Easy No-Bake Mac and Cheese - $2.29 a serving

Name: Easy No-Bake Mac and Cheese
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 2 cups macaroni, whole-wheat, uncooked; 1 1/2 cups milk, low fat (1% or less); 2 tablespoons flour; dash black pepper; 2 cups Cheddar cheese, low fat, sharp, shredded

Makes 4 servings · american · easy · USDA MyPlate Kitchen (public domain)

$9.17

basket total, in-store

$2.29

per serving (4 servings)

-$2.33

cheaper than the $4.62 median dinner

What it costs at Kroger - Kroger On the Rhine

Every non-staple ingredient matched to a real product on the shelf, priced on 2026-07-19 at Kroger - Kroger On the Rhine (ZIP 45202). 1 pantry staples excluded. 1 match is flagged for you to check rather than silently swapped. Prices change without notice - this is what we paid attention to on that date, not a quote.

The recipe says	We found	Package	Uses	Costs	Left over
2 cups macaroni, whole-wheat, uncookedCHECK THIS	Barilla Whole Grain Penne Non-GMO and Kosher Pasta Made With Whole Wheat · 16 ozSUBSTITUTE	$1.99	240 g	$1.05	$0.94
1 1/2 cups milk, low fat (1% or less)	Kroger® 1% Lowfat Milk Half Gallon · 1/2 gal	$2.59	360 ml	$0.49	$2.10
2 tablespoons flour	Kroger® Bleached All Purpose Flour · 5 lb	$2.59	15 g	$0.02	$2.57
2 cups Cheddar cheese, low fat, sharp, shredded	Kroger® Reduced Fat Sharp Cheddar Shredded Cheese · 8 oz	$2.00	226 g	$1.99	$0.01

Where the money goes

low fat milk drives this basket at $2.59, 28% of the total. The next biggest lines are all purpose flour ($2.59) and low fat sharp cheddar cheese shredded ($2.00). $5.61 of the basket - 61% - is package remainder: food you buy because stores sell packages and recipes call for amounts. It does not vanish, it sits in your kitchen for the next meal.

What carries into next week

Kroger® Bleached All Purpose Flour · about 2253 g left, $2.57 of value
Kroger® 1% Lowfat Milk Half Gallon · about 1533 ml left, $2.10 of value
Barilla Whole Grain Penne Non-GMO and Kosher Pasta Made With Whole Wheat · about 214 g left, $0.94 of value

Ingredients

2 cups macaroni, whole-wheat, uncooked
1 1/2 cups milk, low fat (1% or less)
2 tablespoons flour
dash black pepper
2 cups Cheddar cheese, low fat, sharp, shredded

Directions

This recipe is credited to a partner program (New York CACFP), so we don't reprint its directions - read them on the archived original.

New York CACFP. MyPlate took its recipe pages offline in 2026 - the original lives on at the Internet Archive. More on this: What dinner actually costs in 2026.

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Build my cheapest week Price this at my store