Mac N Cheese with Bacon and Spinach

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Who doesn’t love mac ‘n cheese?  And if you add bacon, it’s like frosting on a cake…and if you add fresh baby spinach?  Well, consider it your nod to nutrition!  It’s a delicious way to entice your youngsters to eat their spinach.  Plus enrobing your baby spinach in a rich cheesy sauce more completely enables some of the nutrients to be used by your body’s cells…it’s absolutely true!  Some of the nutrients in spinach are more easily utilized by the body if digested with fat, since they are fat-soluble. Not only is spinach high in antioxidants, many vitamins particularly A and K, folic acid, iron, fiber and calcium, but low in saturated fats and cholesterol.  Ironically, it is a paradox that although spinach is high in iron, it is also high in oxalates, which act to prevent iron absorption by your body.  Interestingly, brief cooking greatly reduces the efficacy of the oxalates, allowing the iron to be more readily absorb by your body.  And this concept will blow your mind…this same brief cooking also makes more of the spinach fiber bio-available than if eaten fresh!  Spinach is not an efficient way to obtain your calcium however, since it is not as bio-available to your cells as the calcium in broccoli for instance.  And although fresh spinach does have a goodly amount of Vitamin C, it diminishes exponentially 4 days after being picked.  On the other hand, freshly frozen spinach retains its nutrients very well.  Luckily for us, spinach is very healthy both fresh or frozen, raw or slightly cooked….it’s both a culinary and a nutritional workhorse.

Since it is not recommended that spinach be cooked longer than 1 minute, in order to retain it’s nutrient value, this quick and easy recipe is perfect!  You can easily thaw chopped frozen spinach for this recipe…but its just as easy to add fresh baby spinach too…or leave it out entirely for you purists!

Mac ‘N Cheese with Bacon and Spinach

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Ingredients:

  • 1 lb elbow macaroni, cooked al dente and drained
  • 1/2 lb monterey jack cheese, shredded
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1/2 lb bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
  • 1/2 lb fresh baby spinach, wash and chopped or 10 oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry of excess water.
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • dashes of Tabasco
  • 1 Tbls Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 to 2 Tbls favorite mustard

In a 4 quart pot, heat the cream until you see tiny bubbles begin to form along the circumference of the liquid.

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Slowly whisk in the cheeses, stirring constantly until melted.

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Add dashes of Tabasco if desired, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and salt & pepper to taste.

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Add cooked macaroni and stir to combine.  Remove from heat.

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Add chopped spinach (either fresh or a 10 oz thawed frozen chopped spinach) and stir.

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Serve immediately, garnished with crumbled bacon.

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Or make ahead and pour into a buttered casserole dish, sprinkle with a topping (recipe below) of buttered ritz cracker crumbs mixed with grated parmesan cheese and the crumbled bacon.  When ready to serve, heat uncovered in a 350 degree oven for ~30 minutes or until bubbling and golden brown.

Yes…it is just that easy!  How can anything this easy be so delicious?  You could also hold the bacon and add cooked lobster meat to give it a festive gourmet touch.

Topping:

  • 1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
  • 1/2 stick unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • crumbled fried bacon

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