I often make double what I need for a meal to intentionally have leftovers for a second dish. In this case, I made a simple macaroni and cheese. Use your favorite recipe or use the package mixes that almost everyone keeps in the pantry.
Refrigerate the leftovers and the next day, make your bonus dish: macaroni salad. Add ingredients in amounts to taste. You can use the following ingredients: small cubes of additional cheese, chopped celery, diced onion, or sliced green onion, peas (canned or frozen), diced bell peppers (I add green, red, and yellow for color and flavor). You can experiment with other favorite veggies. Add Miracle Whip and just enough milk to make it moist and creamy. This will keep for several days in the fridge.
Total Time: about 30 minutes to make
Yield: depends on the amount of leftover macaroni and cheese
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I need some help to see what I'm forgetting to add to my recipe for chicken salad and macaroni salad. I do the miracle whip, salt and pepper, some relish, sometimes a dab of mustard.
(Of course eggs in the mac salad) They always taste like somethings missing. I've even used some lemon pepper and that still didn't do it. Can someone please assist me?Try some of these: ranch or French dressing, chopped onion, green onions, garlic powder or salt, seasoned salt, onion salt, chopped celery or bell pepper, chip dip, sour cream, chives,chopped parsley
I make my macaroni salad with chopped onion, celery, bell pepper, radishes, carrots, mayo mixed with ranch dressing or mayo mixed with chip dip, seasoned with salt or onion salt, pepper, canned tuna(liquid and all), or chicken or cut up ham,
I usually put eggs only in my potato salad, but will try them in the mac salad.
Well IMHO opinion you shouldn't use miracle whip, but that is just me.
But I do know that my Mom always used roughly these ingredients for macaroni and potato (obviously tweaking diff. things for each) Mayo, some mustard, black olives, salt and pepper, garlic salt, some plain yogurt (always in the house and it lowers the fat and gives it a tang), chopped celery, chopped onion, chopped dill pickles and some vinegar.
I didn't see on your list vinegar, maybe that is what you are missing? Your ingredients all seem sort of sweet (depending on what kind of pickles you use, sweet are in the same category of miracle whip for me) maybe vinegar or even pickle juice from the jar (if it's dill/kosher) for some zing?
Hope that helps.
I always use Hellmans in all of my salads...just seems to give it a better, creamier taste. For chicken salad, I add, green onions, and ONLY dell dixi pickles..diced up, salt, pepper, and of course chicken...it can always depend on your chicken too...I use breast with skin and bones and add onion, celery, and some allspice to the water....hope this helps!!
I always add chopped green onion to my chicken salad, as others have mentioned. I add a little curry powder as well, just gives it a little extra spice.
I some times use Zesty Italian Dressing to taste.This will pep it up.
Hello,
What you are missing is half salad dressing, half miracle whip, lawrys seasoning salt, finely chopped onion, carrots, celery and hard-boiled eggs. Give it a little mustard for color. This will be your base for potato or macaroni salad. For chicken salad, use miracle whip, pepper, garlic powder and celery. Amy
I add a little dried dill weed to just about any salad made with dressing. The suggestions already submitted are really good.
Try adding some very finely chopped green onions and the tops(chives) that might help it. Good luck
dont forget to put some sugar in your salads
i always use equal portions of sugar and vinegar than add miracle whip and mustard to taste for potatoe and macoroni salad
Try adding an onion.
I mix salad dressing & sourcream together, plus add plain yogurt if I have it. I find if any of the pasta salads (and or deviled eggs) I make just don't do it for me I add a glob of ranch dressing.
What is misssing is sugar.
Instead of using mayonaise, use salad dressing.
There is a huge difference in taste, especially in salads.
Try making your next salad with salad dressing, regular or light, you'll taste the difference.
I too use Mayo, but the Fat Free kind. I then add Splenda to sweeten the Mayo. It's less calories than Salad Dressing. I use this for deviled eggs, potato salad, macaroni salad, egg salad.
Paprika : )
The taste of Miracle Whip type dressings has changed over the years til they are Much Closer to Mayo which we don't like .Vinegar has changed too . Perhaps it is the apples which have had most of the flavor bred out of them in favor of survival during shipping .
celery seed or dill???
I use mayo, mustard, celery (with a few of the baby leaf tops for color), bell pepper, onion (all chopped fine), hard-boiled eggs, sweet pickle relish, walnuts (chopped), green olives, salt, pepper, curry to taste. I use the same ingredients for tuna, pasta, potato, chicken salads. Leave it in refrigerator overnight so the flavors can mingle...Enjoy!
Try vinegar. I use apple cider vinegar - about 1 Tbsp. for every 2 heaping Tbsp of mayo. Start with less and add to flavor.
I see you are from Indiana--Marsh has a really good chicken salad with pieces of grape and apples I think for sweetness, also you need tiny pieces of celery for crunch. If you don't like onions, that's okay. I don't either, and with all the suggestions posted, you can experiment a lot. -kim
there's a good website called allrecipes.com.. This site has thousands of recipes. Also, the site scales your recipe to how many people you need to feed. And a take along grocery list (printable) from the site is provided. And the site provides a place to design a file to store your favorite recipes. When my daughter graduated last year, I found this a very helpful site.
I add Dillweed to many of my salad-dressing recipes. I feel it gives it a "fresh" flavor!
Amy, try adding celery and a apple to your chicken salad, and some celery seed is good too. Hope it works for you.
Chopped onion and chopped celery is missing in you salad...
IMHO it's onion and sugar you're missing. try it and see if that makes the difference.
For a piquant addition, try adding small slivers of not very ripe pear or green apple. There is a local restaurant that does this and it's chicken..., macaroni salads... are a non-stop hit.
Lots of good ideas!! One thing I would say from my years of experience is "Don't use store brands for mayo or Miracle Whip ".For my maccaroni salad I add some frozen petite peas(uncooked),chopped onion and celery. I also cut up small cubes of cheddar cheese and cubed ham.
If you use vinegar, use it sparelingly and be sure itis apple cider vinegar!! Judy frim Alabama
celery, onion, ceddar cheese in both, ranch dressing, dried basil and oregeno, instead of regular salt use a pinch of garlic salt, red pepper. I make salads all of the time in the summer for my kids, never the same way twice-just depends on what is in the frig. I always add ranch dressing with the mayo.
Grapes to your chicken salad red firm grapes cut in half will make your chicken salad a hit so will almonds!
If you use too much mayonnaise in a macaroni salad how do you take out the overkill of the mayonnaise with out adding more macaroni?
Barbara from Sealy, TX
Add something else: ham, chicken, croutons, celery, diced apples, nuts, etc....
Put the macaroni salad in a colander in the sink. Mix it well and let it sit. The extra mayo will drain out the holes. I often do this with salad I buy ready-made as it has too much liquid in it.
If you'll just allow it to sit in your refrigerator overnight, covered, you will probably be surprised how much of the mayonnaise is absorbed by the macaroni. Often mine is too dry after being made a day earlier and I have to add some to moisten it to our liking.
Perhaps just add some more cooked macaroni? I think the idea tho of letting it set covered in the frig overnight would work because the pasta does absorb a lot of the liquid. If you were wanting to serve right away, then you should just add other ingredients. I'm assuming you just don't want too much of a mayo taste, am I right?
OOPS....should have read your post more carefully...you wanted an idea w/o adding more macaroni. Well then hum, perhaps you could take part of the salad and place in a colander and rinse with cold water and add back and then taste. Washing away some of the mayo may make the taste and consistancy right then.
Mix some vinegar and sugar and mix in. This will cut the overwhelming taste of mayo.
I like to add lots of varied veggies. Slice thin or grate them. Although real mayo is eggs, oil, & vinegar, I like to add sliced or diced boiled eggs. I don't like mayo, but since I cook for others more than myself I use it anyway(I like ranch dressing to coat better - Flavor!). Meat such as ham and pepperoni gives it a great flavor. Cheese mini cubes are a great equalizer. Hope this helps. Try using just enough mayo to coat. Most recipes call for too much.
Try adding a little mustard if you like mustard to kill the macaroni taste. I always use mustard in mine. Plain yellow type.
To take up some of that mayonnaise, add saltine crackers. Justin Wilson made the best egg salad using a few hard boiled eggs, and a lot of saltine crackers. I tried it, and my family liked it so well that we continued to make egg salad that way from then on. It reduces the heavy taste of "egg", and certainly extends the salad when you
don't have a lot of eggs. You can't tell the difference.Be sure to use less salt or use the unsalted crackers. HTH
All the Best,
Julia in Orlando, FL
I had the too much mayo happen to me. I quickly grabbed a couple paper towels and kinda gently wiped excess off. It worked for me.
Good luck.
Take about a cup of the macaroni out of the salad and run some water over it in a strainer. Then, drain it and put it back in.
How do you neutralize the salt in macaroni salad?
By Sherry
Whenever I make macaroni salad, within a couple of hours the oil separates from the mayonnaise and just looks oily. How can I keep that from happening and keep the creamy appearance?
By Susan
