This is a big favourite in our house. Its based on the traditional mac n’ cheese but with some small additions that make it full of veggies.

I have done a blog post on this in the past, with cauliflour and white fish blended in, and you can still do that with this recipe if you wish, but this is an alternative version that is surprisingly good.

My big two wolfed it down without noticing any difference to normal. As for the little one, I won’t take it personally…

Veggies

2 large carrots

One large skinned courgette

2 tablespoons cream cheese

Additional Veg:

Assortment of red/yellow/orange peppers. Use anything between 1 and 3.

8 florets of cauliflour

(Be wary of adding too much green, though, you might get rumbled)

White Sauce

50g plain flour

50g butter

300mls milk

Grated cheese. (It would be great to get hold of some orange cheddar for this recipe, but mine didnt seem to notice it).

I began by chopping up carrots and courgette and boiling in water until very soft. (Make sure you have a big enough pot to get everything in). I boiled the vegetables until everything was very soft and then pulsed down to a very smooth mixture. I added a good lug of cream cheese into the mix (around 2 tablespoons), primarily to tone the colour down, but also to add a cheesy taste.

Separately, I made a classic white sauce (melt 50g butter, add in 50g plain flour and add 300mls milk, stirring until smooth) and added some grated cheese.

I combined the two mixtures together, to make a slightly orange looking white sauce. I added more cream cheese and grated cheese to maximise on the cheesy factor and bring down the colour a little more.

At this point you can either spoon the mixture over pasta, sprinkle with cheese and serve. Or, you can arrange the pasta in a dish, pour over the sauce, mix, top with cheese and put into the oven for a few minutes to crisp up and brown.

2 out of 3 ain’t bad, right?