Meal Prep
Ribs & Mac
Ribs & Mac Meal Prep is what happens when backyard BBQ vibes crash into the world of meal prep. Tender, oven-baked baby back ribs get the full dry rub + BBQ glaze treatment, then slide into containers with a creamy, protein-packed mac & cheese that feels way too indulgent to land in your high-protein lineup. This is comfort food without compromise, and it’s proof that your prep boxes don’t have to look like chicken and broccoli every week.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Prep Time
- 15 mins
- Cook Time
- 15 mins
- Down Time
- 210 mins
- Total Time
- 240 mins
Equipment
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Ingredients
Ingredient links open Walmart products from our grocery planner. Links marked “Walmart search” need your product choice. Confirm package details and local availability at Walmart.
For the Ribs:
For the Mac & Cheese:
Instructions
Prep the ribs:
Preheat oven to 275°F. Remove silver skin if present and pat ribs dry. Combine dry rub ingredients in a bowl, then coat ribs generously on both sides.
2 lb baby back ribs, 1 tbsp brown sugar, ½ tbsp smoked paprika, ½ tbsp garlic powder, ½ tbsp onion powder, 1 tsp kosher salt, ½ tsp black pepper, ½ tsp chili powder, ½ tsp cayenne pepper
Wrap seasoned ribs tightly in foil and place on a lined baking sheet meat-side-up.
Bake low & slow:
Cook ribs at 275°F for 3 hours, until tender and meat pulls back from the bone.
Finish ribs:
Remove foil, brush with BBQ sauce, and bake uncovered at 350°F for 20- 30 minutes until sticky. Let rest 10 minutes before slicing.
½ cup BBQ sauce
Cook pasta:
While ribs finish, boil pasta in salted water until al dente. Drain and return to the pot.
8 oz elbow mac
Make cheese sauce:
Over low heat, stir in cream cheese & skim milk until smooth.
4 oz low-fat cream cheese, ½ cup skim milk
When the cream cheese has melted, mix in the nonfat cheddar, garlic powder, onion powder, and Greek yogurt, salt, & pepper
¾ cup shredded nonfat cheddar cheese, ½ cup nonfat Greek yogurt, ½ tbsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, ½ tsp Black Pepper, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp paprika
Combine & portion:
Toss pasta in sauce, divide into individual containers, and add 2- 3 rib bones per serving. Store up to 4 days in the fridge.
See it come together
Watch: Ribs & Mac
Nutrition
Per servingEstimates for one serving.
- Calories
- 755 kcal
- Protein
- 49.6 g
- Fat
- 30.3 g
- Carbs
- 70.4 g
Full nutrition and how it’s calculated
All values are per serving. Changing the recipe yield scales the ingredients and keeps these per-serving amounts the same.
- Saturated Fat
- 11.65 g
- Polyunsaturated Fat
- 4.62 g
- Monounsaturated Fat
- 11.45 g
- Trans Fat
- 0.37 g
- Cholesterol
- 123 mg
- Sodium
- 1,711 mg
- Potassium
- 841 mg
- Fiber
- 3.3 g
- Sugar
- 20.4 g
- Added Sugar
- 14.3 g
- Vitamin A
- 153 mcg RAE
- Vitamin C
- 1.08 mg
- Vitamin D
- 2.1 mcg
- Calcium
- 411 mg
- Iron
- 3.9 mg
Estimated ingredient cost
$2.98 per serving · $11.91 for this batch
Ingredient costs and assumptions
Estimated US grocery prices for the amounts used, including purchase waste and discarded marinade. Your store, brands, and package sizes may cost differently. Buying full packages can cost more. Price sources and methodology.
Quantities without exact weights use the nutrition library’s portion estimates. Purchase yields are estimates. Separate citrus ingredients are costed independently; reusing the same fruit for juice and zest can lower your cost. Labor, utilities, and delivery are excluded.
- baby back ribs: $6.76
907.2 g purchased · Charges the full authored package or bone-in weight, including discarded material.
Editorial raw edible-meat yield: 65% of an explicitly bone-in pork rack's authored weight, with 35% allowed for bones and other inedible material. This is an estimate, not a USDA measured yield. Boneless or already-edible weights are not reduced; rendered fat and cooking losses are not deducted. Uses listed per-pound price. Purchase weight includes any bones or trim; lean shoulder uses the boneless shoulder product, not a measured lean-only quote.
Walmart: Prairie Fresh Natural Fresh Pork Back Ribs, Bone in, 2.4- 4.7 lb, 19g of protein per 4oz serving Original listing unavailable. This link searches Walmart for the product. · Price checked 2026-09-21
- brown sugar: $0.03
13.8 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tsp (packed) = 4.6 g; packing=packed Representative product for this ingredient; your brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Light Brown Sugar, 32 oz · Price checked 2026-09-21
- smoked paprika: $0.13
3.4 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tbsp = 6.8 g Four 2 oz jars; full multipack weight is 8 oz.
Walmart: (4 pack) Great Value Smoked Paprika, 2 oz · Price checked 2026-09-21
- garlic powder: $0.05
4.9 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tbsp = 9.7 g Representative product; brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Garlic Powder · Price checked 2026-09-21
- onion powder: $0.04
3.5 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tbsp = 6.9 g Representative product; brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Onion Powder · Price checked 2026-09-21
- kosher salt: $0.01
6 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tsp = 6 g Three 48 oz packages; total net weight 144 oz.
Walmart: (3 pack) Great Value Coarse Kosher Salt, 48 oz · Price checked 2026-09-21
- black pepper: $0.05
1.2 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tsp (ground) = 2.3 g; texture=ground Ground black pepper reference; cracked pepper may cost differently.
Walmart: Great Value Ground Black Pepper · Price checked 2026-09-21
- chili powder: $0.02
1.4 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tsp = 2.7 g Representative product for this ingredient; your brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Chili Powder, 3 oz · Price checked 2026-09-21
- cayenne pepper: $0.05
0.9 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tsp = 1.8 g Representative product for this ingredient; your brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Cayenne Pepper, 2.25 oz · Price checked 2026-09-21
- BBQ sauce: $0.50
143 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
0.5 cup = 143 g; Rounded measures agree within 5%. Representative product for this ingredient; your brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Original BBQ Sauce, 18 oz Bottle, 1 Count · Price checked 2026-09-21
- elbow mac: $0.62
226.8 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
Authored ingredient weight. Representative product for this ingredient; your brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Elbows, 16 oz · Price checked 2026-09-21
- low-fat cream cheese: $1.73
113.4 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
Authored ingredient weight. Representative product for this ingredient; your brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Philadelphia Reduced Fat Cream Cheese, 1 Tub, for Smooth, Spreadable Mornings, Original, No Artificial Preservatives, Flavors or Dyes, 8 oz · Price checked 2026-09-21
- skim milk: $0.09
123.5 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 cup = 247 g Representative product for this ingredient; your brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Fat-Free Milk, Gallon, 128 fl oz · Price checked 2026-09-21
- shredded nonfat cheddar cheese: $1.26
84 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 cup (shredded) = 112 g; Editorial shredded hard-cheese estimate: 112 g/cup (four 28 g quarter-cup portions); loose packing varies. Representative product for this ingredient; your brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Kraft Natural Fat Free Cheddar Shredded Cheese, 7 oz Bag · Price checked 2026-09-21
- nonfat Greek yogurt: $0.41
113.5 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 cup = 227 g; Editorial Greek-yogurt volume proxy using King Arthur's generic yogurt weight, 227 g/cup. Plain nonfat Greek yogurt reference; unspecified-fat Greek yogurt uses this as a price estimate.
Walmart: Great Value Greek Plain Nonfat Yogurt, 32 oz Tub · Price checked 2026-09-21
- garlic powder: $0.05
4.9 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tbsp = 9.7 g Representative product; brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Garlic Powder · Price checked 2026-09-21
- onion powder: $0.03
2.4 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tsp = 2.4 g Representative product; brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Onion Powder · Price checked 2026-09-21
- Black Pepper: $0.05
1.2 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tsp (ground) = 2.3 g; texture=ground Ground black pepper reference; cracked pepper may cost differently.
Walmart: Great Value Ground Black Pepper · Price checked 2026-09-21
- salt: $0.00
3 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tsp = 6 g Iodized table salt reference; not a kosher salt price.
Walmart: Great Value Iodized Salt · Price checked 2026-09-21
- paprika: $0.02
1.2 g purchased · Uses the reviewed ingredient quantity before cooking or marinade losses.
1 tsp = 2.3 g Representative product; brand and package size may differ.
Walmart: Great Value Paprika · Price checked 2026-09-21
Make it yoursRecipe notes & meal-prep tips
Macro breakdown
- Protein49.6g26%
- Carbs70.4g38%
- Fat30.3g36%
Per serving · Share of calories from macros
Calculated using 4 calories per gram of protein and carbs, and 9 for fat. Rounding and fiber can affect the listed calorie total.Triple B's Meal Prep Notes
The ribs take the long stretch of this recipe, so leave the mac until they are in their final glazed stage. That keeps the pasta from sitting around for hours and lets you use the rib resting time to finish portioning. Keep the ribs and mac beside each other in the container so the BBQ glaze stays distinct from the cheese sauce. Keep a little bite in the elbows before adding the cheese sauce, since this mac also needs to hold up to reheating.
Rib bones are not all carrying the same amount of meat. Divide the rack as evenly as you can by the meat on each section rather than treating every two-bone piece as identical. I strongly recommend keeping the bones in. Eating ribs off the bone is part of what makes this meal feel like ribs instead of a container of loose rib meat, and it is how I pack mine.
Loosen the chilled mac with a small splash of milk or water if needed. Microwave a refrigerated serving for 90 seconds, stir the mac and turn the ribs, then heat another 45 seconds. Continue in short intervals until everything reaches 165°F, checking the meat near the bones. This is a different way to build a mac-and-cheese meal prep, with more BBQ and roast options in the pork archive.
Notes from your kitchen
Tried it? Tell us how it went.
Leave a rating and tell us how it turned out. Swaps, tips, and questions welcome.
From the community
This is one of those recipes that I created where I wanted to push the boundaries of what people consider high protein meal prep. Ribs... and freaking mac & cheese. What a slam dunk combination- with macros that deliver as well. Curious to hear if this spoke to you as well!