Who doesn't like Mac and Cheese? Those of us who shouldn't be eating it only manage to make it once in a blue moon, but goodness knows, life is too short to survive the kind of deprivation required to maintain the weight of the previous decade, and I have long questioned if it is worth the struggle. I go to Weight Watcher's off and on, especially when I have a friend who motivates me, and this last time I ended up the "biggest loser" of the three of us who signed on. By "BL" I mean the one who gave up first and managed to gain back that which was lost. Well--I did okay for a couple years, anyhow.
Weight Watchers has left me with several recipes that are really good that I truly like, and this is the one for Mac and Cheese. I will write the original and then offer my variations.
12 oz elbows
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
12 oz fat free evaporated milk (1 can)
1 TBS Dijon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg
8 oz reduced fat Colby or cheddar
2 TBS bread crumbs
2 TBS grated Parmesan
Boil the pasta until al dente. Drain, and put into a baking dish. While it is hot, add the sour cream, and mix it in.
Scald the can of evaporated milk--this seems to be necessary to keep it from curdling during the baking. Add in the salt, pepper, mustard and nutmeg. Reduce the heat to low, or take it off the heat and stir in the cheese until smooth. Pour it over the pasta.
Mix the bread crumbs and the Parmesan and sprinkle over the top.
Bake 350* for 40 minutes
Okay--here's me. My oven runs hot, so I turned it down to 335*. I also pulled it out after 30 or so minutes, since the last time I left it in too long, and the creaminess sort of clogs up between the pieces of pasta. This time it was perfect.
My bad self also lightly browns up a package of fresh chorizo and stirs that in. This time I had a package of Johnstown Chicken Sausage (with red peppers and cheese), and I just sliced that up and put it in without browning, since I thought the cheese would probably just melt out and mess up the frying pan, and besides, it looked pretty cooked right out of the package. I have no idea what this does to the calorie content or the WW points--just that it makes it into a meal. Also, I only had 8 oz of pasta, and only used 4 oz of regular cheese, and MT and I finished less than half the pan. I don't know how many servings the original is supposed to serve.
Something else that I just thought of--I only had about a quarter cup of the FF sour cream, so I added about a quarter cup of FF mayonnaise...
Yeah, I know--I confess I cook by the seat of my pants, and each time things are different. It depends a lot on what is in the house at the time. Works for me!
