Mom's Sneaky Mac & Cheese

Do you have picky kids?  If not, maybe you are one of the LUCKY ones!!!  But even if you ARE lucky, who doesn't need more veggies in their diet???  And having it completely undetected in this popular comfort food?  that's just a TRIPLE plus!!  The whole process of sneaking veggies and fruits into food isn't a "new" thing for me.  About 2 years ago, I discovered The Sneaky Chef.  I still use some of her purees in our foods now.  One of them being the "orange puree".  BUT, I didn't have any made today.  What I DID have, was some stage 1 baby food my daughter hasn't really touched since she only wants OUR food now.  LIGHT BULB!!!!  I used Carrots and Squash!!  can you see it?  NOPE, can you taste it?  Even BIGGER NOPE!!!   LoL  My Kids inhaled this in a matter of minutes!  Thank goodness the recipe left me with a TON of left overs!!  Which I'll be using for another recipe i have in mind as well!!  So stay tuned for that!!  But first, here is Mom's Sneaky Mac & Cheese!!!

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs Elbow Macaroni

16oz Velveeta Cheese, Cubed

1 stick of butter, Cubed

3/4c Heavy Cream

Garlic Powder

Adobo Seasoning

Ground Cayenne Pepper

1 container stage 1 carrots

1 container stage 1 squash

1 1/2c Mild Cheddar Cheese, Shredded

 My advice to start with is to make sure everything is cubed and all ingredients set next to the stove so you aren't searching while this is being made.

Begin by starting the water to boil to cook the elbow macaroni. DO NOT put oil or salt in.  The end result may end up too salty, and some sauces do not stick to pasta if they are cooked with oil. 

In a large saucepan, on medium heat, place cubes of butter in and let it melt. Add in the Heavy whipping cream and stir until heated through.

Begin adding your spices.  I don't want to give an amount here, because every family is different. Mine, is about a teaspoon of each the Adobo and Garlic powder and maybe a half teaspoon of the cayenne pepper.

Once the seasonings are stirred in, beginning adding about half of the Velveeta Cheese and whisk until melted. Then add in the other half.

Once the Velveeta is completely melted, add in the baby food.

Whisk until completely mixed in.  At this point, I suggest tasting the sauce so that you can see if you need to adjust the seasonings at all.  Sometimes I do, sometimes, I don't.

Add in your shredder Cheddar and continue to whisk more often than not until all melted.

This is the creamy consistency.  Sometimes, I've had to add a tad more whipping  cream to it.  Again, taste test to make sure sauce is how you would like it!!  Keep in mind, that if it is somewhat on the bland side, the macaroni will only cause it to be more bland.  So adding enough seasoning and then just a bit more is key!

Strain your elbow mac well and then add it to the cheese sauce and mix well.  

Variations:

There are a few variations that can be done here.  Before adding in the elbow mac, you can add different meat to this. Say bacon? or hot dogs? or ham??  The possibilities are endless.  Just make sure the meat is heated through before adding the elbow mac. and mixing all together!  

I WILL be messing around with this recipe in the future to "lighten" it up a bit, but for now, it has veggies, and my kids loved it.  What more can I ask for???