Now this iconic dish can receive immense scrutiny if not executed correctly. But, ironically some of the arguably best mac is the most processed and absolutely unhealthy. Most would consume this dish on a ‘cheat day’ or on a normal day, which is fine. But my conundrum is I wanted this dish as a meal prep item for the week. I wanted it done right and I wanted it to not make my body feel incapacitated after consuming the highly processed cheese and carbs.

So where I started, the sauce, again, you will get tired of me saying this but I really don’t care because its my blog and I can say what I want. But- the sauce, coconut milk and whole wheat flour- two small ways to reduce the GI spike and have longer, sustained hunger. Now, most recipes call for butter and heavy cream, I subbed chicken broth and oil. Let me emphasize, butter is not bad for you, its all about moderation and a little is needed for this icon of a dish, but reduced substantially. The additives are what up the game here, for me I added shallot and jalapeños, pancetta is an option but it will increase the amount of total fat.

Start boiling the noodle water and pre-bake the oven to 350. While that gets going, sauté the shallot and jalapeño for 5-10 minutes.

Water should be boiled, start cooking the pasta *al dente*- set a timer when it goes off, take care of business. Once the noodles are done, mix those with the cream cheese and set aside. I will not mention noodles again that is now your job. Set the shallot/jalapeño mixture aside too and we will now move to the sauce.

Start the roux, add butter and oil in a heated pan, mix in the flour with vigor. Once that is bubbly, slowly add Coconut milk and broth and bring to a boil mixing often, it will start to thicken.

From here, we add the seasoning. Then we add the shredded Cheddar, of course in the folding fashion.

Once the cheese is melted, pour that in with the noodles and add the shallot/jalapeño magic. Once stirred well, pour it into an oiled baking dish and bake for 40-60 minutes.

How did we do in the nutrition department? Let’s deep dive:

Sauce (flour, milk/broth, butter/oil): 440 calories, 48g fat (mainly from Olive Oil), 0g sugar, 27g carbs, 7g protein

Cheese:
Cheddar: 1,760 calories, 32g fat, 0 sugar, 16g carbs, 84g protein
Cream Cheese: 560 cal, 42g fat, 0g sugar, 8g carbs, 16g protein

Noodles: 1,600 calories, 8g fat, 16g sugar, 336g carbs, 56g protein

So in total: 4,360 calories, 130g fat, 16g sugar, 387g carbs, 163g protein

Given I divide this up in twelfths each serving has 363 calories, 11g fat, 1.5g sugar, 32g carbs, 14g protein

Compared to a few popular brands (my serving size was about 1.5 cups so this is the equivalent of that) we are looking at 480 calories, 21g fat, 51g carbs, 5g sugar, and 20g protein.

Overall win, we cut 100 calories (not huge) but we also cut the fat in half and carbs by 20g.