awesome veggie-tized mac n’ cheese

The addition of a bunch of veggies not only adds color and texture, but also makes this comfort food meal healthier, and super delicious!

Veggie-tized Mac n’ Cheese
This recipe makes a lot of mac n’ cheese; enough for 12-15 servings…or a couple days worth of lunches and dinners 🙂

1 lb bacon, cut into 1/4-1/2 in pieces
1/2 onion, small diced
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 lb fusili, penne, gemeli, ziti, or macaroni pasta

• Feel free to use your favorite type of short, curly pasta. You just want something curly to hold the cheese sauce

3 large carrots
2 cups frozen peas
1# frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 head cauliflower
1 recipe Cheddar Cheese Sauce (see recipe below)
couple handfuls of shredded Parmesan cheese

– Cook pasta in a stock pot, because this will also act as your mixing pot. Cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking start on bacon and cauliflower
– Once pasta is done, add spinach, peas, and carrots to hot pasta and stir well.
– Cook bacon over medium to medium-high heat until almost crispy. Add in onions and garlic and continue cooking till onions are translucent and bacon is crispy; strain off extra fat and dump bacon into pasta pot (a little bacon fat is okay!)

Prepping the Cauliflower
– Remove extra leaves from stem of cauliflower. Using a pairing knife, cut around the stem at an angle towards the center of the cauliflower; this will make it a lot easier to cut the cauliflower into florets. Cut the large pieces of cauliflower into small florets, about 1/2″. When cutting the cauliflower, cut from the stem and use the knife blade to break the cauliflower apart; this will decrease the amount of cauliflower “crumbs” that form and give you nice florets
– Blanch cauliflower in salted, boiling water for 3-5 minutes till al dente, you want them to still have a little bite. Strain cauliflower and dump into pasta pot with pasta and bacon

– Pour cheddar sauce over pasta, bacon and veggies and stir well
– Preheat oven to 425 degrees
– Grease a 4qt baking dish and pour mac n’ cheese into baking dish. Top with a couple handfuls of parmesan cheese. If you’re not eating til later, store mac n’ cheese in the fridge like this. Otherwise, pop it in the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes to make sure everything is hot and the cheese is nice and bubbly and starting to brown

Cheesy Cheddar Sauce

1/2 stick unsalted butter (2tbsp)
2 tbsp olive oil
~1/4 cup flour
3 1/2 cups milk (feel free to substitute in half and half or cream)
1 lb extra sharp white cheddar, cut into cubes
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 tbsp siracha
salt and pepper

– Melt butter and olive oil in a sauce pot over medium heat
– Sprinkle in flour, stirring constantly, until the roux looks like wet sand. Cook roux for another 5 minutes; turn heat down to medium-low if a film begins to form on the bottom of the pot
– After 5 minutes, switch to a whisk and slowly start to add in the milk, whisking to prevent lumps. Add dijon and siracha
– Return heat to medium-high and slowly bring to a boil. Continue cooking until sauce thickens
– Turn heat down to medium-low and add cheese in portions, whisking till smooth
– Season with salt and pepper. Hold over low heat if not ready to pour on pasta

• If the sauce seems to thick feel free to add a little more milk to loosen it up

peanut lime noodles

A delicious, vegetarian dish (well, vegetarian if you can accept fish sauce) that doesn’t sacrifice anything when it comes to flavor. If you have to have some meat, you can easily toss in some shredded chicken or pieces of beef.

Peanut Lime Sauce (makes about 3 cups, or enough for 1lb of noodles)

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (if you have juicy limes you’ll only need 2)
zest from 2 limes
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cups crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sambal

• Feel free to add less/more sambal according to your heat tolerance. 2 tbsp gives you a nice kick, but is not overpowering

– Combine first 5 ingredients, lime juice to brown sugar, in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute, just to soften the peanut butter
– Add remaining ingredients and mix till well combined

Peanut Lime Noodles

1 lb whole wheat noodles
4 carrots, grated
2 bell peppers, halved horizontally and thinly sliced
1 pint (10 oz) grape tomatoes, halved vertically
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1 bunch cilantro, rough chopped
1 cucumber, quartered lengthwise, seeds removed and thinly sliced diagonally
1 container tofu, or shredded chicken , or sauteed been (optional, just adds a little protein)

– Cook noodles according to package directions in salted water. Drain noodles and return to pot, if it’s large enough, or dump into a large mixing
– Pour sauce over hot noodles and toss well. Add carrots and bell peppers to noodles.

• You want to add the sauce while the noodles are hot so that they’ll absorb some of the flavors in their last seconds of cooking. The heat from the noodles will soften the carrots and bell pepper a little bit, but not so much they won’t lose their crunch

– Once noodles have cooled a little, about 5-10 minutes depending on the weather, add in cilantro, green onions, tomatoes, and chicken or beef if using.
– Reserve cucumber and tofu for sprinkling on just before serving, otherwise the cucumbers will get all mushy, and the tofu will become non-existent