Recipe | Embellished Boxed Mac and Cheese: Recipe 2

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1 box of your favorite mac and cheese
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
1/4 cup roasted red/any color peppers
1 cup frozen broccoli
1 cup frozen peas
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 cup water
a couple tbsp fresh basil, roughly chopped
a couple tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Set a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. While you're waiting for that to boil, set a large skillet on medium heat and add a few tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Saute the onion, sun dried tomatoes, and roasted peppers. Cook them for 5-7 minutes, or until the onions begin to soften. Salt and pepper the veggies.

Add whatever cheese sauce comes with your mac and cheese box to the veg mixture along with the 1/2 cup of water. Incorporate the cheese and water to a creamy consistency. You can use veg stock if you want, I just didn't have any on hand. Add the frozen broccoli, cover the pan, and cook until the broccoli is thawed - another 7-10 minutes. Remove the lid, reduce the heat to simmer, and let the sauce cook down a little bit. Salt and pepper this layer and add the crushed red pepper flakes.

While the sauce is reducing, your water should be boiling, so you can drop your pasta in. If you find your sauce is reducing too quickly, feel free to add some of the starchy pasta water to it to loosen it up a bit. This will also help the sauce stick to the pasta when you incorporate the two of them.

When your pasta is done cooking, drain and add it to the sauce along with the frozen peas. Turn off the heat and add the tomatoes and basil. Salt and pepper the dish if necessary. It's important to wait until the end of the cooking process to ass the peas because they will break down and turn to mush if you add them early on. The residual heat from the sauce and pasta together is enough to thaw them through. Or, you can thaw them out ahead of time if you're worried about serving frozen peas.

Enjoy!

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Recipe | Embellished Boxed Mac and Cheese: Recipe 1

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I love mac and cheese, but the boxed kind isn't very exciting or containing of any nutritional value, really. So I decided to take my favorite brand of boxed mac and cheese and embellish it a little bit. Not only does this stretch the box to more servings, but makes it more interesting with more ingredients and more nutritious and substantial.

1 box of your favorite mac and cheese. I use Annie's deluxe mac and cheese

2 soy sausage links, cut into half-moon shapes

1/2 cup vegetable stock

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 avocado, mashed

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Set a large skillet to medium heat and set on high a large pot of water for the pasta. Start by browning off the sausage pieces in the olive oil. This should take around 5-7 minutes.

Remove the pieces from the pan after they've browned and set aside. Add the chopped peppers and onions to the pan and begin to sweat them. Again, this should take around 5-7 minutes. Add some salt and pepper.

(I forgot to photograph the rest of the recipe, but I think it's all pretty easy to follow)

At this point, the water for your pasta should be boiling. You can go ahead and salt the water and drop the pasta in. Meanwhile, in the skillet, add the vegetable stock, mashed avocado, and the cheese sauce that comes in your mac and cheese box. If your mac and cheese comes with a powder, just add some milk along with the other ingredients. Stir everything together until the avocado and cheese sauce has incorporated into a creamy mixture.

Add the cumin, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes to the sauce. Stir to disperse the spices throughout the whole sauce. Add more salt and pepper if necessary Let this simmer until the pasta is done cooking (8-10 minutes). Drain and Add the pasta to the sauce along with the chopped tomatoes. Combine everything and enjoy!

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