Better-for-you Mac and Cheese
My whole family loves Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, the kind in the blue box, what Canadians call “Kraft Dinner”. In fact, when Chris and I were living together while I was in college, we pretty much lived on “mac-o-cheese”. We would make a box of it and eat the whole thing right out of the saucepan with two spoons. It was a special treat from our usual fare of ramen noodles.
We’ve passed on our love of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese to our boys, and before I was paying attention to how healthy our meals were, I would just serve them bowls of it with a glass of milk and call it dinner. But the other night, I don’t know if it was because I was so happy about the way the Turkey Pasta Salad turned out or what, but I knew I just had to try to make a healthier mac and cheese. At the grocery store, I found Kraft Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese Dinner
My idea was that I would add vegetables to it to bulk it up and make it more filling. I had leftover raw carrots, broccoli and asparagus, so I chopped those up and cooked them for about 3 minutes in boiling water, just enough to soften them slightly. I scooped out about a cup and a half of the macaroni, squeezed on just a little cheese, and then added the veggies. I divided that between two bowls for Ryan and I. It was DELICIOUS.
11 Responses to “Better-for-you Mac and Cheese”
July 11th, 2007 at 5:53 am
This looks yummy indeed…
July 11th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
There was a time when I was depending on instant noodles for staples too but your is better.
July 13th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Wow that does look good! I’m wary about cheese that you squeeze from a packet though…does it taste good? We make homemade mac and cheese a lot and have the boxed kind too – but we tried velvetta once and my kids refused to eat it!
July 13th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Mmm.
The only thing I love more than Mac & Cheese is playing around with ways to spruce it up. My favorite is to stir in broccoli and pre-cooked chicken (canned chicken works pretty well, too), or bacon bits…
Sigh. I haven’t eaten mac & cheese since I started the Zone diet. Now I’m craving it. I might have to sneak some into one of my weekend splurge nights.
July 14th, 2007 at 1:07 am
Thanks, it really was!
July 14th, 2007 at 1:07 am
Cherry- Oh yes, we went through our living on ramen noodles phase too. This is much tastier!
July 14th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Jeanie- Broccoli and chicken would be good in this!
July 14th, 2007 at 1:11 am
Tess- I don’t like the Velveeta kind either. I was also wary of the cheese sauce packet, but the way I look at it is, the regular boxed kind comes with powdered cheese that you mix with milk and butter, right? This is like all of that already made, just a little thicker. It had a really good flavor to it.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
That looks absolutely YUMMY!
July 30th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Looks nummers to me.
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:36 pm
[...] I don’t think it’s odd per se, but my Better-for-you Mac and Cheese has carrots, broccoli, and asparagus in it. It’s so [...]
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