The New Year is here and you will not starve yourself… you’ll just make things healthier. So “Comfort Foods” will still be comfort foods and some will have to be eaten in moderation (Like this Mac & Cheese). This is NOT a diet recipe, but it is a pretty cool healthy twist to the American favorite.
This is where I will tell you how much I HATE the word Diet. It was Bill Maher who scoffed at the Pharmaceutical Companies who threw the “…when diet and exercise don’t work” around in order to sell THEIR “for profit” fixes for our waist lines. Diet and Exercise, DO work… I just don’t like doing it all the time! There is no easy fix for healthy and HEALTHY should be your goal, not a number on a scale.
I NEVER intended to fool my family, I thought they saw me cutting cauliflower up and taping it for the show; however I would have done anything to have captured their faces when mid third or so bite I informed them, this was “Cauliflower Mac & Four Cheese”. It was too funny! Jaws stopped chomping, stunned faces looked down at their plate; as though somehow they had missed it. They had… which meant, half the pasta replaced with a vegatable- BRILLIANT!
“For the Love of Parsley” and Cauliflower for that matter… two pieces of vegetation that get NO respect. Well, parsley is one of the Greenest of greens and that means there are GREAT reasons to invite him to dinner, just look:
http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/6-health-benefits-of-parsley.html
The fact is, I would fix this for health or not… it was great. (and lets be honest, thats a lotta’ cheese. It’s not “skinny” just “skinni-er”;) There were many recipes on line, and as we all do I looked at many and grabbed the things I liked. Due to all the cheeses, it’s not the cheapest thing to make, but then again- it’s pasta, veggie, cheese… It’s the a meal if you wanna’ make it that.
Cauliflower Mac & Four Cheese
This makes enough for a LARGE gathering- so half if you like
1 box of shell pasta (cooked almost done)
1 head of cauliflower (chopped & cooked in pasta water till firm but tender)
[ combine the two in a large casserole dish ]
3 cups of milk (go skinny w/ the milk, you have plenty of cheese in this)
1 cp chopped Gouda
1 cp chopped pepper jack
1/2 block of cream cheese
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
[melt all this on the stove eye]
add to the melted cheese
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1cp of chopped parsley
[Pour this over the pasta & Cauliflower]
Melt Butter and garlic and mix with Panko Bread crumbs over the top
bake till Golden Brown
Looks absolutely delicious. And I really enjoyed the song, one of my favorites. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Thank you… how can you not like that song right?
This sounds AMAZING! I love glaric anything but broccoli and cauliflower!!! YUM YUM!!!Thanks for your comment over on Truly Lovely by the way! So glad to see you around!!!
glad you enjoyed
When my sister was unerdgoing chemo therapy doctors advised Cauliflower soup. My frantic search ended in your Blog. Thanks a million for sharing the recipe. The other recipes are also excellent.
Thank you so much for the kind words… I hope she enjoys!