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

Roasted Veggie Pasta

Happy Monday! I'm happy to announce that I'm no longer a sick-o and am feeling completely back to myself!! That stomach bug kicked my in the boo-tay!!! I never get sick and there is nothing worse than being sick in the middle of the summer. Obviously someone missed the memo that summer's almost over and I have zero time to be wasting in bed! Social butterflies like myself have no time to spare :-D

I missed a couple days of good eats last week and when I finally got my appetite back I was HUNGRY! In fact, I think I went a little overboard on the weekend (I was making up for my lost meals!), so this week I'm getting back to healthy, reasonably portioned meals.

Yesterday we stopped at a veggie stand and I picked up some fresh tomatoes. Nothing says summer like tomatoes fresh off the vine!! Last night we had grilled tomato and cheese sammies (HEAVEN!) and tonight I was craving some seriously fresh and delicious tomato pasta. I whipped up a roasted veggie and tomato pasta that is going to absolutely knock your socks off! It was so easy to make and when you have fresh veggies, you really don't need much more to amp up the flavour. The veggies do all the work themselves.

Roasted Veggie Pasta
Serves 4

4 c cooked pasta (I used brown rice pasta)
3 c chopped tomatoes
 4 - 5 c chopped veggies (I used sweet onion, mushrooms, yellow pepper, zucchini)
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp finely sliced fresh basil
sea salt & pepper to taste
1 c mixed baby greens (spinach and arugula work awesome in this)
2 - 3 tbsp olive oil
crumbled feta (freshly grated parm would be awesome as well!)

Preheat your oven to 350. Grease a cookie sheet or use your favourite baking mat. Make sure your pan has sides. I used a flat baking sheet and lets just say the bottom of my oven is now covered in lovely blackened tomato juice. Oops!

Cook your pasta according to the directions. Drain, rinse and set aside.

Throw your tomatoes, veggies and garlic into a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and add sea salt and pepper. Toss to evenly coat.

Spread the tomato/veggie mixture evenly out onto the cookie sheet.

Roast the veggies for 20 minutes, making sure to flip about halfway through for even roasting.

Remove from oven.

Combine the veggie mixture, pasta, greens and basil in a large bowl.

Top with feta when serving. Delicious!!!!

This would make a greal meal to enjoy with a pal (or a sweetie) on a

warm summer night paired with a nice glass of cabernet.

What is your fave veggie to pick up from a roadside veggie stand?
Any oven cleaning hints? Mine is A HUGE MESS!!!! <sigh>

Have a great evening!

Andrea