Welcome to my weekly series called Conveniently At Home. The idea of this series is to slowly transition myself from buying pre-made and/or processed foods and eventually make most of my foods “from scratch.” This will be a slow journey but one worth the wait!
I was flipping through my Taste of Home Magazine and I found a recipe I couldn’t resist trying—Double Cheese Macaroni! It was perfect timing as I had a few bags of cheese that were nearing their expiration date. So moving right along, here’s the recipe:
1 pkg (16 oz.) elbow macaroni
3 cups (24oz.) of 4% cottage cheese
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp garlic salt
3 cups of half-and-half cream
1 cup milk
4 cups (16oz.) shredded cheddar cheese
For topping: 1 cup dry bread crumbs and 1/4 cup butter, melted
Cook macaroni according to the package. Meanwhile, place cottage cheese in a food processor, cover and process until smooth. Set aside.
In a large saucepan, melt butter. Stir in the flour, salt, peper and garlic salt until smooth. Gradually add cream and milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes until thickened.
Drain macaroni; transfer to a large bowl. Add the cheddar cheese, cottage cheese and white sauce; toss to coat. Transfer to a greased 13-in x 9-in baking dish. (Dish will be full.) Combine bread crumbs and butter; sprinkle over the top. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.
MY NOTES:
So by far, this isn’t as easy as making boxed Mac & Cheese but it sooo yummy! It’s not really difficult to make but you do use a few pans & the food processor. So if you hate lots of dishes to clean, it may not be a recipe for you. But once you make it, it will probably become a favorite!
I had never put cottage cheese in the food processor and I was amazed at how smooth it became. I was kind of wondering if smooth cottage cheese could replace cream cheese in some recipes. One thing to note, when you are making the white sauce, don’t be distracted or you might burn it! Keep stirring! (I didn’t burn mine but I came close.) Since we have a smaller family, I cut the recipe in half and had an 8×8 pan full! The hardest part of this recipe was finding the white pepper, to which my husband joked, “Isn’t that salt?” 🙂
Some of you asked for pics in my recipes. My camera doesn’t take great food shots. I couldn’t get a good one showing you how cheesy and yummy this looks but since you asked here’s one of the finished product with that great breadcrumb topping…
When Nathan and I cook, Kaydi usually sits in her high chair and plays with toys. She loves banging measuring cups on the highchair. Today, she must have got bored watching us because…
That was my homemade recipe that I tried for this week. Here’s hoping that you’ve found something new to make from scratch and found that it was Conveniently At Home! I was just glad to have had another reason to use Black Beauty!
NOTE: Looks like Mr. Linky is having issues once again so I’m removing it for now. Feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to put a link on the posting for you.
Here are a few more recipes on other blogs to check out:
Far Above Jules – Slowcooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Chantelle’s Adventures – Italian Beef Sandwiches w/ Squash and Corn Casserole