Ingredients:
-Whole wheat pasta 1 and 1/2 cups - I used whole wheat shells
-1 and 1/2 broccoli florets and finely chopped carrots
-1/4 cup finely chopped onion
-4 tsp olive oil
-3/4 cup 75% reduced fat white cheddar cheese
-1/2 cup 75% reduced fat pepper jack cheese
-1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
-1 and 2/3 cups fat free milk
-1 tbsp all-purpose flour
-crushed red pepper and italian seasonings to taste
-some panko bread crumbs to sprinkle on top
Steps:
1. Heat oven to 425 degrees...while the oven is warming up cook pasta and add broccoli and carrots in the last 3 minutes of cooking...drain pasta and veggies and set aside.
2. While the pasta is cooking heat 2 tsp of olive oil in pan and cook onions until soft and translucent. Remove pan from heat and stir in parmesan cheese...stir until blended.
3. In a medium bowl whisk together milk and flour until smooth...add to onion mixture...cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly...reduce heat to low and add the rest of the cheese...stir until melted...add cooked pasta mixture and stir to coat.
4. Transfer pasta mixture to a cassarole dish...in a small bowl toss panko breadcrumbs with remaining oil and sprinkle on top of pasta...sprinkle with crushed red pepper and italian seasonings...bake for 15 minutes or until top of browned.
This mac and cheese is probably the best mac and cheese I have ever had...it had so much flavor and it was a much healthier option...until I ate almost all of it...and saw it was supposed to feed six...whoops!
If you want to see the original recipe it was in the March 2010 Better Homes and Gardens.
Some pictures of the finished product:
