Healthy mac and cheese I can eat more often without any guilt.
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- Опубліковано 23 лип 2022
- Healthy Mac and Cheese
Today I'm going to show you how to make healthy mac and cheese.
You can eat this mac and cheese while on a diet, without feeling guilty about it.
It's lower in calories, lower in fat and tastes just as good as classic mac and cheese.
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This is why you'll love this mac and cheese with a twist:
It's made with healthier ingredients than traditional mac and cheese!
It's filling and satisfying, but still light!
You can eat it without feeling guilty!
You can make it with different vegetables that are in season!
HEALTHY MAC AND CHEESE RECIPE
(serving for 1)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup elbow pasta (56g)
1/2 cup milk (120ml)
1/2 tbsp ground oats, or oat flour
1/2 cup grated zucchini (100g)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp mustard
1/4 cup ricotta cheese (60g)
1/4 cup grated cheedar cheese or gouda (25g)
1/2 cup diced tomatoes (70g)
NUTRITIONAL INFO (per serving):
430 calories, fat 16.2g, carb 48.6g, protein 24.8g
Preparation:
Boil pasta according to package directions, and don't overcook it. Reserve some starchy pasta water.
In a saucepan add the milk and oat flour, whisk to combine and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Cook for 2-3 minutes until it starts to thicken, then add the grated zucchini and continue to cook for a few more minutes.
Bring the heat to low and stir in the seasonings. Then add the cheeses in 2-3 batches and mix until the cheese has melted.
Remove from the heat, add the pasta and stir to coat the pasta.
Add the diced tomatoes and mix together.
If necessary, add the reserved pasta water in 1 tablespoon increments until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.
Serve and enjoy!
I never cease to be amazed at the way you come up with creative ways to make dishes more healthy. Oat flour and milk is a brilliant and easy alternative to the traditional white sauce, and I would never have thought to add grated zucchini. Sasha, some time you will have to tell us how many times you have to work on a dish before you get the final product? Thank you so much for another great recipe and one I am looking forward to trying in the summer heat (it's 104 here today in Arizona, so your timing was perfect!). One more question: what kind of mustard do you use in your sauce: spicy brown, yellow, or dijon? Thank you so much. You are definitely the ⭐of UA-cam cooking.
Wow Lauren, you're so kind and I appreciate this amazing feedback so much! I feel the same way about these healthier recipes, it's so exciting finding new ideas, testing recipes and sharing my results with you guys here on the platform. I takes quite time to sort all the things out, and actual testing the recipes, well it depends on the recipe... but I prefer to make everything simpler so I usually don't spend a lot of time trying out the recipes and finding the perfect one, I guess it comes naturally for me, for this mac and cheese I had the basic idea, I made myself a dinner the night before filming and actually that was it. To answer you question about mustard, it was yellow mustard and I use yellow one most of the time in all of my cooking. Thanks again! Enjoy your summertime!
What country are you from
He may be Italian
Barilla is an Italian brand
@@leetreys_lab7027 Sasha is from Croatia.
@@Arrasel Croatia.
I made this today but didn't have tomatoes, which I really felt would've elevated the dish. It was absolutely delicious and so filling. Half the dish was plenty. I already recommended it to a couple family members and a couple friends. Really good! Thanks for the recipe!!
Hi there! That's great news, thanks so much for trying it out and I'm happy you actually loved the recipe. You're right, tomatoes goes so well with the zucchini and this lighter cheese sauce, anyway thanks again for sharing this recipe with others. Take care!
You tickled me when you said, "don't over cook it like I did" about the pasta. It can be challenging to keep it where you want it. Excellent video
Yeah, I did my best to make it perfect, but it's quite challenging to keep everything in control while actually filming a video:)
One of my daughters makes this healthy mac & cheese, but instead of using graded zucchini, she uses the winter squash, which is yellow like cheese and you’d never know it was in there. Delicious.
Finally someone who lists macros. Thank you 10/10
i have watched so many of your videos, everything about your channel is so amazing! thank you
Absolutely love this made it tonight thank you so much 🏴🏴
Literally the best channel for healthy meals, thank you !
Thanks so much for supporting!
Thanks for the recipe, I definitely gonna try this
I just found your channel and have now been binging a handful of your videos. Keep curating the comment section, it’s awesome! I know that’s because you are so active down there. It’s rare to see someone with as many subs as you have that does that.
I see it and I appreciate it. :)
Being able to quickly and easily see helpful and kind comments makes a video 1000 times more useful IMO.
Thanks again!
Hi there! Hope you're doing fine man, and I'm so glad you actually enjoy the content here on the channel. Yeah, I just love to be in touch with my audience, you everything makes more sense to me when there's a communication flowing, yes it does take some time, but see even 12 days after I'm happy to respond! Have a great time!
Great recipe, Sasha! It's already on my list. Thanks! 😘🤗♥️
Hi there, so happy you like the idea of making healthier mac and cheese this way! Sending back love!
Hi dear Sasha, I love zucchini and that's a good idea to add it. And congrats on over 300K subscribers, you've earned it 🥇🏆 Your simple, easy to make and delicious recipes make your channel unique and I'm happy that I'm one of those many subscribers. Thank you so much for all your best recipes and I can't wait for your book to publish. Please take care and have a lovely day. ❤️🌺
Hello dear Zahra, thanks so much for your lovely words of support, it means a lot to me! It's so great to have you here! Hope you enjoy your summertime guys!
People who insist on a very creamy sauce may find that a quick use of an immersion blender will smooth that sauce right up.
Yeah, love the idea!
This is excellent. Thank you. Greetings from South Africa.
Its quick ,simple, healthy, easy to make,most importantly yumyyyyy!!!! what else needed in our busy lives!!! you are the best Sashaaaa!!! Thank you always🤩 🥰
That's right Sylvia, you just can't not to love this recipe, finally can feel good about eating a bowl of mac and cheese:) Thanks so much!
Yummy! Definitely making that!
Glad you like the idea Melanie!
Looking forward to trying this! I might even add a little nutritional yeast!
Thank you 😊
Awesome, delicious looking recipes.....so creative and healthy
Thanks so much for your feedback!
This channel is awesome!
Hey there !! I am just loving it and i am going to try this out & let you know....how it comes out mac & cheese pasta & it's one of my favorite 🤤😍👌 thank you soo much brother 🙏☺️
This was amazing!!
Great news, thanks for trying it out!
Great job on this! Looks DELICIOUS!😋
Thanks Nakia, so glad you like the idea!
finally a healthy version of macncheese I’d like to give a shot thanks Sasha😍
Yeah, I'm also excited about this recipe, love this healthier version!
😍you made my life soo easy.Thanks once agn.❤️
Hi Anita! I'm so happy I've been able to help! Sending back love!
Great recipe! 💯
Thanks so much Vilma!
Wow! What a creative way to get Mac and cheese!
Thanks Paul, I appreciate it!
Nice!! I love the grated zucchini move.
Thanks so much Paula! Hope you're having a great time in Bulgaria!
You Are The Man 💪👍👏
You my friend are a wonderful cook!!!!!!! I just found your channel~. 🤓
I use cauliflower instead of zucchini in my Alfredo sauce and it works out nicely. Thanks for your recipes!
Do you use cauliflower for making a sauce or you serve your Alfredo with cauliflower instead of pasta?
The cauliflower is in the sauce!
@@lisazabriskie7916 That's just great, thanks!
Hi Saha, I'm afraid I have never been a fan of Mac & Cheese, but I must say that the sauce looks absolutely amazing, so I might even give it a try! Great tip about the already grated cheese! As ever, TFS and have a great week! 👍💖
Hi there Hazel, hope you'll actually give it a try, trust me it's not too cheese, neither too heavy... I think only true fans of classic super cheesy and fatty mac and cheese can find this recipe boring. Thanks for your support as always! Take care my friend!
@@HowToCookSmarter No, nothing can be too cheesy my friend 😂 It's the elbow pasta I don't like? I don't know why (because pasta is pasta I know) but I prefer the 'flatter' pasta, like Pappardelle or Fettuccine, so maybe I will try it with one of those (I realise the Elbow pasta is used to hold the sauce), but I just don't like it for some reason (I blame the 60's school dinners 😂) Anywho, thank you my friend! 💖
@@hazelkinvig-paul8231 Yeah, I can understand, I'm not a huge fan of elbow pasta either, so I guess I should get into making healthier version of Fettuccine Alfredo:)
I would use that cheese sauce over broccoli! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I am a new subscriber...you amaze me!
Thanks for joining and sending over your feedback!
This is going to be my lunch today! 🍽🧀
@How To Cook Smarter I've always wanted to eat mac and cheese and I'm glad I now have a healthy version of the recipe that doesn't require kilos of cheese (that's what kept me from trying mac and cheese recipes until now). Thank you so much! It was soooo good! 👍🏻💐
Love the idea of shredded zucchini👍
Thanks for your feedback!
Making out my grocery list now💗
Glad about the timing!
I subscribed to your channel. You're so damn creative with you recipes I'm so in love with your channel. Going to binge every single video of yours now
Ooh, Sasha you made it again 😀!
This will be my dinner for tomorrow, having louds of zucchini here😋😋.
Thanks again for an amazing simple dish 🤗
Hi there Bibbi! That's so great, love the zucchini season, and unlike other veggies it really comes in abundance, so it's great for trying out many different recipes. Hope you'll enjoy this healthier mac and cheese.
@@HowToCookSmarter oh I know I will enjoy it 🤗💞🙋🏼♀️
@@gittank-sson3074 Great! Sending back love!
Wow!
I like the zucchini idea. I use chickpea flour instead of grain flour and it works perfectly. I greatly appreciate you showing us the difference in the pasta nutritions because, as you said, alternative pastas are extremely expensive. I think the only advantage would be if a person was on the type of diet where they need to get more protein. I wonder if it helps diabetics to use whole grain pasta rather than white flour. A dietician once told us that wheat is the worst (even whole wheat) so I try to buy whole grain pasta, most often spelt.
Whole grain or protein pasta isn’t that much more expensive in the U.S. anyway.
Love your videos man. Outright enjoying food without feeling terrible about lack of nutrients. Just a question though - Can I blend the zuchinni instead of grating it? Our grater sucks lmao
Thanks so much for your feedback! Sure, blending zucchini first would be just fine, just add a bit more of oats if it's too watery.
Well, you have some great tips I’m going to try. The tomatoes though in this application as a personal preference just ruin the master piece to me. But to each their own.
You can up the protein content by adding frozen peas before the pasta.
That's right, love the idea of adding peas into this recipe!
Great 👍
Thanks!
I'm gonna make the cheese sauce and add it to brocolli rice
This is a Wonderful Recipe 😅OH MY 😋. What would be the measurements for the ingredients to make in the oven in a large 10 x 10 pan for 8 people ? 🙏🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🤔❤😀
Munster cheese melts good.
Oh wow! Love this
Can u put it in the oven after this ?
Thank you for the recipe! I just got some idea how could I make it glutenfree (with ricenoodles) and without milk and cheese ('cuz IBD) but a cheese-like-sauce with the sheredded cukkini.
Hi Mark, that's great! Tell me something more about that dairy-free cheese-like-sauce?
mmm that looks yummy. I will need to give that a try
Thanks Kim, hope you're going to love it!
I am going to have to try this, it does look good and I love Mac and cheese!
I do have a question for you regarding the oat flour you make. Do you use the quick 1 minute or the 5 minute oats?
Hi Laura! Glad you like the idea of making mac and cheese this way. When it comes to oat flour I just grind some rolled oats in my coffee grinder, and I do that all the time.
@@HowToCookSmarter will a NutriBullet work ok?
@@laurabaumgartner3085 Sure, it would be fine too.
I'd like to make this today but if I don't have any zucchini any suggestion as an alternate thickener?
Hi Nancy! Well, you can use some finely grated root vegetables, they're also high in starch, or you can make a puree out of cauliflower, mushrooms or corn. Hope you enjoyed your mac and cheese!
I totally approve this, much much better than standard Mac and cheese lol
Have you tried it?
@@kathleennorton2228 nope but it looks muh more appetizing than the crap American usually put on Mac&cheese
Truly fell in love with it, works for me all the time
Looks absolutely too yummy delicious perfectly done super amazing presentation
Thanks for checking it out!
Sasha, this mac n cheese looks really delicious & I'm sure even my picky son would love it❤🌞
Thanks Liz, exactly it's so easy to make kids eat more zucchini:) Hope you're going to like the recipe guys!
@@HowToCookSmarter Thanks Sasha, I'm sure we will
Another winner! However I need to make it lower carb. Have you found a way to use (frozen) cauliflower that is actually good?
Or other veggies to sub for 1/2 the pasta?
I don't know if this helps, but I would imagine spiralized zucchini could work in this recipe if that’s not too much Zucchini for your taste. I would use raw zucchini and just add it to the cheese sauce to warm it up. Steamed zucchini would water down the sauce, I think.
Have a great day! 🙂
@@hortensejones4050 I'm back from the kitchen and cooked it for you with more zucchini so I can give you some advice.
Somewhere in the comments, Sasha (that's his name, right?) wrote that maybe you could replace the zucchini in the sauce with mashed mushrooms or cauliflower. That way you wouldn't have zucchini in the sauce and at the same time as a noodle substitute, although I have to say that you can't taste it in the sauce so it doesn't matter.
Anyway, here's what I would do:
Use a little less milk right from the start because you're adding very watery vegetables later. You can always thin the sauce later. I would not replace half of the noodles with vegetables but cook the dish according to the original recipe and add lots of raw zoodles at the end. I think the consistency of the sauce might suffer if you replace half of the noodles with vegetables. Zucchini goes well with the cheese sauce though!
Hope this helps. Good luck and if you like let me know if you liked it.
I took a picture for you. Original recipe + 100g zucchini. Then I ran out of zucchini. Sorry.
As you can see you could add much more zucchini and then eat less of the whole dish ( = less carbs).
www.directupload.net/file/d/6675/c5ke82mr_jpg.htm
I knew you would add oats to this in some form
I was just curious about which one
Yeah, everything starts with the oats:)
Ooohhhh. I’ll have to give this a go
Definitely give it a go!
Wowww do you know if this would work with nut milk and almond flour?
Actually it could work too!
Always innovating
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Macaroni and cheese is still delicious in my opinion. It will forever be a dish that I appreciate and enjoy ✨🍀🌙
Do you have an idea for how to make a healthy alfredo pasta? By the way, why don't you ever mention the fibre content of your recipes? In my opinion, that's a major selling point of your recipes, they're higher in fibre.
I'm lactose intolerant and get bloaded when I eat carbs. 😔 Do you have any advice to make an alternative of this dish so it.suits my needs. I love your recepies Sasha but I have lost track at the moment.
You can replace the pasta with cauliflower for example, or angel air pasta
For an easy fix you could just go with a lactosefree milk and cheese and serve it as suggested with some cauliflower. For a more adventoures take you could with some pureed cauliflower with a nutbutter of sorts and seasonings and nutritional yeast as flavour for a creamy sauce. For a lower carb option you can always choose red lentil or chick pea pasta, for even lower carbs you could go with zoodles or another type of veggie noodles or shirataki noodles - but both of which are horrible if you ask me. If you're going with veggie noodles I'd suggest a richer sauce - based on a (vegan) rue for example or a nutbutter - simple because there isn't much to keep you full otherwise.
@@decimusxi thanks for the advice
@@ameliebohnlein5199 thank you for all your advice.
Hi Anna-Lena! I would say there's always a solution... and I would definitely go with making a zucchin mac and cheese, not adding zucchini into the pasta like I did, but sauteing chopped zucchini first than mixing it with this cheese sauce, and for lactose intolerance you can use any cheese or cheese substitute you usually do.
I use Banza gluten free pasta.
🤩🤩🤩
Love this oat flour, no nutritional or brewers yeast.
Yeah, oat flour works just great as a thickener.
Dr. Mandell says that if you completely cool your pasta, and then reheat it, a good portion of it becomes resistant starch!
Thanks for sharing this!
Is ricotta similar to cottage cheese?
Talking about nutrition it is quite similar, but ricotta is much creamier and more neutral in taste, but if you're trying to replace ricotta with cottage cheese I would suggest you blend it up first.
Holly- 24g protein for serving, yas
And if you add some chicken cutlet on side it goes even higher.
what about a mac and cheese quinoa?
Do you mean adding cooked quinoa into this sauce?
@@HowToCookSmarter yes. And eating that like mac and cheese. I made a fried rice with it before and it transfer over very well in my opinion.
@@midnightrob2086 Yes, I love making quinoa fried rice too, but never made the mac and cheese version, will give it a try too.
🙆🏻♂️👍🏻
Love the concept, but far not enough vegetables in it for me.
Sure, you can't go wrong with adding more vegetables inside.
Thank you for sharing but I am allegy of dairy products and it must not be a good idea to omit the cheese. 😟
In my country we have a vegan type of cheese made of potato. It tastes like cheese. You could try to find it! Good luck 🤞
Tried "Simple" brand yet? Its not 🐄 dairy. So far it cooks the same and lasts a while (bought in june lasting til August sell by date)
@@patricialynveal4017 I never heard of that brand… where did you order? I live in Finland.
@@Budgetmeright thanks!
Sorry guess the link to target picture would not post...It is:
SILK brand called
Next
Its predominantly oats and other plants based like coconut has a cow milk texture but no cow product..my son showed it to me (he works produce at healthfood chain in North America, but he doesn't do cow since born so always checking out new products)
Why?
.
That sauce looks gritty. Needs some work for sure.
I would not use tomato’s . I dont think there belong in that cheese sauce!
Oats in everything
Go oats!
😀😀😀 Long live oats!!
Gg
That serving size is too small. How is that supposed to fill up an adult?
I mean, just double it 🤷♂️ it would still be 860 cal, 50g of protein... So that's a good meal in my books
@@DoktorrFlow that's the problem though. By doubling the size, you get a normal portion, but 800+ calories is too much for a normal portion.
Maybe serve with a side salad
Hi! We're talking about light summer dinner here, but if you need larger serving or more calories I would recommmend you serve your mac and cheese with some protein on side, or maybe add some shredded chicken inside.
The texture of the sauce doesn't look appetizing, looks like its been digested already and is back out to say hi.
It's because of the grated zucchini inside, it just can't completely disintegrate.
@@HowToCookSmarter Ohh thought it was the cottage cheese. Ty.
always you are cooking magically
Thanks so much Rania!