family, Fun

  • Recipe Index
  • Popular
    • Instant Pot Pinto Beans
    • Green Beans with Bacon
    • Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
    • Roasted Sugar Snap Peas
    • Beef Stew Seasoning
    • Chili Seasoning Recipe
    • Thousand Island Dressing
    • Poppy Seed Dressing
    • Copycat Panera Squash Soup
    • Chocolate Chip Blondies
    • Instant Pot Pork Loin Roast
    • Frosé
    • Best Chocolate Cake
    • Dill Vegetable Dip
    • Instant Pot Jasmine Rice
    • Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
  • Learn to Cook
    • Crostini
    • Delicata Squash
    • Butternut Squash
    • Kabocha Squash
    • Spaghetti Squash
    • Guacamole
    • Croutons
    • Snap Peas
    • Baked Potatoes
    • Baked Bacon
    • Balsamic Glaze
    • Whipped Cream
    • Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
    • Simple Syrup
    • Pickled Red Onions Recipe
    • Toasted Pine Nuts
    • Roasted bone-in Chicken Breasts
    • Poached Chicken
    • Roasted Whole Chicken
    • Easy Cheese Sauce

Dinner Made Easy:

Slow Cooker

5 Ingredients

Grilling

Make Ahead

Sheet Pan

Tacos

Pizza

Home Recipes by Type Pasta

Pizza Mac and Cheese Muffins

5
/5
40 mins
29 Comments
Jump to Recipe
By: Rachel GurkPosted: 02/27/2014Updated: 06/16/2021

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.

Pizza Macaroni and Cheese Muffins on RachelCooks.com

Kids and adults will both love pizza mac and cheese muffins — two of your favorite treats, macaroni and cheese and pizza, rolled into one cute package. What could be better? Serve with pizza sauce or marinara for dipping.

Stack of three mac & cheese muffins on black background. Text overlay reads "pizza mac & cheese muffins."

This isn’t my first go-around with turning macaroni and cheese into a muffin so that you can eat it with your hands. If you haven’t tried southwest macaroni and cheese muffins, be sure to add them to your list of things to try.

It’s obviously one of the best things ever. Macaroni and cheese….that you can eat with your hands. Are ya with me? Throw in the word “pizza” and I’m totally sold.

Oh, but the kids. Oh yeah. That’s right, I made these mac and cheese muffins for the kids. Uh….hmmm…yeah. For the kids.

Collage of 4 photos, with young child wearing cupcake shirt, eating mac and cheese muffins.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Now I just have to get myself a sweatshirt with a cupcake on it.

Front view of several mac and cheese muffins, with white bowl containing pizza sauce and wooden spoon in background.

I’m on a pizza kick lately (pizza, mac and cheese, I’m the picture of healthy). Did you try my macaroni and cheese pizza? Over the top good!

A couple of weeks ago I made pizza lasagna rolls (Yum!) and my family loves these pizza quinoa stuffed peppers. Pizza stuffed spaghetti squash is really good, too.  I often make one pot Pizza Pasta, only 6 ingredients and ready in 20 minutes. What can I say, I love pizza.

These mac and cheese muffins are really easy to eat….errr…I mean easy to make. (Eat too. Really easy to eat.)

Front view of several mac and cheese muffins, with white bowl containing pizza sauce and wooden spoon in background.

I start with a package of Parmesan and butter spirals, prepared as directed on the package. (I use Annie’s — I love it. Not sponsored.) If you want to use another boxed pasta dinner, no problem! 

Stir in a couple of extras (pepperoni! mozzarella! herbs!), scoop into muffin tins, bake, let cool a bit, dip-dip-dip in pizza sauce and chow down. If you need help with that, you can refer to the photos of E. She is pretty darn good at that step.

Front view of several mac and cheese muffins, with white bowl containing pizza sauce and wooden spoon in background.

Enjoy these! Pizza mac and cheese muffins are a super fun lunch or light dinner. Serve them with a bowl of soup or a green salad.

They also make a cool appetizer for a party. Arrange them on a platter with a bowl of pizza sauce for dipping. They are just fine at room temperature so don’t worry about keeping them warm. Perfect for game night!

Pizza Mac and Cheese Muffins and wooden spoon dipped in pizza sauce on black background.

If you’re following along with Mac and Cheese Mania, my co-host Brandy made Skillet Cheesy Gnocchi with Peas and Ham today. (YUM! I wish I was her neighbor.)

Mac and Cheese Mania logo

Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @rachelcooksblog on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!

Pizza Macaroni and Cheese Muffins on RachelCooks.com
Recipe

Get the Recipe: Pizza Mac and Cheese Muffins

5 from 2 votes
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Additional Time: 5 mins
Total Time: 40 mins
12 muffins
Print Rate Recipe
Prevent your screen from going dark
Kids and adults will both love these Pizza Mac and Cheese muffins — two of your favorite treats, macaroni and cheese and pizzas, rolled into one cute package.

Ingredients

  • one 5.25 ounce package of spirals with butter and parmesan macaroni and cheese (I use Annie’s)
  • milk and butter to prepare macaroni as directed on package (I used 1 tablespoon unsalted butter and 3 tablespoons skim milk)
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 cup shredded low moisture part-skim mozzarella cheese
  • about 1.5 to 2 ounces of sliced pepperoni, cut into quarters
  • pizza sauce for dipping (a cup or so should be enough)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 12 muffin tins with nonstick spray.
  • Prepare macaroni and cheese as directed on the box, except stir in oregano and garlic powder in addition to the cheese powder.
  • Once prepared, remove from heat and stir in grated mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.
  • Spoon macaroni and cheese mixture evenly into prepared muffin tins.
  • Bake for 17-20 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from the muffin tins. After I remove them, I usually place them on a sheet of paper towel just to remove some of the grease from the pepperoni.
  • Serve with pizza sauce for dipping.

Notes

  • Substitute other types of boxed mac and cheese dinners for the Annie's Butter and Parmesan macaroni and cheese.

Nutrition Information

Serving: 1muffin, Calories: 163kcal, Carbohydrates: 9g, Protein: 7g, Fat: 11g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 26mg, Sodium: 310mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 1g

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.

© Author: Rachel Gurk
Did You Make This?Be sure to upload a photo & tag me at @RachelCooksBlog. I love seeing what you made!
Share A Photo! Tag on Insta Rate It
Verdict: We all love these. Obviously. Shall we review? Pizza. Mac and Cheese. No fork required.
Changes I would make: NONE.
Difficulty: Easy.
Holiday Quick-Start Guide

Get my Holiday

Quick-Start Guide!

Free email series of my best tips!

FREE BONUS!

You May Also Like...

  • These southwestern mac & cheese muffins will be loved by both your buddies & your toddler. These "muffins" are made from macaroni and cheese and are spiced up with a southwestern flair. Get the easy and fun recipe on RachelCooks.com!
    Southwestern Mac & Cheese Muffins
  • Slice of macaroni and cheese pizza on white plate.
    Macaroni and Cheese Pizza with Bacon and Green Onions
  • Pasta in a baking dish with pizza sauce, ham, cheese, tomatoes, and spinach. A scoop has been removed.
    Pizza Baked Pasta - make it your own!
  • Slice of pizza revealing macaroni and cheese stuffed in the crust.
    Apple and Chicken Sausage Pizza with Macaroni and Cheese Stuffed Crust
Mac and cheese in stainless steel Dutch oven.
Previous Post
Rainbow Chard, Turkey, and Gruyère Skinny Macaroni and Cheese
Macaroni pasta and a white cheese sauce in a brown and white bowl on a wooden backdrop.
Next Post
How to Make Mac and Cheese in the Microwave

Reader Interactions

Leave a Review Cancel reply

Recipe Rating




The maximum upload file size: 1 MB. You can upload: image. Drop files here

  1. Marit Grimstad says

    March 1, 2014 at 10:19 am

    I enjoy reading food blogs. Lately I have read a lot of american ones, but start to wonder about american cooking. Every recipe contains a packet of this and a packet of that. A packet mac and cheese? the easiest thing in the world to cook. Apart from this love your idea

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      March 1, 2014 at 1:46 pm

      I do try to steer away from packaged food for the most part but I also have two little ones at home so sometimes I fall back on high-quality packaged foods such as Annie’s macaroni and cheese for convenience and speed reasons. All week I presented mac and cheese recipes though if you’re looking for something from scratch there is plenty to choose from! Thanks for reading!

      Reply
  2. Averie @ Averie Cooks says

    March 1, 2014 at 5:53 am

    Just saw these on FG. STUNNING images and what a super fun & cute idea! Pinned!

    Reply
    • Rachel Gurk says

      March 1, 2014 at 1:46 pm

      Thanks so much for sharing Averie!

      Reply
  3. Kayle (The Cooking Actress) says

    February 28, 2014 at 6:06 pm

    I love that these bites are transportable and that it’s a combo of 2 things I love-pizza and mac n cheeeese!!!

    Reply
  4. Hayley @ The Domestic Rebel says

    February 27, 2014 at 6:16 pm

    A no-fork-required pizza mac and cheese? DONE AND DONE. You are my hero. Also, I want to steal your babe’s shirt. SOCUTE.

    Reply
  5. Angelyn @ Everyday Desserts says

    February 27, 2014 at 5:07 pm

    I could down 17 of these, no problem. LOVE these!!

    Reply
  6. Nicole ~ Cooking for Keeps says

    February 27, 2014 at 2:58 pm

    Mmmmmm, I don’t have any kids yet, but I’d still eat these in heartbeat — in fact, even if I did, I dunno if they’d make it to their plates! Hahaha juuuust kidding….maybe. ;)

    Reply
  7. Katrina @ WVS says

    February 27, 2014 at 12:33 pm

    Holy smokes! I could definitely eat something like this every day! So fun!

    Reply
  8. Georgia @ The Comfort of Cooking says

    February 27, 2014 at 11:34 am

    What a fun treat for parties! Mac ‘n cheese muffins are so kid friendly… if the adults don’t gobble them all up first!

    Reply
  9. Laurie {Simply Scratch} says

    February 27, 2014 at 10:26 am

    I’m so all about hand-held mac and cheese! And your daughter is ADORABLE! <3

    Reply
  10. Jennie @themessybakerblog says

    February 27, 2014 at 9:39 am

    I love the idea of eating mac and cheese with your hands. This would be a great to-go snack. The fact that this is pizza mac and cheese makes it even better. What an adorable shirt.

    Reply
  11. Karly says

    February 27, 2014 at 8:58 am

    How stinkin’ cute are these little muffins? I love pasta, I love cheese, I love pizza, I love muffins. All around win!

    Reply
  12. denise says

    February 27, 2014 at 8:42 am

    they sound wonderful–would be great for a kid’s birthday party

    all this macaroni and cheese talk–I made it for dinner last night

    Reply
  13. Taylor @ greens & chocolate says

    February 27, 2014 at 7:06 am

    How cute are these?! These look so good…I would especially love the crispy, cheesy edges!

    Reply
  14. Kim | Just For Clicks says

    February 27, 2014 at 6:39 am

    I am a Mac n Cheese lov-ah. So I’m so loving this series. This recipe would be the perfect Friday Family Movie Night dinner… and I can’t wait to make it. Great great idea!!!

    Reply
  15. Charlotte says

    February 27, 2014 at 6:23 am

    I have never been more angry with you! Couldn’t you have posted this recipe BEFORE I made my meal plan for the coming week?! How am I meant to cope without these in my life now?
    Seriously though these look totally gorgeous, and I’m pencilling them in for the near future.

    Reply
Newer Comments

Primary Sidebar

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Rachel! Life can be complicated, cooking shouldn't be! I believe that you can put a delicious meal on the table without stressing. It's possible, and I'm here to help. Have a seat at my table...let's chat, eat, and have fun! Read more...

Air Fryer Instant Pot 30 Minutes One Pan Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Slow Cooker Vegetarian 5 Ingredients

Trending

Cooked salmon fillet on a grey-toned plate with cooked asparagus spears. The salmon is being flaked with a fork.

Air Fryer Salmon – easy and delicious!

Pizza pasta being scooped from a pan with a wooden spoon.

Pizza Pasta – 1 pan, 20 minutes

Image of a giant bowl of spaghetti with turkey meatballs.

Baked Turkey Meatballs

Asparagus Panzanella Salad

Seasonal

15 Healthy Sheet Pan Meals

Pile of crispy zucchini slices.

Air Fryer Zucchini Chips

These easy vegetarian cauliflower tacos are full of flavor and protein! Even meat-lovers are going to flip over these fun tacos. Whether it's for Meatless Monday or a full-on vegetarian lifestyle, you're going to love these! They're also easy to make vegan. Make them tonight! 

Cauliflower Tacos with Chickpeas – Vegetarian

Overhead view of cauliflower steaks on a sheet pan with parmesan and chimichurri.

Cauliflower Steaks Recipe

Opens in a new window Opens an external site Opens an external site in a new window
Free Bonus!

5 Cooking Secrets to Save Time & Stress

Free email series of my best tips and recipes!

Featured On:

Back to Top
  • About
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Work with Me
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility
© 2022 Rachel Cooks®
Site Credits Designed by Melissa Rose Design Developed by Once Coupled