thanksgiving prep - healthy mac & cheese for the entire family!

Hey guys. Happy Weekend! My mom and I were discussing our Thanksgiving menu, and since she plans a huge menu of deliciousness every year, I was surprised to hear she wasn't making mac & cheese! My sister was flabbergasted also, so I decided to step in as the big sis and save the day. Now that it has been decided that I'm in charge of making the mac & cheese, I had to come up with a healthy alternative since I don't do milk and I want to eat healthy during the holiday season. Thank God for google because as I was researching recipes online, I came across this yummy looking mac & cheese lite recipe via fitness magazine. The title immediately captured my attention - Lighten Up: A Healthy Mac & Cheese Recipe. I want everyone to enjoy my low carb, low calorie recipe and shhh, hopefully no one will notice the difference between this and an unhealthy version of the comfort food. Here's a step by step process of what I did - mostly following the recipe but with changes here and there (using my own cooking expertise). Enjoy!

Mac and Cheese Lite

Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
Sea Salt
4 ounces whole grain macaroni
1/2 cup onion-garlic puree
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
Pinch cayenne pepper + garlic salt
1 cup triple cheddar cheese
1/3 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup garlic & herb panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Mist an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with cooking spray; set it aside.
2. Bring a large pot of sea salted water to a boil. Add macaroni and cook according to package directions, drain.
3. Meanwhile, bring onion-garlic puree(1/2 cup water, 6 cloves of garlic + 1/2 an onion), dry mustard, and cayenne to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often. Whisk in cheddar until melted. Remove from heat and whisk in yogurt.
4. In a medium bowl, toss the macaroni with the cheese sauce. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish, season with garlic salt to taste and sprinkle panko over the top. Top with Parmesan & more cheese!
5. Bake until Parmesan is melted and macaroni is hot throughout, about 20 minutes until golden brown.

Voila! Looks so good, right?

I have to say this was a successful Thanksgiving recipe and I'm very confident my family will enjoy this. As another experiment next time, I'm going to try vegan cheese and coconut milk! xx