Family Food Friday - Mac'n'Cheese

This is what Family Food Friday is about. Cooking quick, healthy meals that pack in more veges, taste delicious and reduce waste. When using a cauliflower do you throw out all these leaves that surround the white part? Not in this meal.

Did you know that the white part is just the flower so the stalks and greenery are leaves which can be used just like cabbage. So when making Mac'n'Cheese or in NZ it is called Macaroni Cheese, I put an entire cauliflower head in. And no one notices!!!

Here are the chopped up leaves put into the pot of part cooked pasta  - all good - no wastage here.

The gorgeous cheesy sauce ready to pour over the pasta and cauliflower.

Family Macaroni Cheese

20 minutes to make - 30 minutes to bake

This makes two dishes - one to eat tonight and one to put into the freezer for a busy day.

1 packet of dried pasta of your choice

1 Head of cauliflower - stalks and all - chopped into large pieces

2 onions

bacon if you feel like it

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp mustard powder (here in NZ it is known as English Mustard)

1 litre trim milk

2 cups grated cheese

Put a big pot 3/4 full of cold water and 2 teaspoons salt onto the stove, put a lid on and complete the rest while waiting for this to boil.

Chop the onions reasonably finely and the bacon and put into a frying pan. Cook on medium heat until bacon looks done and onions going golden. Do not cook so hot that it all browns. (If not using bacon you will need a tablespoon or two of oil). Add the mustard and flour so it coats the onion and bacon and let it cook for a couple of minutes so the flour will not taste raw. Pour the milk into the pan and stir well so there are no lumps. Let it come to the simmer and stir occasionally until thick.

Into the big pot of boiling water pour the whole packet of pasta. Once it has cooked for about 5 minutes add the chopped stalks and cauli and cook another four minutes. Drain in a colander and put back into the big pot. Add the sauce and 1 1/2 cups cheese, stir and put into an oven proof dish.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes at 180 deg cel.

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