Skinny Layered Mac & Cheese

Wednesday 23 December 2015

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I know what you are thinking  . . .  skinny mac and cheese?  Can it be possible.  Well, in all truth, there is no such thing as truly skinny mac and cheese, and a better name would probably be skinnier mac and cheese, but hey!  If you can cut the calories in a dish like this and not lose any of the flavour, and end up with a dish that still tastes somewhat indulgent, then I would say job well done!

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This dish is delicious and probably has about a third less the calories of the full fat version.   I did this by using skimmed milk and the new 33% lower in fat low low cheese blend.  This is a great tasting cheese blend which includes low fat Red Leicester,  Medium Cheddar and Mozzarella for that bit of ooze factor.

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This gets layered in a dish with cooked macaroni.   A mix of eggs and skimmed milk, seasoned lightly with salt, pepper and paprika . . .  is poured over top and the the whole thing is baked.   You do save some of the cheese for later.  It gets thrown on right at the end to gild the lily so to speak.

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The end result is something totally delicious, totally family pleasing, and just that little bit better for you, than the full fat version.  As a once in a blue moon version, you just can't lose!

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*Skinny Layered Mac & Cheese*
Serves 4

Scrumptious and lower in fat and calories than the regular kind.  It's always going to be an occasional treat, but it's nice to be able to indulge now and again without it being over the top.  This is delicious. 

1/2 pound of macaroni, cooked and drained
(I like to use whole wheat)
400g of low low Medium red and Mozzarella grated cheese (4 cups))
2 large free range eggs
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp ground sweet paprika
355ml of skimmed milk (1 1/2 cups)


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Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F. gas mark 4.  Spray a 2 litre baking dish with low fat cooking spray.   Layer 1/3 of the macaroni in the baking dish.  Sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese.   Repeat layers, topping with the remaining macaroni.  Reserve the last third of the cheese for later.  Whisk together the milk, eggs, salt, pepper and paprika.  Pour evenly over the macaroni.  Cover tightly with foil and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.  Return to the oven and bake for a 5 to 10 minutes longer.  Remove from the oven and let stand for about 5 minutes before serving.

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10 comments

  1. Love Mac and cheese and the cheese you're using sounds great. Will look and see if I can find it here.

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    1. I was really surprised at how well this turned out Carol, despite the skim milk and low fat cheese. It was great! xo

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  2. Looks delicious, but surely the fat content per serving can't be right? You would get that much fat just from the eggs. I haven't read the labels on low fat cheese, but surely they aren't completely fat free?

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    1. No, they aren't fat free West Essex. I just copied the nutritional values from the program which I used to calculate calories etc. I used Kerry Low Low medium Red mix which has 4.4g fat per serving, which actually isn't that bad. Eggs don't contain fat as such, although they do contain cholesterol in the yolks, but two yolks spread over 4 servings wouldn't be too bad I wouldn't think. In any case this has to be way lower and better for you than the regular stuff and the fact that it's really delicious is a bonus! Merry Christmas!

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  3. Ah, but how many grams of the low fat cheese is a serving according to the packet?

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    1. Fair point. It says 20g per serving on the pack, so with 100g, you could reckon on 20g of fat, but at a third less the fat and calories of regular cheese, it's still better than the other kind.

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  4. Hi again Marie,
    Sorry for going on about this, but the calculation for sugars in today's mac and cheese recipe also seems to be way off.

    The only ingredient in your recipe that should have an appreciable amount of sugars is the skimmed milk, and for the amount in the recipe you should end up with about 4g of sugars per serving. The carbohydrate in the pasta should be mostly starch and nearly 0 as sugars, so it's difficult to see how you could have 34.7 g of sugars per serving.

    Maria.

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    1. I thought it seemed like a lot of sugar myself with I got the calculation done. It almost seemed as if the figures should be opposite. 34.7g of fat and 4.4g of sugar? I don't know. I will remove the nutritional information and try to find a better calculator.

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