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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This is a recipe that literally screams comfort food. Are you looking for a unique combination to mix things up for dinner time? Combine two favorite meals; mac and cheese and lasagna into a single dish and blow your family’s minds!

This perfect mix of macaroni and cheese and tomato-based lasagna is a fast and easy weekday dinner guaranteed to be a family favourite.

You can even make your own Homemade Meat Sauce to use in this recipe, or you could adapt this Creamy Three Cheese Skillet Mac and Cheese recipe to use in place of a box mix.

Reader Review

Made this for the kids & they absolutely LOVED it!! Worked as a great family meal.

– Jillian

Karlynn’s Recipe Notes

Skill Level: This recipe is fast and easy, perfect for weekday dinners.
Total Time: The time can vary, depending on your box of mac and cheese, but it will take approximately 30 minutes.
Variations: Box Mac and Cheese is delicious, but making your own sauce allows you to experiment with different cheeses and create your perfect combination of flavours. You can also try mixing things up with other seasonings. Want some more spice? Try adding some sliced jalapenos.
Tools for This Recipe: You will need a medium saucepan and a 9×9-inch baking dish for this recipe.

A wooden spoon lifts a serving of cheesy baked macaroni with ground meat from a white casserole dish. The background includes glasses of water, jars, bread, and a red-striped towel.

What You’ll Need For Ingredients

Mac and Cheese: Use your favourite box of prepared mac and cheese to make this an easy weekday meal. Karlynn’s Tip: Part of the joy of this recipe is how quickly it comes together, but if you have some extra time to spend in the kitchen, you can make your own cheese sauce or change the pasta shape to suit you! Most boxes come with standard small macaroni, but you could try larger shapes that hold more sauce.

Ground Beef: Lean ground beef is best for this recipe, to reduce the fat in an already rich meal.

Garlic: You can use garlic that you press yourself or minced garlic (which is my preference).

Onion: An essential ingredient that helps give this dish a burst of flavor.

Spaghetti Sauce: You can play around with all kinds of different flavored ones here. Try a few and let us know what your favorites are!

Mozzarella Cheese, Parmesan Cheese: The mixture of these two cheeses give you that signature, cheesy, lasagna top that is so gooey and wonderful.

A top-down view of ingredients on a white surface: ground beef on a cutting board, chopped onions, shredded cheese, macaroni pasta, minced garlic, and a bowl of tomato sauce.

How To Make Mac and Cheese Lasagna

This is a quick overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients & complete step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.

A bowl of macaroni and cheese is surrounded by bowls of shredded cheese, chopped onions, minced garlic, tomato sauce, and a portion of raw ground beef on a cutting board, all arranged on a white marble surface.

A saucepan with cooked ground beef is surrounded by bowls of shredded cheese, cooked macaroni, tomato sauce, and a wooden spatula on a white countertop with a cloth napkin.

Prepare the mac and cheese according to the box directions and set aside.
Add the ground beef, onion, and garlic to a medium saucepan and brown until cooked through.
Drain fat and add spaghetti sauce, and heat through.
In a 9×9 baking dish, layer the meat sauce, the mac and cheese, and the meat sauce, then top with mozzarella and parmesan.
Bake for 15-20 minutes at 375ºF until the cheese is melted and the dish is warmed.

A plate of cheesy baked pasta with ground meat, served with a slice of garlic bread. In the background, there’s a baking dish of pasta, jars, glasses, and more bread on a cutting board. Forks and a towel are beside the plate.

Could You Use Actual Lasagna?

If you have leftover lasagna from the night before, try adapting this to make a mac and cheese-soaked lasagna. Place it in an oven-safe dish, then pour over your homemade cheese sauce.

You want the sauce to cover the lasagna and soak through to the bottom of the pan. Then add a thick layer of mozzarella and parmesan cheese to the top of the dish before baking to get that signature lasagna topping.

A white baking dish filled with cheesy baked macaroni and cheese sits on a marble countertop, with a wooden cutting board holding sliced bread and jars of ingredients in the background.

Storage Instructions

This is best served fresh and will become such a family favourite that you likely won’t even have leftovers! However, if you do, you can store it as described below.

Refrigerator: Store your cooled leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate for 3-5 days.

Freezer: Store your cooled leftovers in a freezer-safe, airtight container. I recommend portioning them into individual servings to make reheating easier. They can be frozen for up to 3 months, and it’s best to thaw them in the fridge overnight before reheating.

More Delicious Pasta Recipes

Sneaky Vegetable Mac n’ Cheese: Delicious mac n’ cheese with loads of hidden vegetables!
Dinner-in-a-Hurry Macaroni Chop Suey: Easy and delicious macaroni chop suey!
Mom’s Easy Cottage Cheese Lasagna: My mom used to make this cottage cheese lasagna for me when I was a kid, and it’s one of my favourite recipes to make for my own kids now. A few shortcuts make this lasagna recipe easier to make than most!

The perfect, quick, easy weekday meal that the whole family will love!

Let me know how it turned out in the comments below. I always enjoy hearing about your cooking adventures!

Happy Cooking!

Karlynn