Single Girl Mac 'n Cheese

It's finally a cool day here. It's been in the 30s (celsius, I'm Canadian remember?) all week with wicked crazy humidity so I haven't been cooking much. This past week I've been living on salads and a cooked rotisserie chicken I bought from the grocery store, I couldn't stomach the thought of turning on the oven. Since it was a bit cooler today I decided to make something that would keep well in the fridge for a few meals in case the weather heats up again. This Single-Girl Mac 'n Cheese makes four fairly large servings. Pair it with a garden salad and you've got an awesome evening meal.

Single-Girl Mac 'n Cheese
 285 Calories per serving

If you look closely you can see the rain pouring down outside

Ingredients:

200 grams pasta (I used 100grams whole wheat rotini and 100 grams white elbow macaroni)
3 strips chicken bacon - cooked
1 small yellow onion - diced
2 ounces light medium cheddar cheese (the stronger the cheese flavour the less you have to use)
2 wedges of light Laughing Cow Swiss cheese
2 cups skim milk
2 T flour
1 t dry mustard powder (or 1T of regular mustard)
1 t black pepper
1/8 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions:

Measure your pasta and boil a pot of water (salted if you're not watching your sodium intake like me)

I love to mix it up with a couple different kinds

Spray a pan with your favourite brand of spray oil and cook the bacon over medium-high heat.

I love this brand of chicken bacon

While that's cooking dice a small yellow onion. Remove the bacon and re-spray the pan before adding the onions.

While the onions are cooking grate 2 ounces of a strong flavoured cheese.

Light, medium cheddar

And chop the bacon

Life is so much better with bacon

Next you're going to want to create a thickening agent for your sauce. Traditional mac 'n cheeses have you adding flour to some melted butter in a saucepan. Since we're lightening it up that's not a good idea. A couple of tablespoons of flour in a half cup of the skim milk do the same trick. I used my magic bullet to create my thickening because it's easy and there aren't any lumps. If you don't have a magic bullet I recommend adding a small amount of milk at a time to the flour and mashing with a fork to get a smooth result.

Liquids on bottom, flour on top, whiz for a minute or so

Once the thickening was ready I added the dry mustard and the black pepper and whizzed it again to get the flavours incorporated. At this point add any other seasonings you want, salt, paprika, nutmeg, chili flakes etc.

By this time the onions should be cooked. Add the other 1 1/2 cups of skim milk to the frying pan and give it a good stir to loosen all the good bits of onion and bacon from the bottom of the pan. At this point you'll want your pan to be on low to medium heat so you don't scorch the milk. Add the thickening agent and stir 

 together.

Oh man!

Break up the two wedges of laughing cow cheese and add to the pan along with about 3/4 of the cheddar cheese.

How is it even possible that this is 'light'?

Stir until everything is combined. Drain the cooked pasta and add to sauce. Stir in the bacon. Pour into a greased 8X8 pan (or parchment lined pan if you're lazy like me and don't want the clean-up). Top with panko bread crumbs and the remaining cheese.

Are you ready for all of this awesome?

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Remove from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Divide into four equal portions. Enoy!

Best breakfast/lunch ever!