Tomato Basil Mac and Cheese

Mac and cheese. It's one of those perpetually delicious comfort meals.

And we love to experiment. That's what we did when we spotted some Cabot Tomato Basil Cheddar. And that's the blend of flavorings for a summertime mac and cheese dish.

We combined the Cabot cheddar with Crave Brothers mozzarella pearls for off-the-charts decadence that is rich and creamy. Toasted breadcrumbs would make a great topping to cut through some of that rich and creamy flavor.



Tomato Basil Mac and Cheese
Adapted from Cooking Light
4 servings

8 ounces uncooked pasta shells
1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded tomato basil cheddar cheese
1/3 cup (1 1/3 ounces) mozzarella pearls
1/4 cup (2 ounces) reduced fat cream cheese
fresh chopped basil
fresh chopped tomato

1. Cook pasta shells according to directions.

2. While pasta is cooking, combine milk and flour in a medium bowl and whisk until combined. In a large pan over medium-high heat, add the milk mixture and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

3. Reduce heat to medium and stir in the tomato basil cheddar, mozzarella pearls and cream cheese. Cook until cheeses melt. Add cooked pasta and stir to combine.

4. Garnish with basil and tomatoes.

Tex-Mex Taco Mac and Cheese

As we came down from the thrill of our Taco Salad Pizza, we scrounged around for ideas to use up the rest of our leftover taco-flavored meat.

And a Pinterest find inspired Melissa to combine that taco meat into a mac and cheese dish.

The result was a high in our 2012 culinary journey.

This recipe was so good that we both relished the leftovers the next couple of days. And it reheated well.

The Tex-Mex flavors, including the Cabot chipotle cheddar that we used, provided a punch that the cool tomatoes balanced out. The cheese oozed creaminess and the green onions gave a texture and flavor contrasted against that.

Taco Mac and Cheese
serves 6

1/2 pound ground sirloin
16 ounces macaroni pasta
2 1/2 cups milk
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
2 1/2 ounces Cabot chipotle cheddar, shredded
3 1/2 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
2 2/3 ounces monterey jack cheese, shredded
4 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon garlic salt
salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste
1 Roma tomato, diced
3 green onions, sliced

1. Brown the meat in a skillet. In a large stockpot, cook the pasta, about 8 to 10 minutes.

2. Whisk the milk and flour together. Then add to the meat and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the chipotle cheddar, regular cheddar and cream cheese to the meat mixture. Cook until cheese has melted, about 5 minutes.

4. Add taco seasoning. Season with garlic salt, salt, pepper and hot sauce. Garnish individual servings with diced tomatoes and dice green onions.

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

I don't remember how we came across the idea. (I'm sure Melissa does, though.) All I can say is that sometime after we made Buffalo Chicken, we thought of combining that recipe with one of our favorites, Stovetop Sausage Mac and Cheese.

This is the story of what happened when two recipes wed and became one.

Melissa started by making the ranch mix of dried parsley, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme and dill. Then we make the stovetop recipe just like we normally had, leaving out the seasonings at the end (since they were already in the mix). And we added some hot sauce, for a nice kick.

Melissa and I went with a ranch seasoning mix in this recipe because we're not huge fans of bleu cheese. (Although I'd love to see a recipe of this using bleu cheese, so if you try it, post in the comments, please!)

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

Ranch mix

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon dried thyme

1/8 teaspoon dill
8 ounces Al Fresco Buffalo Chicken Sausage
16 ounces elbow macaroni
2 1/2 cups low-fat milk
4 tablespoons flour
6 ounces cheddar cheese
2 2/3 ounces monterrey jack cheese
4 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup hot sauce
salt to taste
hot sauce to garnish
chives to garnish

1. Mix the dried parsley, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme and dill together; set aside.

2. Cook the elbow macaroni according to directions. While the pasta is cooking, remove the sausage from casings and break up in another pan.

3. Once the sausage is cooked through, combine the milk and flour and add to the sausage, stirring constantly until thickened. Then add the cheddar, monterrey jack and cream cheese. Add the cooked pasta and toss to coat. Add the hot sauce and salt to taste. Garnish with more hot sauce (as I found was necessary) and chives.

Creamy Roasted Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

One of our friends passed along a recipe recently that she loves for Cauliflower Mac and Cheese. We made it last week on a day we had off, and we thought it was pretty darn good. But we knew we wanted to make our own version of it, just for fun.

Today, we did. It was delicious. Creamy, smoky, a bit spicy.

We decided if we were to make a cauliflower mac and cheese dish, we would want roasted cauliflower (which we really like).

Yes, good decision. And the sauce we decided to make was pretty much the one for our favorite Stovetop Sausage Mac and Cheese recipe, just with a few tweaks:

Creamy Roasted Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

1 head cauliflower
1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound gemelli or elbow macaroni
2 1/2 cups milk
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 2/3 ounces shredded monterey jack cheese
4 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon hot sauce
chives to garnish

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut the cauliflower head into small florets. Place on an aluminum-foil lined baking sheet and squeeze lemon juice, and add olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

2. Cook gemelli (or elbow mac).

3. In bowl, combine milk and flour; whisk together. In large pan, heat up mixture, stirring constantly.

4. In another bowl, combine cheddar, monterey jack and cream cheese. Add to milk mixture in pan. Add onion powder, garlic salt and hot sauce.

5. Add roasted cauliflower, leaving 1 cup out, and macaroni to cheese mixture.

6. Serve. Top with a few more roasted cauliflower florets and chives.

Stovetop Mac and Cheese

About a week ago, I was craving some food from Noodles & Co., specifically their mac and cheese with broccoli.

So Melissa searched for a mac and cheese recipe -- this one from Cooking Light -- and we simply decided we would add whatever vegetables we want to the finished product.

Stovetop Mac and Cheese
1 1/4 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (about 6 ounces)
1 cup low-fat milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 slices whole wheat bread
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 to 1 cup of vegetables

First, cook the noodles and make sure you take them out just a little al dente as they will cook later when combined with the cheese.

Combine the milk and flour and pour into saucepan and whisk constantly. When it's thickened (we used the same pot we cooked the noodles in, so it didn't take long), add the cheese, salt and pepper.


While the pasta is cooking, you'll want to throw the bread slices in a food processor until they are evenly ground. Throw the crumbs into a pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the butter and cook for another 2 minutes.


Finally, add the noodles to the cheese mixture and stir to coat.

Grab a bowl and get ready for supper. Spoon about 3/4 cup of noodles and cheese and combine with the vegetables. I used peas, broccoli and tomatoes while Melissa when just for tomatoes. Then add 1/4 of the breadcrumbs.


If you add the breadcrumbs right at the end, they will provide a great texture contrast. The multiple vegetables I used also provided a contrast; both the peas and broccoli were inserted warm, but the tomatoes were freshly cut and provided a bit of a cool contrast. The tomatoes also gave a good color contrast.

Stovetop Sausage Mac and Cheese

As was mentioned before, our proclivity toward mac and cheese recipes is unwavering. And although we blogged about a mac and cheese recipe before, we haven't blogged our favorite. But that ends today as we made our standby Stovetop Sausage Mac and Cheese earlier this week.

To begin, you take sausage (we use Mango Chipotle instead of Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomato, which the recipe calls for) out of the casing and brown it in a pan on medium heat. At the same time in another pot, boil the noodles.


While that's cooking, you can start on the cheeses, which is reduced-fat sharp cheddar (we use reduced-fat cheddar because we can't find reduced-fat sharp cheddar), Monterey Jack and cream cheese. Measure those out to the correct amounts and set aside for a moment.


When the sausage is done, add milk and flour. After those have thickened, slowly add the cheese mixture. Once you've incorporated all of the the cheese, you'll have something that looks like this:


When the noodles are done cooking, drain them and rinse them under cold water to stop the cooking. Set aside. When the sausage, milk and cheese mixture is fully combined, add the noodles.


Serve in 1 1/4 cup portions at 9 pts. per serving.


We like the Mango Chipotle sausage because of the slight sweetness and heat that it brings. The result is a creamy mac and cheese dish that is also filling. And thanks again, Cooking Light, for bringing the recipe into our lives.