Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Tuesday Tastiness-One dish Mac n Cheese


I found the base recipe off a can of evaporated milk. I edited it to my liking and what I had on hand. This is a fantastic, simple, one dish meal that pretty much everyone will eat and like! I love how easy it is to make and what little amount of dishes I had to use. Use this recipe on a night when you're in no mood to be preparing something major or on a weekend when everyone is home.

Mac & Cheese

1/2 lb elbow pasta-or sub penne or something you have on hand

2 C chopped frozen or fresh broccoli-also another way to sub in your favorite veggies. Great ones would be cauliflower,red,green, or yellow bell pepper, asparagus, mushrooms, etc.

8 oz package of favorite cheese shredded

8 oz package of another cheese shredded-recipe called for pepper jack

1 can(12oz) evaporated milk

1/2 c grated parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp. bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray non stick spray in a casserole dish(2 1/2 qt.)

Cook mac in large saucepan according to the package directions, adding broccoli to the water for the last 3 minutes of cooking time. drain.

Combine cooked pasta, broccoli, both cheeses, evap milk, 1/4 c of the parmesan cheese and black pepper in a large bowl. Pour into the prepared casserole dish. Combine remaining parm cheese and bread crumbs, sprinkle over the the macaroni mixture. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.

Bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove foil; bake for additional 10 mins until lightly browned.

This comes out creamy and cheesy and just right to my liking at least. Not too wet, not too dry. The possibilites are endless for this recipe. I didn't have any pepper jack so I added a little red pepper flake to mine. I also used different cheese blends for my mac n cheese instead of just one or two. You can add any veggies you want and sneak it in to your kids yummy macaroni. You can add grilled or cooked chicken, sausage, tuna, etc. You can also use low fat cheeses just find something that melts ok. To top it, I didn't have any bread crums or panko bread crumbs so I used french fried onions. The ones you top your green bean casserole with. YUMMY.

2 comments:

MrsAshley said...

Ooooh that does sound good. I might have to give it a try. I found your link on MomDot and I just wanted to say hi. I love your site.

Ashley
Beauty4Moms.blogspot.com

Alesha @ Full Time Mama said...

Sounds YUMMY!