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I wanted to share with you how I make mac and cheese at our house. At first, I used The Sneaky Chef’s technique to add pureed carrots to boxed mac and cheese, but as I grew more comfortable with substituting and my son ONLY wanted to eat mac and cheese 3 days of the week… I had to get creative. He is very slim and every calorie counts! I love ricotta cheese because it packs on the calcium and protein he needs to grow (he’s not a big milk drinker either). After much experimenting, I began creating larger batches to freeze ahead.  I love knowing I can just go to the freezer and pull out a serving to make an entire dinner!
I am going to share how to make a quick 1 dinner serving or a freeze ahead of 12!
Ingredients
- Ingredients:
- 5lb bag organic carrots, peeled and washed
- 32oz (2lb) container part skim ricotta cheese
- 12 oz sharp cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup milk
- In a pinch, I'll make the sauce in a couple of minutes. For a single serving:
- 1 cup steamed carrots
- 1/3 cup ricotta cheese
- 1-2 oz sharp cheddar cheese
- 2TB milk
- Repeat directions.
Directions
- Directions:
- Peel and wash carrots. Cut in a few pieces. Steam
- Steam carrots until soft (12-15min for that size load)
- In a blender/food processor add half of all the ingredients above and blend/puree well.
- Repeat process for second batch.
- After cooling, pour 1 cup of pureed mac and cheese into individual zip bags or freezer containers.
- To make mac and cheese dinner:
- Cook 1 lb box macaroni (or pasta of choice), drain.
- In pot add pasta, 1 cup cheese sauce and 2 TB milk.
- Warm, stir and serve!
Enjoy!
I’ve been anticipating making this for a while and it was surely tasty. My consistency was a bit thick and wasn’t pureed as well i would have liked. In hindsight (and when not being rushed) I’ll add more milk next time to allow for the food processor to do its job. I’ll be keeping this recipe; thanks.
thank you for the feedback! yes, depending on the food processor… you might need a bit more milk. mine is pretty strong and will liquify anything! Thank you!
This looks yummy and I will have to try it! My 3 year old loves mac and cheese but I’m still not happy with any homemade versions. Plus I like added nutrition :)
My kids don’t even know what out of the box is…at our house anyways. :)
I have used chick peas and cauliflower. I will have to try the carrots. :)
oh it’s soooo simple! and of course…. it makes it look “orange” :)
You are SO clever! I never would have thought of using carrots! I’m going to make this next week and see if my hunny can taste it ;)
Start by adding a bit more cheese at first. Now, ours is nearly all carrots :)
I have a lot of frozen pumpkin purée that I’d like to use in this recipe. Do you have any idea how much of that would be equivalent to the 5 lbs of carrots? I’m really enjoying you site!! Thank you!!
Danell- this is a better recipe to use with pumpkin puree http://www.supergluemom.com/better-than-boxed-homemade-mac-cheese-dairy-free-vegan/