How I Do? Baked Mac 'n' Cheese in Food Porn

Two things, no wait... three things!

1) Like most people, I was taught by my mom how to do a lot of cooking. That being said, my moms way (and now mine a lot of the time) of measuring is "that looks about right" method. So yeah... we're going to approximate measuring here.

2) Craaaaaap. I forgot what the second thing was... -_-'

3) I'm really glad you liked the pics for this. I hope that if you make it you'll share with me your success and if you like more than just the looks!

MAIN INGREDIENTS (Serves 4)

• 2 chicken breasts (average size.... I don't judge :P )
• 1/2 a cauliflower head (it is a head right?)
• 2 broccoli stalks
• 1 sm box your pasta of choice (I used Penne of course)

Pre heat your oven! 375F my dears! (190C)

Boil pasta, broccoli, and cauliflower together until approximately al dente. Why approximate? Look I had a kid to feed and entertain, I can't watch a stove ALL the time! During this time, cook the chicken (duh!), I simply sat it in a frying pan with a weeeeee little bit of oil. That's it; cooked like 98% of the way.

Shred up the chicken with some sharp pointy things, I chose knives for this particular task. Set that, and the drained pasta (yes drain the pasta please) aside for uno momento.

SAUCE INGREDIENTS

I apologize in advance for this...

• Cheese (I used marble, simply because that's what I had on hand, by all means use what you'd like)
• Parmesan Cheese
• Garlic
• Butter (use margarine if you want, I'm still not judging)
• Milk
• Chicken Stock
• Flour

Where are the measurements? Yeah well remember how I said I learned a lot of cooking with my mom? Here it is!

In the pot where you cooked the pasta/veg in put a couple of scoops of butter in the pot and saute away. When it's all melty, throw some garlic in there. I used about 1 clove but this is pretty dependent on how much you <3 garlic. Stir it around a bit and then start adding some flour. I tossed in about 1/2 cup of flour and stirred it around until we reached roux point. Next step is to toss in some parmesan cheese. How much? I had half a container of it left and just dumped the whole thing in there. Based on the thickness of what you have in your pot right now, add in some chicken stock and about an equal amount of milk. Stir it around until it reaches max sauciness. Once it reaches this point, toss in a whole bunch of cheese, this again falls under the 'how much do you <3'. I had shredded a whole block (small) of cheese and tossed it in there as well.

Getting back to 'to taste' from here I just added chicken stock, milk, and the odd time a little more flour until it reached the consistency that I wanted, which was on the thinner side, but not runny. When it's done, mix in the pasta/veg, and chicken. From there, put the whole mixture in a greased 9x9 baking pan (I used glass cuz it's awesome).

Now to the topping! You can use breadcrumbs if you wish, but I had none so I improvised and covered the top with sesame seeds. I seriously did like this substitution if you want to try it yourself. Put the pan in the pre heated oven for about 15 minutes - or when it reaches golden brown love status. Note that you can use the broil setting, but I just straight up baked it, which finished off cooking the chicken that remaining 2%. If you do use breadcrumbs, you'll probably want to use the broil option.

This was SUPER filling, and so hearty. It was a fantastic dish to make on a rainy gloomy looking day and was eaten in a hurry. And seriously, is there someone out there who doesn't like a good mac 'n' cheese?