Crunchy-top mac and cheese
8
Points®
Total Time
1 hr 5 min
Prep
15 min
Cook
50 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy
This cozy, comfort food favorite has everything you'd hope for in a great macaroni and cheese recipe, plus even more. It's creamy, loaded with flavor, topped with crunchy crumbs, and baked to marry all the flavors and textures. The bonus is the addition of butternut squash and cauliflower to the mac-and-cheese mix. They bring great texture, color, and a nutritional bump to the finished dish without adding much effort to the preparation, and they blend in seamlessly with the other ingredients. To dress up the dish even more, toss a teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme to the toasted panko in Step 2.
Ingredients
Olive oil
1 tsp
Panko breadcrumbs
⅓ cup(s), (Japanese breadcrumbs)
Uncooked butternut squash
20 oz, peeled and cut up
Vegetable broth
¾ cup(s)
Weight Watchers Reduced-fat Mexican style shredded cheese
1 cup(s)
Grated Pecorino cheese
2 Tbsp
Low fat cream cheese
2 Tbsp, (Neufchatel)
Dijon mustard
1 tsp
Table salt
¾ tsp
Cayenne pepper
⅛ tsp
Uncooked pasta
4 oz, about 1 1/4 cups mini shells
Cauliflower
2 cup(s), chopped, florets