Organic Gluten-Free Vegetable Mac and Cheese

Happy Hump Day! It is waaay too early. However, I have a networking breakfast to attend this morning, so I had a 5 am wake up call today.

Only a couple more days until the weekend! Last night I whipped up a hearty pan of mac & cheese. The good news? It’s organic, gluten-free and filled with vegetables! The bad news? The high yesterday and today is 32 degrees. This is exactly what we needed on such a brisk night!

I started by using a recipe as a base and I put my own spin on it. I used what vegetables I had in the fridge. I would normally use broccoli in this, because let’s be honest, there is nothing better than broccoli and cheese, but I used it all in our Sunday dinner.

Spicy Roasted Vegetable Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:
Brown Rice Pasta (I used organic brown rice spiral pasta from
Whole Foods)
3 tablespoons coconut flour
1/4 cup olive oil + 1 tablespoon
1 organic red pepper, diced
1 organic carrot, diced
1 small organic sweet potato, diced
1/2 organic onion, minced
2 cloves of organic garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups organic milk (I got ours at Whole Foods – 100% grass-fed cows)
1 cup organic shredded pepper jack cheese
1 cup organic shredded cheddar cheese (I would have used sharp, but Jason was on grating duty and he used mild…I’ll let it slide this time)
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Cook pasta to package directions. In 1 pan saute vegetables in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until soft. Once vegetables are soft, you can start on your cheese sauce. Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan. Add coconut flour and whisk to create a roux to thicken your sauce. Slowly whisk in the milk. Add cheese and whisk until melted. Remove from heat and add your vegetables and pasta. Mix well and pour into an oven safe dish. Top with grated Parmesan. Some people like to use breadcrumbs but my goal was to keep it gluten-free, so I simply added some Parmesan with the hope that the top would brown up a bit, and it did! Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the top is slightly browned and bubbly.

Perfect for a crisp fall day (even though it feels more like winter right now!) This is perfect for a side or main course. Next time I make this, I think I will cut back on 1 tablespoon of coconut flour and definitely add broccoli.

Happy Eating!!!