For awhile, the Fudgelet wasn’t a big fan of mac and cheese. He liked cheese, but only cold/room temperature. Not hot. He liked pasta, but mostly with tomato sauce. Before I put all of this together, I tried making mac and cheese for him only to realize he wasn’t liking it.
One way I have upgraded mac and cheese to make it more acceptable to the Fudgelet is by adding some of his favorites, like mushrooms and broccoli. I also needed to add a lot more seasoning. He doesn’t enjoy things that are simpler tasting as much. He likes having different textures and spices, so I have experimented with different ones.
In order to upgrade your mac and cheese, you can keep your normal recipe. If yours is a little light on sauce, I would recommend adding a bit more milk/etc. Nothing scientific or exact, just a bit more of each ingredient to stretch the sauce a bit farther over the vegetables.
- Start by cooking your vegetables. Blanching/sauteing/roasting…however you want to do it, depending on which vegetables you like. Make sure your vegetables are bite-size like your pasta.
- Cook your pasta and sauce as usual.
- Add the vegetables with the pasta to the sauce.
- Make breadcrumbs (panko crumbs sauted in butter until browned).
- If desired, you can bake the dish….if you do this, I recommend underbaking the vegetables slightly before adding them. To bake, spread it in a baking dish and sprinkle the panko crumbs on top and bake at 400 degrees until browned and bubbly.
- If you aren’t baking it, you can simply sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top to serve.
That’s it! An all-in-one dish with just a light bit of sauce to bring everything together. It can please your mac and cheese fans OR your vegetable fans. Thankfully, the Fudgelet is a fan of all of it now! Well, except for the tomatoes I threw in the dish above. Yummy to me and K, but he is still not a fan of tomatoes…just tomato sauce. Working on it…
