Well, not really, actually today's episode is lower fat macaroni and cheese! A while back my blog buddy the fabulous genius Miss Whiskeymarie posted her version of this dish and I had another heart attack just from reading the recipe. So in the interest of providing fair and balanced food coverage I now present my lower fat version. I got this recipe out of a low fat cook book we bought after my quadruple bypass surgery.
First off I put the macaroni on to boil. I used about half this bag.
Next I sauteed half an onion, some red bell pepper, a table spoon and a half black pepper, and three small cloves of garlic in two generous tablespoons of Brummel and Brown spread.
Next I shredded 3/4 cup of muenster. I then measured out 3/4 cup of mozzarella. After my onion mix had cooked up a bit I added three tablespoons of flour to the saute pan. I quickly added two and a half cups of fat free milk the pan and then I tossed in the cheeses. After I stirred the cheeses around in the pan I added two table spoons of Dijon mustard. When my pasta was done I put it in my oven safe casserole dish and then I poured the sauce over it. I then layered shards of Parmesan Reggiano over the top and I put uncovered mac and cheese in my oven which I had preheated to 350 degrees. I let it cook for 30 minutes but when the timer got down to 2 minutes left I turned the broiler on in the oven so I could brown the top.
And that's what it looked like when it came out of the oven. Mmmmmmm, mmmmmmm, looks good doesn't it?
I served it with a spinach salad and a couple of low fat fried ham slices. Someone liked the mac and cheese very much so she had two servings of it but I'm not going to say who that person was. She liked it so much in fact that she wants me to make it for her office Christmas lunch, which of course I'll do. ********
This recipe just goes to show you that because one is on a low fat diet that does not mean one has to give up all the comfort foods one used to eat way too much of. However one does need to keep in mind that one can't eat this very often, maybe once a month.
16 comments:
Dammit, it's another fabulous looking dish.
I'm intrigued by the addition of red bell pepper.
Yummy! I'd love to eat at your place. I have this book (which I can't remember the name of) that is all low-fat versions of amazing dishes--adding tons of fresh veggies, omitting tbsps of oil for spray-olive oil, etc. and everything in there is soooo good.
Thinkin' healthy--good monkey. Wouldn't want to end up like Cheney!
Monkey -
If you want delicious Mac & "Cheese" with virtually no cholesterol, fat, etc., try using nutritional yeast instead of cheese. Here's the recipe for cheese sauce that works well in tuna casserole, mac & cheese, Queso dip, etc.:
1 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup flour
3 tsp corn starch
3 Tblsp your choice olive oil, canola, margarine, butter
1/2 cup low-fat milk
Mix the nutritional yeast, flour, cornstarch in a saucepan. Add the oil or butter and make a smooth, thick paste. Yeast carefully and add the milk gradually while whisking. Heat and thicken - add more or less milk depending on what you want to do with it (i.e. for tuna casserole, add less milk and use the water from the canned tuna, for queso dip, add less milk and add salsa, etc.)
This sounds crazy, but I swear you will not be able to tell the difference. If you had the bean pie at our potluck, you had nutritional yeast (cheese).
Live it up.
I really have to start writing these recipes down. This one looks good, too!
Um, dguzman, Dr. Monkey wouldn't want to end up an evil robot?
Can you just scrape off that top layer of toasted cheese and throw it my way?
Wow. I love the presentation!
Last night I was making a stir fry and I thought of you.
That looks great Doc! I have to confess that I loved WhiskeyMarie's recipe myself, but kind of went in the OTHER direction than the good Dr. and added double smoked bacon into my recipe. It imparts a deep smokey flavor to the sauce and even more caloric intake than the original. Bottomline is I will probably have my own heart attack soon eneough, so I better be writing down these great recipes!!!
Snad, I am writing your recipe down, thanks!
Monkeyboy, Can I please come over for supper tonight? I'll eat leftovers. You'll hardly know I'm there.
Looks good! I don't think you can go wrong with any recipe that starts out with sauteed onions, peppers and garlic.
One thinks to make this for supper this weekend.
mmmmmmm! Have you thought of using whole wheat noodles with that? Extra goodness!
this looks sooo good!!!
Do you by chance, know of any quality online food services? I am starting to order all my food online because of various reasons. (Health being one of them) So far I have found 2 services, Fresh Dining (an LA company) and Celebrity Foods, but you have to call them so they can talk to you about your need. I would really like any suggestions that you may have, so I can widen my list of quality places online where I can order healthy food from.
Thank you and have a great night or day…depending on when you read this. LOL!!!!
you have to come cook for all of NYC
8-)
i love mac and cheese --- but it is the rare treat ----
Holy shee-ite! I want me some of that.
I would want to have two servings as well and I would definitely ask you to make it for the office party.
Someone who shall remain nameless is a very smart person indeed.
And someone who shall remain named Dr. Monkey is a great cook and a great blogger. Yes that would be you.
Devilham has it right- Bacon, bacon, bacon!!!!
Sorry, I just get way too excited about bacon. It's sad, really.
I too have made a low-fat-whole-wheat-lower-sodium version every so often.
But, about 3-4 times a year I make the real stuff and gorge myself sick on it.
Yours looks very good though. I just don't know how I can ever hope to fill out my holiday mumu if all I eat is low-fat food.
Gigantic asses don't just fall from the sky, you know.
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