Macaroni and Cheese

We really do try to be healthy people. But sometimes - and you know it as well as I do - you just need some comfort food. The lovely Katie Farrell has some really scrumptious comfort-food-turned-healthy recipes over on her website, Dashing Dish, and she even has a couple options for macaroni and cheese. I've made one and really like it, but Ryan still likes a more original version than the healthy kind I make for me. So we compromise...sometimes I make Katie's version, and sometimes I make a more traditional recipe, changing out some of the more original ingredients to make it as healthy as I can.

I won't lie. I LOVE mac and cheese. Especially the cheese. And in my adulthood, I've tried several recipes, trying to find the perfect blend of creamy and dry. We don't like it on the soupy side, but we also don't like it TOO dry. This recipe, which I originally found on Pinterest and tweaked to fit us, has been our favorite.

We've loved it in the summer as a side with a burger and hot dogs grilling fest...we've loved it in the winter with BBQ pork in the crock pot or sloppy joes after work. It's warm, it's filling, it's cheesy, and it's our favorite.

Since the forecast for the week is filled with gray skies and rain, I thought maybe you could use a comfort food fix. Hope you enjoy it!!

Macaroni and Cheese

* 2 1/2 cups dry macaroni
* 1 Tablespoon flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
* 2 Tablespoons butter
* 2-3 cups shredded cheese of your choice
* 1 cup milk

Bring 5-6 cups of water to a boil in a pan and cook macaroni until tender. Drain and return pasta to pan. Add flour, seasoned salt, butter and cheese and stir until well mixed. Pour in greased baking dish, pour milk over mixture, and bake covered at 350 for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes. Serve warm and enjoy!

A Few Tips

* I use whole wheat macaroni. It tastes the same to me, but it makes me feel a little better about eating pasta. Ryan was worried the first time that the macaroni was overdone, because it was so dark, but the wheat pasta just is darker. So it might look different from what you're used to, but it'll taste the same!

* I also use whole wheat flour. It just thickens up the recipe a little bit. The original called for twice as much as I use, but I didn't like that much in it, so I lightened it up.

* You can use any old kind of seasoned salt you like. We like to use it in place of just salt and pepper in almost every recipe.

* I try to use lowfat cheese, and I use less or more, depending on HOW healthy I'm trying to be that day. I've used just about every kind of cheese. Mozzarella, cheddar, colby-jack, Mexican blend...all of it. We usually buy a couple bags of cheese to use in recipes and on our food throughout the week, so when I get to a recipe like this, I just use what I have on hand. It works for us.

* We buy either fat free or 1% milk, depending on what the store has that week. Either will work fine in this recipe. You can also use a creamier milk. Can't go wrong with that in a dish like this!! :)

* This does warm over well, but it gets a bit dry after a few days, just FYI.