Healthy Macaroni & Cheese Recipe | Nikki Dinki's Kraft Style Mac & Cheese

Hey guys, it's Dani, and today we are leveling up macaroni and cheese. Now, full disclosure, I'm not a macaroni and cheese kind of girl, which is why it has taken me so long to get you guys a macaroni and cheese recipe, but I was super excited the other day because I'm on Instagram and I saw the most mouth-watering, craft-style macaroni and cheese recipe that I knew I had to bring directly to you. Now, just for the record, this recipe was created by Nikki Dinky. She was one of the finalists on the ninth season of the Next Food Network Star, and I love all of her recipes, but this one was especially calling my name. So if you wanna print this recipe, make sure you head over to her website, nikkidinky.com. I will leave a link down in the description box below, and you guys can print it out there. Now, what is so cool about this recipe is that it's loaded with cauliflower and sweet potatoes, and it has no milk or butter, and about half the amount of cheese that you would find in a traditional macaroni and cheese recipe. So it's jam-packed with flavor, and we've kicked up the nutritional value. So you know what this means. Thumbs up. So first things first, you wanna get all your ingredients prepped and ready to go. So what you're gonna need is one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, one small onion chopped up, two cloves of sliced garlic, a half of a medium head of cauliflower cut into big chunks. So you're gonna need about three cups. One large sweet potato peeled and then cut into bite-sized chunks, a cup of low-sodium vegetable stock, some kosher salt, a little bit of pepper, then four ounces of shredded cheddar cheese, and four ounces of American cheese, which is six slices. Now, guys, American cheese is no doubt a processed cheese, but this is the cheese that makes this recipe very craft-like. If you don't wanna do the processed American cheese, just sub it in with any type of cheese you want. You might lose the box flavor and texture, but you'll still have a delicious macaroni and cheese. So make it work for you. And then finally, your pasta. Now, I'm using 12 ounces of a brown rice pasta. I really like the brown rice pasta. It's gluten-free, and it's got a great texture. But again, any pasta you enjoy is the pasta you're gonna wanna use. Now, over on the stove, I've got this nice big pot of water coming up to a boil. That's gonna be for our pasta. In here, I have a large nonstick skillet heating up over a medium heat. Once the skillet's hot, I'm gonna add in my olive oil along with my garlic and my onions, give that a little pinch of salt, and we'll let that go for about five minutes or so until they're nice and tender. Then I'm adding in my cauliflower, my sweet potato, and my veggie stock along with one more pinch of salt. I'm gonna turn up the heat, bring everything to a boil, and then we'll reduce it down to a simmer. Now, you wanna pop a lid on this. I don't have a lid that fits my pan, so I'm just gonna make this one work. Point in case, use what you have, and make it work for you. After about 15 to 20 minutes, your veggies are gonna be very soft and tender. That's exactly what you want them to be. And you should have a little bit of liquid left in the pan. If you don't, go ahead and just pour a little extra stock into the pan. Then we're gonna shut the heat off and bring this over to the blender. Once the veggie mixture has cooled down a bit so that you're comfortable working with it, you're gonna transfer it into the blender. Leave the blender top slightly ajar just to let any steam out, and go ahead and blend it up. We want it to be nice and thick and rich and creamy. If it's not blending easily, just add a little extra broth, a little extra broth, until you've got it exactly where you want it. This is what you're looking for. Now we're gonna transfer the veggie mixture back into the pan, and then bring it over to the stove, and just turn it on a really, really low heat. Then I'm gonna pause for just a second, get my pasta into the pot, give it a stir, and then set your timer for however long your pasta needs to cook. This one's gonna take about eight minutes or so. And then I'm adding my cheese into our veggie mixture. So I've got that shredded cheddar cheese, and then the good old American cheese slices, just tear them up and add them in there. Now keep the heat nice and low, and then gently start to fold the cheese in, and you will see, slowly but surely, it will melt into the veggies, and you will get this cheesy, veggie-packed sauce. Once the pasta is done, you're gonna drain it out. You want it to be al dente, have a little bite to it, and then toss the pasta into the sauce, and gently mix until all of the pasta is coated in your cheesy veggie sauce. Mm, mm. It's got really great flavor, and the sauce is rich and creamy and comforting, just like you want when you're having macaroni and cheese. Now, I have to tell you, this, my friends, is definitely the healthified version of a classic. Now, I'm gonna be honest, I don't think any healthified version is gonna be quite like the box, but if you are looking to level up your mac and cheese, this is your recipe. So remember, if you guys want to give this a try and print the recipe out, I'm gonna leave a link down in the description box below to Nikki's website. Make sure to head over there and print it out. And if you like recipes like this, you might wanna check out her cookbook as well. She has a book called Meat on the Side, and so the idea is that we eat a lot of veggies with a little bit of meat. So she's got a lot of delicious, creative recipes in there as well. I'll leave a link to that as well. But now I wanna hear from you. What do you think? Are you gonna give this recipe a try? Come on down to the comments below and let me know. And if you do try it, snap a picture and tag me on Instagram and on Facebook so I can see all the clean and deliciousness that you're whipping up in your very own kitchens. Thanks so much for watching, guys. I'm Dani Spees. I will see you back here next time with some more clean and deliciousness. Cheers. So this, my friends, is definitely a healthified version. So this, my friends, is definitely a healthified version of a... So this, my friends, is definitely a healthified version's holy cannoli. Healthified version of a classic.