Homemade Mac and Cheese - Unprocessed

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This one is the baked one ... won't do that the same way again. It dried it out too much.

We love the homemade mac and cheese that I grew up on. The only problem turning it into an unprocessed meal was the cream of mushroom soup ! After talking to my Mom ... I decided to try making a white sauce with itty bitty mushrooms in it, to replace the c.o.m.soup ... IT WORKED !! It's a tiny bit more effort than throwing in a can of cream of mushrooms soup but it's unprocessed !! Hooray !!

So ... here's what I did.

Chop up a red onion, caramelize in olive oil. This takes a while ... 20 ? 30 minutes. Add 3 finely diced mushrooms. Add 6 TBLS butter. Melt. Slowly add 6 TBLS whole wheat flour. Mix. Very slowly add 3 cups of milk. Mix til desired consistency. Add salt and pepper. Mix. Add cheese. I probably did 1.5 cups cheddar and .5 cup mozarella. Too much. Will change amounts next time. Mix cheese in and keep on heat til melted. Add cooked (whole wheat) pasta to sauce. Stir. Done.

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This one is not baked ... it was much better but too cheesy.

Rory was saying we should
try adding some spices ... and then I found
THIS recipe ...
which we will try next time,
and also add cardamon (Rory's suggestion).
Will let you know how that turns out !

Any other suggestions are very welcome !!! This is a work in progress !!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

is the pasta made with your pasta machine? it looks so, so yummy.

Bonnie said...

nope. my pasta machine is still at the pasta machine repair shop !!! i'm dying for it (or it's replacement) to come home !!

FoodontheTable said...

My stomach is rumbling... this looks so delicious! I've never tried red onions in mac & cheese, but I will give it a whirl now.

andrafaye said...

too much cheese?!! how can you say that bonnie?!

love the caramelized red onions...what a great idea.

Bonnie said...

it wasn't the flavor of the cheese andrea so much as the cheese combined with the flour combined with the whole wheat pasta made it all a bit heavy ... so we think that needs to be broken up a bit ...but that was all too hard to write so i just said 'too cheesy' :)

Talia said...

So Bonnie, Luke and I are starting to think about doing this unprocessed thing like you are!

This looks like a yumy recipe!