Alright, so I did it. Sunday I tried my hand at making Mark Bittman's mac & cheese recipe that's in the March issue of Runner's World. I've loved mac & cheese ever since I was mixing the Kraft stuff with my green peas at my parents kitchen table when I was like 5 years old. Now that I'm more conscious of what I eat and I understand how bad the stuff is for me, I have hardly had a bite of it in more years than I can count. So when I saw Mark Bittman's healthier version in Runner's World, I knew I had to try it out.
A few things were working against me, so my optimism levels were pretty low as it baked:
- I've never made mac & cheese from scratch
- We have a 3 cup food processor
- It turns out I'm bad at reading recipes (especially when written in paragraph form)
- Apparently when the oven light is turned on, the temperature decreases by 25'
I will tell you a few things:
- I didn't use bay leaves in the veggie stock
- It seemed like there was a lot of sauce, so I didn't use all of it (and I'm glad I made that decision)
- Since I'm still not super experienced as a cook, I was a little confused by the "8oz whole wheat elbow pasta". I started by measuring out a cup of pasta and realized it could not be enough. So I measured out another cup, which was about half the bag, so that made a little more sense.
the base of the sauce is cauliflower |
Our little food processor couldn't do the job, so it was up to the blender |
With homemade bread crumbs and grated Parmesan on top, it's (finally) ready for the oven |
Hot out of the oven! |
Yes, I look exhausted, but it's done! |
If you don't know Mark Bittman, check out his website HERE and his RW blog HERE.
- Are you a mac & cheese lover?
- Does it remind you of childhood memories?
- Do recipes written in paragraph form throw you off too?
Today's workout -
45min elliptical
100 crunches
2x40sec plank
3x10 leg press
3x10 upright row
3x10 hammer curl/squat combo
stretching
Tonight's workout -
heading back to Zumba!