My Healthy Mac n' Cheese

The great thing about this recipe is that you can adjust the cheese sauce to suite your taste. I prefer a moderately cheesy mac n' cheese, but feel free to double or even triple the cheese sauce if you like yours very cheesy. 

Filling:
2 T olive oil
1 1/2 c diced onion
1 tsp salt
3 c diced cabbage
1 c diced carrot
2 c diced broccoli
2 c diced, packed kale
4-6 cloves minced garlic (depending on your taste)
3/4 lb rotini pasta

Cheese sauce: (if you like a very cheesy mac n' cheese, double or even triple it!)
1 1/2 T butter
1 T olive oil
3 T flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 T half n' half or heavy cream or whole milk
1 c milk
1 c cottage cheese (I used 2%)
2 c cheese (I used a mixture of extra sharp cheddar and mozzerella)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp black pepper

Topping:
1 c bread crumbs, seasoned or unseasoned, either one works

Do things in the following order and you'll have dinner ready in under 40 min:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1. Put pasta water on to boil, add 1 T salt
2. Pour oil in to pan (med heat) for sauteing veggies; dice onion and cabbage, when oil is hot add to pan along with salt
3. Continue to dice carrot, broccoli, kale and garlic
4. When onion and cabbage are lightly brown and wilted, add broccoli and carrot. Stir well, if mixture begins to brown too quickly or sticks to pan, add a couple tablespoons of water, when broccoli/carrot are lightly browned, add kale and garlic, cook for 2 min., stir well and remove from heat. The residual heat from the pan will lightly cook them. 
5. When pasta water boils, add pasta, stir, set timer - rotini usually takes about 11 min. Cook and drain, set aside. Noodles should be al dente
6. For cheese sauce, place butter and olive oil in a heavy skillet over med/low heat. When butter has melted, add flour and salt and whisk well (see pic). You are making a roux, so cooking the flour for a couple minutes is essential
7. Add milk and half n' half to flour mixture in a slow, steady stream, whisk well ensuring there are no lumps. Whisk in cottage cheese
8. When mixture begins to thicken a bit, add cheese and spices. The cheese sauce is done when it thickens and thoroughly coats the back of a spoon.  You want it to be thick enough that it will adhere to the noodles
9. Combine cheese sauce, noodles and veggies in a large bowl, stir to incorporate and place in an oiled 9 x 13 pan, or 14 inch cast iron skillet.
10. Top with bread crumbs (I put a large slice of bread in the blender and chopped it up like that, but if you have seasoned bread crumbs, they would be delicious)
11. Bake approx. 15-20 min until top is nicely browned. enjoy!

Roux example (step 6 above)

Step 9 above

(I topped mine with a fried egg and ate it for breakfast.....yum)