Nom-Able

After the complete disaster that was Baked Chicken with Noodles, I was pretty sure I was through with The alli Cookbook and the plan in general. I mean, that first meal was just awful — several dozen photographs couldn’t even make it look good, and not even liberal amounts of hot sauce would improve the taste. There was just so much wrong with it — the lack of spices, the lack of sauce, the way the cheese just curdled and drooped over everything it touched. Ug!

Still, I’d shelled out quite a bit of money for the Alli Starter Pack, so I intended to take every last pill, even if that meant cooking more boring, bland, unappetizing crap in order to do so.

Good thing there actually are some good recipes in The alli Cookbook, and mac & cheese is one of them.

There’s a basic formula to mac and cheese: roux, milk, cheese, pasta. (My own recipe — which is my personal favorite, even if I am a bit biased — follows this same formula, though it’s structure is modified because is baked and loaded with fat.) Some recipes also have an added ingredient — usually a vegetable or two that adds a healthful spin on a classically fattening, totally American dish. This recipe is basically no different. Take a low-fat roux, add low-fat milk and cheese, then add your pasta and serve over a veg. It’s why, unlike the God-awful Baked Chicken and Pasta fiasco (I’m not getting over that nightmare any time soon) this is a pretty good substitute.

I’ve added salt to the recipe, because reduced-fat cheese is usually reduced sodium, and salt is helpful not only in thickening the final sauce but also in pulling out a cheesy flavor from an otherwise mild cheese sauce.

Still, it beats Kraft Mac & Cheese hands down for creaminess, cheesiness, and healthiness. I suppose the latter is obvious, but you’d be surprised how many college kids think Easy Mac is “healthy” because there’s so little of it.

Healthier Mac and Cheese

Adapted from The alli Cookbook

INGREDIENTS
• 2 teaspoon flour, all-purpose
• 1 tbsp teaspoons spread, buttery, low-fat
• 1 cup milk, 1% fat
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, low-fat, low-sodium
• 1/4 teaspoon each salt & black pepper
• 3 cups rotini pasta, cooked (I used Barilla Plus elbows)
• 1 1/2 dry cup broccoli florets, fresh

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Bring pan of water to a boil and begin cooking pasta according to package directions.
2. Melt butter in a separate pan, then stir in flour and cook for about a minute.
3. Add milk to the roux and continue to cook over medium to medium-low heat until white sauce thickens and coats the back of a spoon
4. 5 minutes before the pasta is finished, place broccoli in a steamer over top of the pasta and cover. Cook for remaining 5 minutes.
5. Once white sauce has thickened, add in fresh-cracked salt and pepper and cheese. Cook until cheese melts.
6. Drain pasta. Stir drained pasta into cheese sauce. Serve over broccoli
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