Step your mac n' cheese up a few notches with this easy but elevated recipe!
Why not take macaroni up a notch with this Elevated Noodles and Cheese!
I love a good noodles and cheese, but honestly I never buy it boxed. I will often boil some noodles, then top it with shredded cheese, milk, and a tiny bit of butter/oil. I’ll use whatever cheese I have on hand and I love adding onion! Why no boxed noodles and cheese? Because there are so many unnecessary ingredients and added salt that can be avoided with a quick shredding of cheese and a bit of milk.
With a toddler in the house, I started adding more vegetables like avocado and tomato. That inspired me to make a “fancier” noodles and cheese that was adult and kid friendly. This recipe packs in a lot of healthy ingredients and great flavor.
Almond Meal/Flour: I add this ingredient for added nutrition and it also helps thicken the sauce while still adding moisture and flavor. I blend up almonds in my NutriBullet and it works great. It’s not as fine of a texture as store-bought flour but it works great. You can use almond meal or almond flour.
Be creative with what noodles you use. I like macaroni, shell, fusilli, penne. Any noodles that has texture to allow the sauce to stick to it works great!
Gluten free option by using gluten free noodles.
This can be prepped the night before with chopping up all the ingredients and then blending and heating the next day. You can also double the batch, blend, and freeze some to be used later.
Elevated Noodles and Cheese
Ingredients
- 6-7 cups uncooked noodles shell or macaroni
- ½ cups shredded Parmesan cheese
- ½ cups shredded white cheddar cheese
- 1 tablespoon almond meal/flour
- 1 tablespoon minced purple onion and more for topping
- ½ cups roma tomato
- 5 tablespoon avocado about ½ an avocado
- 1 cups full fat plain Greek yogurt
- ½ teaspoon garlic mined about 1 small clove
- ¼ cups fresh basil loosely filled, not packed
- 1 ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ⅛ teaspoon garlic granules
- 1 pinches sea salt
- 2 tablespoon water
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Cook noodles as instructed on package.
- While noodles cook, add all remaining ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. *See notes
- In a medium saucepan, cook the blended ingredients on low (level 1-2) for 20 minutes. Decrease heat to Lo for another 10 minutes.
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