
And it may seem odd to mash a vegan sauce up with regular cheese, but if your primary goal is to scale back the calories, why not give it a try? You don’t have to go with skim if you don’t want to, but cutting back to 1 percent (or even just 2 percent) will make a difference, and all those little things add up.Įven if you don’t follow a vegan diet, you may find yourself surprisingly pleased by a sauce based on dairy alternatives, from coconut milk to pureed white beans to cashew cream. Of course, you can use low-fat cheese, but if you’re not sold on the flavor of it, consider at least using lower fat milk. This happens to be an equally great hack for healthy queso too. Pureeing steamed or roasted butternut squash or cauliflower to replace some of the dairy is a great way to achieve a creamy sauce without as much fat, while also adding nutrients (and great flavor, especially if you go with roasting). Here are eight ideas to try alone or in combination: Blend Vegetables into the Sauce Buy Now How to Make Healthier Mac and Cheese Call them “tricks” if you will, but don’t think they won’t also be a treat!īialetti Pasta Pot with Strainer Lid, $34.99 on Amazon No matter what kind of pasta you make, a pot with a built-in strainer makes draining it easy. Whatever your reasons, you’re in luck, because mac and cheese happens to be pretty easy to tweak to be more nutritious without losing the very qualities that make us love it in the first pace.

Maybe you have a kid who won’t eat anything but macaroni and you want to boost their nutritional intake at least a little, or maybe you know when faced with a pot of creamy pasta, you’re gonna eat until you’re stuffed, so you want to make it at least marginally better for you. It’s just that, sometimes, you want to lighten up an old favorite. We’re not anti-indulgence at all-we did publish that aforementioned mac and cheese recipe (and many more, for that matter). But if you do want to, there are lots of ways to make it better for you, without missing out on the delicious savory, salty, tangy flavor and rich, creamy texture of the original. It’s comfort food for sure, and probably not something you’d want to eat every week. Our classic mac and cheese recipe contains a full quart of whole milk, a stick of butter, and three glorious cups of cheese. Healthy pasta sounds a little suspicious, right? And healthy mac and cheese sounds like a total oxymoron.

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