This has been it's own mini pasta journey. It started because I was having a moment with greek yogurt and amazed at the protein and calories numbers and trying to find way so work it into more recipes. But I really wanted to nail this because my kids love mac & cheese, so I wanted to find the perfect healthy mac & cheese that I could always have the ingredients on hand and make for them anytime.
My holiday-style indulgent mac & cheese is super delicious, but also probably like 1000 calories per serving. And I make it in a giant dish so it's possible for me to eat multiple servings. Kraft blue box isn't terrible on calories but doesn't taste that great. Could I split the difference somehow and make one under 650 calories for a satisfying bowl that tastes great?
I set out to make the perfect healthy mac & cheese. But as I learned in one of my favorite Malcolm Gladwell pieces, "There is no one perfect spaghetti sauce. There are only perfect spaghetti sauces."
So I've devised three separate recipes for different occasions and flavor preferences. (I went into this thinking I could use the impressive nutrition of greek yogurt, but that didn't work. Instead, unsweetened almond milk at 30 calories a cup was helpful.)
Healthy Mac & Cheese #1: The Blue Box Killer
Instant powder stovetop mac. 410 calories.
This is the simplest one and also the lowest-calorie. It's better tasting and lower-calorie than Kraft Mac & Cheese.
In all recipes, I'm starting with 84 grams of dry pasta. This is a three-ounce serving coming in at 300 calories, regardless of shape or brand. I intentionally wanted to make recipes with sizes for one person. It's easy to double or triple recipes. But if I make a big recipe with the hopes of having leftovers, it never works out that way. (I eat the whole pot.)
Cheese Sauce
30g light sour cream (35 cals)
21g cheese powder (75 cals)
just a few drops of almond milk
While the noodles are cooking, I measure and mix the sour cream and cheese powder together. I just got a food scale which is fun to use and makes everything more precise and repeatable. Literally a few drops of almond milk helps stir it together into a creamy sauce that's ready to go. In case you're wondering, an entire cup of the unsweetened almond milk is only 30 calories, so a few drops is literally under a calorie.
This is perfect for the kids.
Healthy Mac & Cheese #2: Quick, Creamy & Cheesy
Real cheese quick stovetop mac. 575 calories
Start with 84 grams of dry pasta. While the noodles are cooking, in a separate pot, we're going to make a cheese sauce.
Cheese Sauce
50g of low-fat evaporated milk (slightly less than 2 liquid ounces)
60g of grated cheese (some combination of mozzarella, white cheddar, pepper jack)
dash of cheese powder (optional)
unsweetened almond milk as necessary to thin it out
pepper
drop of mustard (optional)
Warm the milk, and then a little at a time, start adding the cheese until it all gets melty. Just a few grams of the cheese powder gives it a nice color and boosts the cheese flavor, but it will work without it.
Pepper jack and white cheddar are my two favorite cheeses. Love the flavor they bring. The mozzarella ads meltiness and is less calories too. If I didn't have the evaporated milk on hand, I would add 7 grams of flour to 2-3 ounces almond milk.
Drain the pasta and stir it into the pot with the sauce and you're ready to eat.
Healthy Mac & Cheese #3: Weekend Version
Oven-baked mac. 585 calories.
This is basically the same recipe as #2, but it gets baked. From when you start boiling the water to when you take you first bite is around an hour, so that's why this is a weekend recipe. It's not harder, just takes more time.
Again starting with 84g of pasta. I like penne for this one.
Cheese Sauce
45g of low-fat evaporated milk (slightly less than 2 liquid ounces)
60g of grated cheese (white cheddar, pepper jack)
dash of cheese powder (optional)
unsweetened almond milk as necessary to thin it out
pepper
drop of mustard (optional)
Topping
5g of cheese
- - -
This gets baked at 350F for 20-25 minutes.
This was hands-down my favorite. It's crazy that this is the same recipe as above. The baking step transforms the dish into something else entirely. Instead of tasting like pasta with a cheese sauce, they become one cohesive unit. For me personally, baking is always going to be worth it.
The one area for improvement, I had too much surface area. If I use a smaller baking dish, I can still get crispy edges but hopefully not have too many dry spots. (Note to self: use the boat-looking dish I used on the twice-baked potato.)
With this recipe it would be easy to double or triple for family, but it's essential to have the recipe work for one so that I can just make what I need and not have to rely on willpower to save leftovers. At the end of the plate, my taste buds wanted to keep eating, but I didn't need more than 600 cals for lunch. Since there wasn't anymore, it was easy to just move on.
I almost put in too much almond milk and had a thin sauce at the end. I ended up adding more cheese to the sauce to thicken and having less reserved for the topping. I didn't add any cheese powder this time, but could try that next time.
This was the last of eight or nine experiments, and when I got to this, I was like yes, this is it. This is what I set out to make. But in the process, I also discovered a lower-calorie version for the kids and a quicker version for anyone.
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