Macaroni and Cheese

I made this for a little girl that I look after who is a self professed vegetable hater (we'll call her Goose).  I view her profession of distain as a challenge - how can I sneak something healthy in without her noticing?  Thankfully, I had a few heads of cauliflower in the garden and a 10kg bag of carrots that had been integrated into every meal I made for weeks.

She not only ate her whole serving, but she took more home to eat again!

Granted, mac and cheese isn't the healthiest of meal time options, and I don't make any substitutes to make it any healthier, but it is tasty and has a decent amount of veggies!




Ingredients:
Macaroni - half a bag
1/2 to 3/4 head of cauliflower
2 carrots
4 slices of bacon (I'd say be more generous if you like bacon), chopped
knob of butter
2 Tbl flour
1 cup milk
1 cup colby cheese
1/2 tsp liquid smoke (I bought off of TradeMe - well worth the effort to track down because it makes everything taste like it's met bacon!)
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Boil the macaroni with loads of salty water* to al dente. Strain.

Chop the cauliflower and carrots to large chunks and steam to tender. Transfer to a food processor and whiz until it's in fine pieces. **

In a frying pan, fry up the bacon to crispy and set aside. With bacon grease still in the pan, melt the knob of butter. Stir in the flour and cook over low heat, stirring, for 4-5 minutes. Slowly, add the milk while continuously stirring (this keeps the white sauce from getting lumpy).  When thickened turn off the heat and add the cheese, liquid smoke and bacon.

Stir in the cooked pasta and veggies. Transfer to an oven proof casserole dish and top with the bread crumbs. I like to grate parmesan cheese with the bread crumbs but that's just me! Bake at 350F/180C until the top is crunchy.

*Seriously, salt your water so it tastes like the ocean - it's the best way to flavor pasta!

** If you haven't got a food processor, you can either cook the veggies longer and mash them, or you can finely chop/grate, boil and strain - I suggest the food processor because Goose didn't notice the slightly grainer different in the texture. Other times I've made it, the mashed cauliflower was noticeable, not in a bad way, but something to be aware of if you have a particularly detective-like child.
But if you have a picky child and haven't got a food processor, I suggest trying to track one down. It's the best way to hide vegetables!