Green Mac n Cheese

 What do these 4 people have in common, my pregnant daughter in law, my elderly mother, my granddaughter and my bff?

They were all lucky recipients of a care package from Mamma Marmalade.  My favourite way to show support is to make a healthy and delicious meal.  This one comes from the Coles (Supermarket) food catalogue but for a change it was nutritious and actually involved cooking, rather than assembling pre packaged ingredients.

Ingredients

2 cups washed baby spinach leaves

1 cup flat leaf parsley, just the leaves not the stalks

1 litre of milk

400g macaroni or small pasta of choice

400g broccoli florets

60g diced butter

1 finely diced brown onion

1/3 cup plain flour

1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard

1 3/4 cups grated cheese, (cheddar and parmesan)

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius

In a food processor, combine, parsley, spinach and 1 cup of milk. Whiz until finely chopped.

Cook pasta according to packet instructions, add broccoli florets in the last 2 minutes of cooking.

Drain and refresh under a little cold water.

In a saucepan, melt butter, add diced onion for about 5 minutes until softened.

Stir in flour and stir constantly so as to not get any lumps and to "cook" the raw flour taste out. 

Once bubbling, add sufficient of remaining milk to make a creamy sauce, whisking continuously until the sauce thickens.

Stir in mustard and 1 1/2 cups of the grated cheese.

Once cheese has melted, remove from the heat.

Add the spinach mixture to the cheese sauce, mix to combine then add macaroni and broccoli. 

Season with salt and pepper, not too much salt as there is a lot of cheese.

Tip into a baking dish or several small oven proof dishes. 

You can top with cooked diced bacon (for the meat lovers) and grated cheese.

Can be wrapped and frozen at this stage or popped in the preheated oven for 25 minutes until brown and cooked through.

Mamma Marmalade