Grandma L's Famous Mac N Cheese

Ok, so I know I've been going on and on about eating healthy and getting back on track now that we've started a brand spankin' new year, but I'm going to stray a wee bit and share a family treasure that I promised you several weeks ago.

It's Grandma L.'s most fabulous mac n cheese. The epitome of comfort food in my humble opinion. It's classic, it's easy and it'll be a total hit with you and your fam ~ I promise!

The good news is that I made this over the holidays so there is no mac n cheese in the Vegvacious house at the moment (New Years goals are still in tact so far haha)....and I apologize now to any of you that rush home to make this and find yourselves in a cheese coma later tonight....however I promise you that it is totally worth it ;-)

This is one of those family recipes that isn't really a recipe. We all just 'know' how to make it and adjust it according to our taste and preference. The last time I made it, I did make a half-hearted effort to take some measurements as guidelines for you.

Grandma L's Mac N Cheese

1 package of your fave pasta
1/4 c salted butter
1/4 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 - 2 c milk (dairy milk or almond milk work)
2 c (approx.) of chopped up cheese (a sharper tasting cheese makes a more flavourful sauce, so choose your fave cheese)

Cook your pasta according to the package. Salting your pasta water is a must!

In a large microwave safe bowl melt the butter. Add the flour and mix until well blended into a roux. Add approximately 1 c of milk and whisk to blend together. Place the milk/roux mixture into the microwave and cook on high for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, check to see if the sauce is starting to thicken. If it is (you can tell around the edges of your dish), whisk well. Continue cooking in 1 to 2 minute increments until your sauce is thickened up by quite a bit. I then add another 1/2 to 1 c of milk and continue cooking in the microwave until the sauce is a nice creamy consistency. I would guestimate that this whole process takes approximately 10 minutes in my microwave.

As soon as the sauce is to your desired consistency, add the cheese and stir. Drain your pasta and add it to your cheese sauce. Between the heat of the sauce and the heat of the cooked pasta, your cheese chunks will melt in fairly quickly.  

Give a stir, add a pinch of sea salt and black pepper and serve. You could serve this with a nice tossed salad, or if you're like me, fill up a great big bowl of this carbo-licious pasta and eat it all on it's own.

We used gouda and a medium cheddar for our sauce. Usually I just use whatever we have on hand.

My roux.

When I was little, I'd always sneak in the kitchen about this time and sneak melty cheese chunks right out of the sauce. I swear I don't er only did it once or twice or five times with this sauce :-)

Ahhhhh......heaven.

Aren't old family meals the absolute best?!

At this moment I am forcing myself to stay in my seat and not head straight for the kitchen to make myself a big, big pot :-)

Do you have any childhood food faves that you still love to eat today?

Enjoy your Thursday evening --- only one more day until we are FREE for the weekend!!

Andrea