Multi-cultural mac & cheese

I usually fail miserably when I try to make mac & cheese from scratch, but this time it turned out pretty decently. In the past week, I made a pizza pie and enchiladas. Both times when I went to the grocery store to purchase cheese for these recipes, I noticed that the preshredded cheeses were on sale, and cheaper than the blocks of cheese. Given that I spend way more time cooking (and hence EATING) than I spend working out, I was very excited. Plus this way, I got fancy blends of cheese! Asiago, mozarella, parmesean, cheddar, jack, etc etc etc. Yummy! Anyway, I ended up with leftover "Italian Blend" cheese and "Mexican Blend" cheese.


So I decided to make macaroni and cheese, and I thought I'd try Martha's mac & cheese. Because, after all, Martha is the last word in all things domestic. When I started cooking though, I didn't feel like going through the trouble of making a casserole (mainly because my only baking dish was occupied by the whole-wheat brownies in a previous post). Plus, I had been craving real food (and by that I mean Indian food--the type of stuff I grew up with), but I was too lazy to go to the store to buy vegetables, so I spiced up the original recipe a lot (a LOT--I needed to put in twice as much pasta as I had originally planned to dilute the sauce a little, but I STILL needed to eat it with milk--not that I'm complaining!). I was surprised, though, by how easy it was to make a cheese sauce. I guess this means I'm going to be eating a lot more mac&cheese and get a lot more fat in the future hehe.

INGREDIENTS
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup skim milk
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp oregano
1/2 tsp coriander-cumin powder
1 small green chili
1 1/2 c grated cheese
6 oz dry pasta (I used mini shells)
1/2 c frozen peas (to appease my mom haha)

DIRECTIONS
Heat the milk in the microwave for 1-1/2 minutes (until warm). Melt the butter in a pot (big enough to hold all the cooked pasta and cheese and milk) over medium heat. When the butter bubbles, add the flour. Cook, whisking, for 1 minute.

While whisking, slowly pour in the warm milk. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick, about 10-12 minutes. Be sure it keep stirring to keep the mixture for burning at the bottom!

Remove the pan from heat. Stir in the spices, 1 cup of the cheese, and the peas. Set aside.

While making the cheese sauce, cook pasta fully to whatever done-ness desired. Drain well. Stir pasta into the cheese sauce.

To serve, scoop individual portions onto plates or--my preferred serving dish--bowls, and top with the remaining 1/2 c cheese. Yields ~3-4 servings.