{"id":5083,"date":"2015-12-03T11:35:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T16:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/?p=5083"},"modified":"2015-12-02T11:41:36","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T16:41:36","slug":"healthy-takes-on-hearty-winter-recipes-mac-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/uncategorized\/healthy-takes-on-hearty-winter-recipes-mac-cheese\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Takes on Hearty Winter Recipes &#8211; Mac &amp; Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/?attachment_id=5084\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5084\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5084\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2015\/12\/mac-n-cheese.jpg\" alt=\"mac n cheese\" width=\"308\" height=\"308\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2015\/12\/mac-n-cheese.jpg 308w, http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2015\/12\/mac-n-cheese-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2015\/12\/mac-n-cheese-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 308px) 100vw, 308px\" \/><\/a>Mac &amp; cheese can be a true comfort on a gloomy day, and our healthy update takes advantage of extra-sharp Cheddar balanced with creamy low-fat cottage cheese and tucks a layer of spinach into the middle, which may help picky eaters down their vegetables. Whole-wheat pasta adds robust flavor and extra fiber.<\/p>\n<h3>Ingredients<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>3 tablespoons plain dry breadcrumbs, (see Tip)<\/li>\n<li>1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 teaspoon paprika<\/li>\n<li>1 16-ounce or 10-ounce package frozen spinach, thawed<\/li>\n<li>1 3\/4 cups low-fat milk, divided<\/li>\n<li>3 tablespoons all-purpose flour<\/li>\n<li>2 cups shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese<\/li>\n<li>1 cup low-fat cottage cheese<\/li>\n<li>1\/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 teaspoon salt<\/li>\n<li>Freshly ground pepper, to taste<\/li>\n<li>8 ounces (2 cups) whole-wheat elbow macaroni, or penne<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Preparation<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Put a large pot of water on to boil. Preheat oven to 450\u00b0F. Coat an 8-inch-square (2-quart) baking dish with cooking spray.<\/li>\n<li>Mix breadcrumbs, oil and paprika in a small bowl. Place spinach in a fine-mesh strainer and press out excess moisture.<\/li>\n<li>Heat 1 1\/2 cups milk in a large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until steaming. Whisk remaining 1\/4 cup milk and flour in a small bowl until smooth; add to the hot milk and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce simmers and thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Cheddar until melted. Stir in cottage cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper.<\/li>\n<li>Cook pasta for 4 minutes, or until not quite tender. (It will continue to cook during baking.) Drain and add to the cheese sauce; mix well. Spread half the pasta mixture in the prepared baking dish. Spoon the spinach on top. Top with the remaining pasta; sprinkle with the breadcrumb mixture.<\/li>\n<li>Bake the casserole until bubbly and golden, 25 to 30 minutes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Tips &amp; Notes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Make Ahead Tip<\/strong>: Prepare through Step 4. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator, if necessary, then bake for 35 to 45 minutes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tip:<\/strong> To make fresh breadcrumbs, trim crusts from whole-wheat bread. Tear bread into pieces and process in a food processor until coarse crumbs form. One slice of bread makes about 1\/2 cup fresh crumbs. For dry breadcrumbs, spread the fresh crumbs on a baking sheet and bake at 250\u00b0F until crispy, about 15 minutes. One slice of fresh bread makes about 1\/3 cup dry crumbs. Or use prepared coarse dry breadcrumbs. We like Ian&#8217;s brand labeled \u201cPanko breadcrumbs.\u201d Find them in the natural-foods section of large supermarkets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mac &amp; cheese can be a true comfort on a gloomy day, and our healthy update takes advantage of extra-sharp Cheddar balanced with creamy low-fat cottage cheese and tucks a layer of spinach into the middle, which may help picky &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/uncategorized\/healthy-takes-on-hearty-winter-recipes-mac-cheese\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2520,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paB9fc-1jZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5083"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5087,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083\/revisions\/5087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}