Wednesday, February 25, 2015

A Healthy and Delicious Macaroni

 Today I decided to present a very healthy and delicious macaroni recipe since I believe 
Macaroni and Cheese with turmeric powder
there is at least one picky kid at every house like my son. Macaroni and cheese is one of my son's favorite dishes. Like all other kids who are living in America, he became addicted to the one in the package. I really did not want him to eat anything from package including macaroni and cheese since there were a lot of preservatives in its sauce mixture. Finally, I decided to create my own macaroni recipe without cheese sauce. To give the yellow color and make it look like original macaroni and cheese, I substituted turmeric powder for the cheese sauce mix. Of course, you can add grated cheddar cheese to macaroni if you want as well. In addition, I made macaroni with fresh chicken stock instead of water and avocado oil/olive oil instead of butter. When I made this for the first time, I was very nervous that my son would realize the difference between the one with cheese sauce and the one with turmeric. However, I was very surprised because he LOVED it and he did not realize any difference in the taste since turmeric has a very mild flavor. If my son loved it, I bet your kids would love that as well. Do not wait and try my healthy and delicious recipe right away if you want your kids intake good nutrition.


Ingredients
1 cup macaroni
2 cups and 2 tbsp chicken stock or water
1/2 tsp salt

For Sauce:
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp avocado oil, olive oil or butter
A pinch of turmeric powder
Grated Cheddar cheese (optional)


Instructions:

1- Put water or chicken stock and salt in a deep small pan and let it boil in high heat. 
2- After it boils, add macaroni to the water and let it boil until it gets as soft as you want.
3- I generally cook it until it soaks all the liquid to benefit from the nutritions of macaroni.
4- As soon as it soaks the liquid, add oil, stir constantly then, add milk and turmeric powder and stir about one minute. 
5- Then, serve right away. 

Notes: I use avocado oil or olive oil instead of butter since both include a lot of  vitamins and Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids which are very essential especially for children's healthy growth. They are also rich with antioxidants. In addition, with its highest smoking point among cooking oils, at 500 F, avocado oil can be used safely for stir-frying, BBQ, sear, and broil without fear of oil burning.  

As of turmeric powder, you can find it at international stores and many other big stores spice aisle.