Macaroni & Cheese

Macaroni and cheese. Ever since I first tried homemade, I've been unable to consume Kraft. Bleck. This is a go-to recipe in our house when I've forgotten to start dinner prep and we're in a time-crunch. In fact, that's exactly what happened the other night.

Let's talk about cheeses. Cheeses naturally lose some of their kick when you cook them, so pairing cheeses helps accentuate the flavors of them. Sounds weird to mix cheeses to make the cheese taste more flavorful but that is, in fact, how it works. My favorites for mac & cheese are medium cheddar and a semi-soft chevre, or goat cheese. Goat cheese: some people are terrified of the idea of eating/drinking milk products from something other than a cow but let me tell you, you're missing out, friends. Chevre is one of my favorite things right now because it just tastes so cheesy and creamy. It melts well and blends into the flavors around it. Mmmm... Do yourself a favor and try some. I'll be featuring more recipes in the near future that use chevre for the cheese. Because it really is delicious and if you try it, I'm pretty sure you'll love it, too. But if you're going to buy it, try and buy locally produced cheeses, as imported cheese traditionally contain rennet, or enzymes from the boiled stomachs of baby calves. It gives me the heebie-jeebies to think about.

When we make mac & cheese, we use Barilla Plus elbow macaroni. These noodles are made with wheat flour and lentils, chickpeas, egg whites, spelt, barley, flaxseed, oat fiber, and oats. They add omega-3s and protein to traditional noodles and you can't actually tell they aren't white. Once they're baked in the macaroni they taste and look the same as regular noodles. I doubt your family will be able to tell but if you want to use regular noodles, that's fine, too. Do whatever you feel best about.

If you want to get extra healthy with your cheese sauce, feel free to steam or boil a head of cauliflower, puree it, and add as much as you'd like to the cheese sauce before stirring it into the noodles. It makes the cheese a little sweeter and gives it loads of nutrition and fiber. Without anyone knowing it's in there. Well, except you, of course.




Macaroni & Cheese

Makes: 6 servings
Prep: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Ready In: 30 minutes











Ingredients:

1/2 head of cauliflower - optional
4 tablespoons of butter
4 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
2 cups warmed milk (I normally use organic whole fat milk but skim is delicious, too.)
1 teaspoons of Italian Seasoning blend
Salt & pepper, to taste
1 cups grated cheddar
2 ounces chevre
8oz of Macaroni noodles
Paprika
Panko-style breadcrumbs
Additional cheese for sprinkling


Preheat oven to 450 degrees and set a large pot of water to boil.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Once it's melted and bubbly, add flour all at once and whisk/stir until the lumps are gone. Cook for roughly 3 minutes, stirring. Heat milk and set aside. Add garlic and cook for another minute and then add the milk all at once. Whisk until the roux (butter/flour/garlic mix) is incorporated into the milk. Add Italian Seasoning, garlic salt, and pepper. Let that continue to heat. Coat a large casserole dish with nonstick spray and set aside. Turn off burner and add cheeses, whisking till melted.

While that continues to cook, stir and add macaroni noodles to the boiling water with a tablespoon of salt. Boil for 1 minute less than recommended time on the box. It'll keep your noodles from getting super mushy in the oven. When those finish, drain and add to the nonstick sprayed pan.

By this time, the cheese sauce should be a bit thicker but still on the thinner side. Give the sauce a taste and see if it needs any additional seasoning. Once you're satisfied, add it to the macaroni noodles and stir till the noodles are coated. Sprinkle paprika over the top of the pan, sprinkle the additional cheese over the top, and sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top of that.

Put the pan in the oven and cook for roughly 15-20 minutes, until the cheese on top is melted and bubbly and the breadcrumbs are toasted and brown.

Remove from oven and set on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes so you don't burn your tongue out of your mouth when you eat. We serve ours with diced tomatoes, broccoli, and I put spinach in the baby's & mine (Husband, not so much).

Feel free to chuck some diced, roasted green chilies (canned or fresh, whatevs) and replace cheddar with colby jack for that South-of-the-Boarder-but-better-than-Taco-Bell-flare.