This homemade white cheddar mac and cheese with tomatoes is comfort food at its finest, featuring a silky cheese sauce and roasted cherry tomatoes.
This post was created in partnership with Village Farms. All opinions are our own.
Do you have a loved one far away who will be home for the holidays? This time of year, families are coming together from places all over the globe and gathering around the table. My sister and her husband are coming home this year: all the way from Thailand! They’ll be flying literally halfway around the world to come to Alex and my kitchen. If you have loved ones far away, you’ll know that special feeling of reuniting together around the table. With my sister here, we’ve been brainstorming some cozy celebration foods to serve her, and we came up with this white cheddar mac and cheese with tomatoes recipe!
With families reuniting this time of year, we’re all looking for those perfect dishes to warm tummies and hearts. And it’s hard to argue that there’s a better comfort food than good old mac and cheese, right? Alex and I have created this sophisticated spin on mac and cheese using the sumptuous combination of roasted tomatoes and white cheddar cheese. It’s a guaranteed crowd pleaser for adults, and you’ll even be able to sneak in a few veggies for the kiddos during this sugar-filled season. Keep reading for our roasted tomato white cheddar mac and cheese recipe!
Usually Alex and I wouldn’t be roasting fresh tomatoes to go with a cozy comfort food dish like this white cheddar mac and cheese. However, Village Farms is a brand of greenhouse grown tomatoes that is gentler on the Earth and farmed without pesticides. Since these tomatoes are grown in greenhouses, they are available year around and truly taste garden fresh no matter what the season. To add a spin (and a pinch of health) to our white cheddar mac and cheese, we added Village Farms Cherry No. 9 Fall in Love Again® tomatoes. The sweetness of the tomatoes is the perfect juxtaposition for the sharpness of the white cheddar cheese.
How to roast cherry tomatoes? There are several different ways: slow roasting cherry tomatoes over a few hours turns them into dried out sundried tomatoes. For this white cheddar mac and cheese, we wanted to roast the tomatoes just enough so they hold their shape, but not so long that they dry out. To roast this variety of cherry tomatoes, the best method is to coat them with olive oil, add a pinch of salt, and roast at 350F for about 40 minutes. We tested roasting the cherry tomatoes with the cut side up and cut side down. Roasting with the cut side down chars them a bit more and brings in a sundried tomato vibe, but they do lose their shape more. Roasting the tomatoes with the cut side up helps them keep more of their shape and still brings in a lovely concentrated tomato flavor. You decide!
Food is the focal point when we gather together, especially during the holiday season! Many of our recipes here are designed to be high vibe healthy; others are comfort food made with real food ingredients. This white cheddar mac and cheese is a true gem: several friends helped to taste test and gave it 5 stars! The sharpness of the white cheddar cheese brings a sophistication, and the contrast of the bright roasted tomatoes is an unexpected flair. One nice feature to this mac and cheese with tomatoes is that it doesn’t require baking time: simply make the mac and cheese, top with roasted tomatoes, and serve! This recipe will be part of our entertaining menus for years to come. Alex and I could not get enough of that silky white cheddar sauce against the tangy tomatoes! It’s a keeper in our house.
Check out our white cheddar mac and cheese with tomatoes over on the Village Farms website:
Holiday Comfort Food Roasted Tomato Mac and Cheese Looking for more comfort food recipes?Outside of this homemade white cheddar mac and cheese with tomatoes, here are a few more comfort food recipes:
Norwegian Vegetarian Meatballs Creamy Mac and Cheese with Greek Yogurt “Can’t Believe It’s Vegan” Spaghetti & Meatballs Pumpkin Gnocchi Bake with Goat Cheese Easy Calzone Recipe Best Grilled Veggie Burger Recipe Veggie Packed Quinoa Fried Rice This recipe is…This homemade white cheddar mac and cheese with tomatoes is vegetarian. For gluten free, use gluten free pasta and gluten free flour.
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Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 6
Category: Main Dish
Method: Roasted
Cuisine: American
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Pin RecipeThis homemade white cheddar mac and cheese with tomatoes is comfort food at its finest, featuring a silky cheese sauce and roasted cherry tomatoes.
Keywords: Mac and Cheese, White Cheddar Mac and Cheese, White Cheddar, Homemade White Cheddar Mac and Cheese, Cherry Tomatoes, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Roasted Tomatoes, Vegetarian
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A Couple Cooks - Healthy, Whole Food, Vegetarian Recipes
It’s about that time of year—time to bake cookies all day and lounge in stretchy pants, am I right?
These cookies are a riff off our Easy Vegan Macaroon Cookies (but somehow even better)! They’re tender, perfectly sweet, and coconut-y, which is why they remind me of snowballs. I couldn’t resist. Let’s do this!
This recipe requires just 7 ingredients, 1 bowl, and less than 30 minutes to make!
1-Bowl Vegan Coconut “Snowball” Cookies from Minimalist Baker →
Exciting news! I just found out that my cookbook, Love Real Food, is included in Amazon’s book promotion right now. Love Real Food is the perfect gift for the healthy home cooks, vegetarians and vegans, and dog lovers in your life.
How to save: Use promo code GIFTBOOK18 to save $5 when you spend $20 or more on books sold by Amazon.com. Amazon is already offering the book at a great price, and now you can save even more!
Buy Love Real Food on Amazon here.I’ve been thrilled to hear that the book makes moms, sisters, friends, neighbors and book clubs happy! The book has sold nearly 100,000 copies (!!!) thanks to your incredible support. Thank you.
More Gift-Worthy Cookbooks & BooksBuy two copies of Love Real Food to reach Amazon’s minimum for the promotion, or add one of these other awesome books to your cart! These links are affiliate links.
Six Seasons: A new way with vegetables from Chef Joshua McFadden. What’s Gaby Cooking: Fresh and creative California-style recipes from Gaby Dalkin. Love and Lemons Menu Planner: This inexpensive menu planner is so beautiful. Ottolenghi Simple: Chef Ottolenghi’s new book with delicious simplified (amen) versions of his recipes. Pretty Simple Cooking: Simple vegetarian recipes from Sonja and Alex of A Couple Cooks. The Pretty Dish: Fun recipes and beauty DIYs from Jessica of How Sweet Eats. The Fresh and Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook: Give this book to the Instant Pot-obsessed! Vegetarian Flavor Bible: This is a flavor thesaurus, perfect for the home chef who loves to improvise. Cooked: Food writer Michael Pollan explores how to cook with the elements—fire, water, air, and earth. Homebody: Joanna Gaines’ new home design book on how to create spaces you never want to leave. Looking for more gift ideas?Find the perfect gift in our 2018 Gift Guide, which has ideas for home cooks, bakers, fancy ladies, plus extra-cozy and memory-making gifts.
Happy Holidays from Cookie and Kate! ♥
The post Love Real Food is On Sale & More Last-Minute Gift Ideas appeared first on Cookie and Kate.
Do you love granola? Me, too! Today, I’m sharing my “basic” granola recipe, which is also the best granola recipe. Granted, I’m partial, but it really is the best and I use that term sparingly. Over two hundred five-star reviews agree!
In fact, I love this recipe so much that I shared it in my cookbook, Love Real Food. This granola makes a wonderful snack or breakfast (add your milk of choice and maybe some fresh fruit). It also stores beautifully, so it makes a great homemade gift.
Once you try homemade granola, you won’t go back to store-bought granola. It’s so much better!
This granola recipe is also a far more healthy granola option, since it’s made with whole grains, unrefined oil and naturally sweetened. You just can’t beat freshly baked granola packed with delicious and good-for-you ingredients.
Plus, homemade granola is super easy to make. You’ll only need one bowl and some basic pantry ingredients. Ready to make some?
The post The Very Best Granola appeared first on Cookie and Kate.
Try this easy, healthier homemade eggnog ice cream without an ice cream maker and with no refined sugar!
Eggnog floods our home during the holidays.
As soon as you can purchase it at the stores (usually the day after Halloween, in case you’re curious), Dustin and the kids basically become zombies for it.
They want it with breakfast, snacks, dinner, and as a dessert.
To be honest, it’s a little insane.
So, after I saw all the ingredients on the back of a store-bought eggnog carton a few years back, I decided I would make it from scratch so we could control what we were consuming.
Turns out: Homemade eggnog is AMAZING. It’s delicious, thick, creamy, and even better than store-bought, if you can believe it.
With your own homemade eggnog recipe in hand, you can make anything from eggnog lattes to eggnog ice cream. The creamy holiday cheer is endless!
Better yet: It just requires 6 simple ingredients that you probably already have!
If you’ve never tried or never heard of eggnog before, you might wonder what is eggnog and why we love it so much. Well, it’s a drink often enjoyed during the holidays, especially Christmas, in Canada and the United States. It’s very thick, sweet, and dense, and has spices from cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sounds amazing, right?
Instead of the tedious task of tempering the egg yolks that is often required to make eggnog, I’ve realized there’s a MUCH EASIER way for how to make eggnog from scratch —> cook the eggs to be safe to consume by just blending it all together and heat through!
As for the eggnog ice cream recipe, turning eggnog into ice cream seriously couldn’t be any easier. There are a few ways you can do this, which I’ve listed below:
pouring the chilled eggnog directly into a 9×5 loaf pan and freezing (this is how this recipe is made); using an ice cream maker to churn the eggnog into ice cream; using a popsicle mold to make eggnog ice cream popsicles.Each way of turning eggnog into ice cream makes for a slightly different texture. All delicious.
I like to use whole milk for the eggnog because it makes it deliciously creamy and rich, plus you get all the benefits of using whole milk, but you can use whichever milk you prefer.
No Winter holidays without eggnog. That seems to be the rule in my house and I think most of you can relate. But… is eggnog good for you?
Typically, eggnog is made with…
whole milk sugar heavy cream eggs and some type of liquor – usually brandy, rum or bourbon.Because it’s made with milk, eggnog is rich in calcium and other minerals including magnesium and phosphorus but also vitamin D and vitamin A. Still, eggnog is not that good for you.
The silver lining is – you can make healthy eggnog if you want.
How to make eggnog healthy:
replace full-fat milk with skimmed milk or try my dairy-free eggnog recipe; add more milk and skip the heavy cream or condensed milk; substitute maple syrup or raw honey for sugar.
MAKING NON-ALCOHOLIC EGGNOG
Typically, eggnog is made by combining egg, milk, sugar, and spices, heating it together, and then chilling it. Oftentimes, rum, bourbon, or brandy are added to eggnog to make it an alcoholic beverage, though this recipe is non-alcoholic.
While many people like to add alcohol to their eggnog, that’s not a big favorite in our house, since Dustin doesn’t drink alcohol and we often share it with the kiddos.
If you’re wanting to keep the liquor out and make non-alcoholic eggnog, the good news is you don’t have to do a thing different with this recipe. You can just make this recipe as written and it will be non-alcoholic eggnog ice cream.
If you’re wanting to add in some alcohol, wait until it’s fully chilled to add it in.
You don’t need an ice cream maker to make eggnog ice cream. In fact, you can make any type of homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker if you want. Here’s how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker:
you can use a loaf pan or some airtight container to freeze the eggnog ice cream until it’s creamy and thick like I did for this homemade eggnog ice cream; you can freeze the ice cream in a popsicle mold to make eggnog popsicles.Simple, easy, no stress, and delicious results.
However, if you want your homemade ice cream to have the same smooth texture as an ice cream made with an ice cream maker, you can use the freeze & stir method:
freeze the homemade ice cream for 45 minutes in an airtight container or a freezer-safe container covered with plastic wrap; remove from the freezer and stir with a spatula; return to the freezer for another 30 minutes; repeat the process of stirring and freezing for approximately 3 hours or until the homemade ice cream is completely frozen.
WHAT TO REPLACE SUGAR WITH
To make delicious but healthy eggnog, you have to find a sugar substitute that works well in eggnog and eggnog ice cream. You can replace sugar with:
pure maple syrup, like I did in this eggnog ice cream; if you’re not a big fan of maple syrup or you don’t like the taste, you can use raw honey to replace sugar.
HOW LONG DOES HOMEMADE ICE CREAM LAST?
When it comes to ice cream, I’d say the fresher it is, the better it tastes. But you can definitely store ice cream in the freezer if you want. I mean…it IS frozen, after all.
How long does homemade ice cream last for in the freezer? For approximately 2 weeks. If and only if you can make it last that long without eating it, of course. While it wont spoil after that point, it will start to harden and lose its flavor.
You learned how to make eggnog ice cream and I think it’s only fair if I show you how to make ice cream from scratch with other flavors. Are you on board? I have 3 ice cream recipes that cannot wait to be in your freezer. All these ice cream recipes are quick and easy to make. And totes delicious, of course.
FRESH PUMPKIN ICE CREAMThe first homemade ice cream I want to show you is this Fresh Pumpkin Ice Cream. No ice cream maker required and only 15 minutes of prep time. Plus the ice cream is dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegan.
If you’re wondering how this Pumpkin Ice Cream tastes like – well, like a pumpkin spice dream, I’d say. Get the recipe.
COFFEE ICE CREAMMy second ice cream recipe is a coffee lover’s dream and, you guessed it, it’s Coffee Ice Cream. Healthy, dairy-free, and yummy Coffee Ice Cream. This ice cream is also vegan, paleo, and gluten-free BTW.
Creamy deliciousness made with whole ingredients and better than any store-bought ice cream even though it’s not high in sugar and in fats. Sound pretty good, right? Get the recipe.
CHOCOLATE BANANA ICE CREAMLast on my list of ice cream recipes is this Chocolate Banana Ice Cream. Let me tell you something, this homemade ice cream sounds too good to be true but I promise you it’s the real deal.
Made with only 2 ingredients, the Chocolate Banana Ice Cream is only 84 calories, creamy, rich, smooth, and a chocolate dream for sure. Get the recipe.
Easy homemade healthy eggnog ice cream without an ice cream maker and with no refined sugar!
Pour this mixture into a sauce pan or deep pot, and then add the whole cloves, and heat over medium heat.
Cook the eggnog for about 8-10 minutes until it starts to thicken and slowly cook the eggs. It will be frothy at first. (We want the mixture to get hot, but not to simmer or boil. If it gets close to boiling, you can temporarily remove from the heat.)
Strain the mixture using a fine mesh strainer to remove the cloves and any other bits. You can stir in the optional vanilla extract at this time.
Pour the strained mixture into a 9×5 loaf pan, and freeze until thick and creamy, like soft-serve ice cream, about 6-8 hours.
When ready to serve, remove from freezer and let soften for about 10 minutes.This post contains affiliate links for products I use regularly and highly recommend.
The post Healthy Homemade Eggnog Ice Cream appeared first on A Sweet Pea Chef.
Learn how to make a delicious and easy whole roasted chicken. You just a need a few ingredients, a good roasting pan or skillet and a little over an hour! Makes juicy meat that’s perfect for serving as is or shredding and adding to soups, stews, enchiladas or tacos! Yum. OH HI IT’S ME making you [...]
The post How to Make an Easy Roasted Chicken + Video appeared first on Ambitious Kitchen.
