Healthy Kids Meals: Macaroni and Cheese

            A favorite of almost all children, macaroni and cheese is one of the easiest things to cook, and you can make it completely healthy too! Ask your children to help you prepare the ingredients. Don't allow very young children to strain the pasta noodles or to work near the oven.

Serves Six

Ingredients:

500g macaroni
1 tbsp. butter
1 cup of reduced fat half and half cream
1 ½ cups Cheddar Cheese
1 cup of your cheese of choice
1 tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Pepper

Instructions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Put in the macaroni and allow it to cook. Strain the macaroni, and set aside.

2. Butter a pyrex baking dish.

3. In a large saucepan, heat the butter, cream, and cheeses together. As you get a thick and creamy consistency, add salt and pepper to the mixture. Continuously mix the sauce until the mixture is smooth.

4. Add your cooked macaroni into the sauce mixture, mixing well. Make sure all the macaroni is well coated before transferring the macaroni and sauce into the baking dish.

Note: If the macaroni doesn't fit in the saucepan, you can place it in the baking dish already, adding the sauce mixture while making sure all the macaroni is well coated. Remember that you don't have to mix in all the macaroni if it looks like the pieces will not be coated well enough by the sauce. Set aside.

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. If you want to top your macaroni off with more cheese or spices, you can add them to the top of your macaroni dish.

3. Place the baking dish in the oven and cook for 30 minutes.

For healthy twists, use low fat cheese, unsalted butter, and whole wheat macaroni. This recipe is great for children who like blander tasting foods. In early childhood when children are the least adventurous, start them with this recipe and slowly add more ingredients to the macaroni like turkey ham or canned tuna. The slow addition of ingredients will get them used to more complex tastes and to other foods.

Next Article: Healthy Kids Meals: Oatmeal Cookies

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