Mac and Cheese...

All the apple treats were not my recipe attempt this week.  That was necessity, so as all the lovely apples wouldn't go to waste.  I decided on an entree for this week's attempt.  I am a firm believer that everyone should have a couple of dishes in their back pocket (not literally, of course) that they can whip up whenever necessary.  I am also a believer that at least one of those dishes should be of the comfort food variety.  I have a pretty good mac and cheese recipe that I use (thank you Auntie JoJo and Pearl Bailey) but its always good to branch out, right?   

The Moosewood Restaurant cookbook series has always been one that I have struggled to get totally on board with because they are vegetarian.  And I am not, and I won't eat things like tofu, or pretend that giant mushrooms can take the place of meat.  Just can't do it.  But Ami had this book hanging around, so I decided to take a look through.  Lo and behold, there will be several recipes made from this cookbook, and the first one is...mac and cheese.

The upside to the Moosewood series is that they tend to be healthier recipes, and I was interested in testing out a healthy mac and cheese.  I mean...its got cheese in it, right?  You use cottage cheese and lowfat milk to make the white sauce (I used the Fiber One cottage cheese, thereby making it even healthier).  Blend it up with pepper and nutmeg (or pumpkin pie spice in a pinch!), dump it in a pan with uncooked macaroni, real cheese (even the Moosewood folks said that you could use low fat or fat free cheese, but that it was disgusting...), some breadcrumbs and parm on the top and...

Right into the oven until its bubbly and browned and then...holy cow!  It looks great, right? 

Here were the observations from the table.  The nutmeg/pumpkin pie spice is different.  Not bad, but different.  It wasn't as salty as regular mac and cheese can be.  I assume that is because you use less actual cheese and build your white sauce with healthier alternatives.  It wasn't soupy as mac and cheese can be, but that could also be because I added extra pasta.  AND if you make a double batch, its plenty to feed a few people and have 5 or 6 servings left over for meals for the week. 

I liked it.  I am not sure if I will use the nutmeg again, and I might add a little salt, but I am sold on the white sauce portion of the recipe.  Good work Moosewood.  :)