Week 2: Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

Sea salt

1/2 box chickpea pasta

2 cups of milk

1/2 ts Sunny Paris blend

garlic powder

cauliflower/broccoli mix

1 Tb cream cheese

shredded cheese (1 cup, more or less depending on preference)
1 ts butter

Process:

I start by putting a boiling pot of water with some salt on the stove. Once it starts boiling, I

add a half box of chickpea pasta. In a separate pot, I add 2 cups of milk, ½ teaspoon of Sunny Paris blended spice, a couple shakes of garlic powder, and some sea salt. Then, I microwave steamed bag of cauliflower/broccoli mix. Add a tablespoon of cream cheese and a teaspoon of butter to the pot with milk (will be the cheese mix). Add a tablespoon of flour and whisk it in. Then add about cup of shredded cheese of your preference (I used sharp Wisconsin Cheddar in this case. Strain the pasta after about 10 minutes of cooking. Combine everything, including vegetable mix and you have homemade mac and cheesy goodness!


Reflection:
For my reflection, I'm choosing to use "My Food as Medicine Plate" because I like the concept of mindful eating and that it addresses concerns not often addressed in other plates, such as eating via a plant-based diet, though I do appreciate some of the benefits that come from unprocessed meat.
This meal does not include fruits and is pretty skimpy on the vegetables. This means I need to make sure that fruits are on the side in addition to some other vegetable like carrots or green beans or I could include a salad for a variety. This would also help to incorporate some healthy fats in it.
Some things I could do differently in the future when I prepare this meal: I could add more vegetables to this dish. I could also use less cheese sauce. In the future, I could also chop up my own vegetables but that would involve steaming my own vegetables too for this.
The chickpea pasta does help contribute to the protein and whole grains categories and is actually considered a super food.