Who can resist a good chili mac?!? The delicious flavors in this will please adults and children alike.
One important note about the noodles: I experimented with this recipe multiple times on my family, and couldn't reach a consensus about what type of noodles were best. The dilemma is that the noodles have to soften in the boiling water enough before the water goes cold. The instant noodles that work best appear to not be available any more. :( I tried mini noodles (as pictured here) since they have a short-ish cook time...but they were still al dente by the time the water was no longer hot enough to soften them. I settled on angel hair pasta broken into small pieces, and that seemed to work the best - it softened just great! The only complaint from one of my kids is that he wanted noodles with more shape to them for a better texture, instead of little tiny pieces of angel hair.
So, you'll have to play around with this a bit. If you are in a position to cook it over a stove to have consistent heat long enough to soften the noodles, I recommend using mini noodles. If you are truly backpacking and want to use the stove only long enough to heat water to dump over it...start with trying the angel hair pasta.
Backpacking Chili Mac with Beef
1/3 c. instant pinto beans (or try instant red beans…pinto beans are hard to find)
1/3 c. Freeze Dried ground beef
½ Tbsp. Freeze Dried chopped onions
½ tsp. tomato powder
1 Tbsp. instant dried milk
¼ c. cheese sauce mix
1 Tbsp. flour
¼ tsp. chili powder
¼ tsp. cumin
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