Mac and Cheese for Toddlers

Mac and Cheese with Veggies for Toddlers:

150g-200g of elbow macaroni (roughly half a packet)
1 teaspoon flour
1 teaspoon butter
150 ml of milk
3-4 slices of American cheese
1/2 carrot (small)
2 teaspoons of chopped broccoli
2 teaspoons of chopped spinach

1. Add water to pan and bring it to a boil and add the pasta to it. Add a pinch of salt and a couple of drops of olive oil or if you prefer butter. Cook as per the instructions until soft enough.
2. Take a pan melt butter and add flour to it on medium heat. Stir continuously for 3-5 minutes, until the flour is slightly cooked and changes colour slightly. Then add milk to it and keep stirring to prevent lumps from forming. Increase the heat to bring to a boil then reduce the heat.
3. While the white sauce is cooking add the finely chopped vegetables to it.
4. Keep stirring the sauce with veggies until the veggies are cooked and the sauce is a thicker consistency, if it gets too thick, add some water to it and stir until the veggies are soft. You may cover it if you like.
5. Add mixed herbs and black ground pepper to it and when the sauce it ready add the cheese slices to it and stir until it melts.
6. Stir for another couple of minutes until the cheese it completely melted then mix pasta to the sauce. Keep cooking in the pan for 5 minutes so the sauce sticks to the pasta and its nicely coated with the cheese sauce or alternative you can to bake it for 20-30 mins, but eating it without baking tastes good too.

Tips:

• Just add a pinch of salt to the pasta, don't add any salt to the sauce as American cheese can be salty and adding salt to the sauce can make it too salty. I try and limit the salt intake.
• Adding oil olive/butter to pasta prevents it from sticking together.
• You can use whatever veggies your kids like e.g. peas, beans, or even pre-cooked chicken.
• Cut the pieces according to what you child can easily eat. But chopping them finely ensures that it cooks quicker.

Total prep and cooking time is roughly 40 mins (without baking).

Even DH enjoyed it, even though he's not a big fan of home made mac and cheese.