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I’ve always had one incredibly picky eater. He has a lot of sensory issues, so eating vegetables has been a struuuuuuggle. I’ve gotten really good at sliding veggies into his diet in weird ways. It took years for my kids to know I was sneaking veggies into their mac n cheese, that’s how good this recipe is! My kids rave about it, and in my opinion it’s just as easy as boxed macaroni.
We typically make this Banza chickpea pasta, just because one of my sons and I are gluten free, and I don’t enjoy making two separate dishes. I also like that chickpea pasta adds extra protein to this dish. But you can make it with any kind of pasta.
Ingredients
- Noodles (we use gf Banza chickpea pasta)
- 8oz cheese (we use cheddar or colby jack) – I highly recommend not using pre-shredded cheese, as it will melt much nicer if you shred it yourself
- 2 cups heavy cream or plain yogurt
- 1 cup milk
- 2tsp salt
- 2tsp organic no salt seasoning
- 1-2 steamed sweet potatoes
- 3oz cream cheese
Recipe
- Cook the noodles as directed
- While noodles are cooking, steam or cook a sweet potato (I usually cook it in the Instant Pot like I make these baked potatoes) – this also works great with leftover cooked sweet potatoes
- When the sweet potatoes are cooked, remove from the skin.
- Put sweet potatoes into a bowl. Add 1/4-1/2 cup milk. Mash the potatoes with the milk/cream and mix until it is mixed as smoothly as you can get it. *If your kids will not be phased by lumps of sweet potatoes, it isn’t as necessary to get it very smooth*
- When noodles are cooked, drain out the water. Pour into your serving bowl or leave them in the pot.
- Add in the heavy cream/yogurt, salt, and seasoning. Mix.
- Add in the sweet potato/milk mixture.
- Shred the cheese and mix it in.
- Add in the cream cheese (you can omit this, but it really takes the mac n cheese up a level, and I promise it’s worth it!)
- Slowly add in the rest of the milk, but stop at whatever point you’ve reached the consistency your family enjoys. Feel free to add more if you like yours to be even creamier.
- Add more salt/seasoning to taste.
Some tips on adding in the veggies:
- If your kids are veggie detectives and can sniff out any veggies you add, you could go puree the sweet potatoes with water in a food processor or blender. This will help them mix in more smoothly.
- We have tried other purees, like pumpkin, but it changes the flavor enough that I always stick with sweet potatoes
- Purple sweet potatoes will tint your whole macaroni purple, which my kids think is so fun!
- Orange cheeses will help to cover up the sweet potatoes if you’re trying to hide them