Faith's Famous Mac and Cheese

 

image courtesy of C*mpbells Soup Co

Last month at work we had a thing where people could sign up to  bring in Mac and Cheese for lunch.  It was a once a week thing for the entire month of March.  I've never eaten so much pasta before!  I did sign up and shared my dish that always gets rave reviews from family and friends.  Because  a few people asked me for the recipe, I decided to just post it here.  (reminder:  any of the recipes/posts with the "faithfixes" label (see bottom of this post) can be downloaded and printed out.  There's no copyright on my recipes).  

This is comfort food at its best and is the "healthiest" i can make for my family which includes one who wants veggies at every meal and another who wants homemade. The only person who cannot eat this is my youngest girl because she's a pure vegan. I tried the vegan cheese....and......nope. 

The recipe I'm sharing here is for 4-6 people with leftovers sometimes.  For work, I simply doubled the recipe.

Faith's Famous Mac and Cheese

1 box of cavatappi or small shell pasta

1 can cheddar cheese soup

1 package of shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese, divided

1 tsp ground mustard

(you can substitute spicy brown mustard if you don't have ground)

1/4 c. creamy oat milk or unsweetened almond milk

dash of ground cracked black pepper

1/2 package (6 oz) of frozen broccoli, thawed

 and steamed in microwave for 2 min

1 sandwich sized baggie of crushed French Fried onions

• Cook the pasta according to package directions.  Drain.
• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients minus the broccoli, shredded cheese,  and french fried onions.
• Add in the broccoli, gently stirring.  
• Add in half a package of shredded cheddar cheese
• Stir well.  
• Add in the drained pasta and mix thoroughly.
• Pour into a large casserole dish, after spaying with cooking spray.
• Top with remaining cheese and the crushed french fried onions.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 25 min or until bubbly.  (note, if you don't want super dark onions, add the onions in the last 5 min of baking). 

NOTE:  French Fried onions are easy to crush...just place in a ziplock baggie and use your thumbs to "crush" or use a rolling pin to crush them. 

We like this dish served with a little fruit salad on the side:  Melon, berries, banana slices

OR

we sometimes serve this with a cucumber salad. (chopped cukes, chopped tomato, sliced red onion and a drizzle of Italian dressing over all). 

ENJOY!