Mac and Cheese with Hidden Orange Bell Peppers

I was trying to nap today when suddenly I hear yelling from my 3-year-old son's room. "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" ... and so on. "Whats wrong?" "I need mac and cheese!" As you can see, this was extremely urgent. We go upstairs only to discover that our stock of mac and cheese has been devoured. Thus I had to whip some up in a hurry. I decided to add some hidden veggies in it. I have never done this before but it seemed like a good idea.

Mac and Cheese with Hidden Orange Bell Peppers

serves 2 (or one very hungry 3 year old)

1 cup dried elbow pasta

6 small sweet orange bell peppers

4 wedges of Laughing Cow light cheese

4 oz sharp yellow cheddar

1 teaspoon of cornstarch

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

Bring pot of water to boil. Always make sure to use a lot of water in your pasta so it does not clump and become horrible. In the mean time, remove stems and seeds from peppers. Place them in a microwave safe dish. Place 1/2 inch of water at the bottom. Loosely cover the container and steam in the microwave for 6 minutes. This is a fast way of steaming. You can alternately boil the peppers. When they are done your water with probably be boiling and you can add your pasta. My pasta took 8 minutes to cook al dente. Then puree peppers in food processor until silky smooth. I thought this might require some extra water but it didn't. 

When pasta is done drain and rinse with cold water. Rinsing pasta removes the starch and keeps the noodles from sticking to each other. 

Using the same pan add corn starch and milk. Whisk and bring to a low boil. I added my puree and laughing cow cheese at this point and whisked until smooth. Then add cheddar and more whisking.

Put the pasta in the pan and bring to desired heat. At the last minute I added the dash of dijon mustard to give it a bit more sharpness.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ta Da!

As you can imagine by the time I got done with this (It only took about 20 minutes) my 3-year-old was not all that interested. However, I think I would make this again for myself. There was too much sauce but that could be fixed by adding less puree next time... or you can just be happy with your extra cheese and pepper sauce. I would also add steamed broccoli next time as I usually like chunks of broccoli in my mac and cheese.