Macaroni cheese my style.....

Meaning 'stuff whatevers in the fridge in there'.

Today I had smoked ham (still on the same pack!) petit pois and sweetcorn from freezer.

I used wholewheat pasta because I stocked up on it! I found some for about 40p kilo which is as cheap as the value white pasta. Wholewheat obviously has extra fibre and nutrients in it, so it made sense to snap it up. This is penne pasta, I call it macaroni cheese its probably technically a pasta bake.

Wholewheat penne pasta

Lidls half price smoked ham - 4 rashers

Frozen sweetcorn

Frozen petit pois

Cheese (i used a mix of parmasen and cheddar)

Breadcrumbs (I keep a bag in freezer from leftover bread)

While the pasta is par boiling (about 5 mins rolling boil for wholewheat)

Chop smoked ham into strips

Ive made this with little cubes of cooking bacon too and it works really well also.

I used a cheese sauce mix, cheating I know. But it was 99p and makes 8 litres of cheese sauce. Thats a hell of a lot cheaper than using the milk/butter/cheese to make my own, and also its a lot, lot, lot, lot easier and quicker! Which is importaint with 2 little ones running around.

One day I will do a tutorial/recipe for home-made white/cheese sauce, but not today.

When the pasta is par boiled, drain and stir through cheese sauce

See how much pasta there is in the dish there. Now, add all your sneaky bits, frozen peas

 and sweetcorn and sliced ham/bacon.

See how much more there is! Full of goodness, if its covered in cheese sauce, theyll eat it.

Mix up your cheese and breadcrumbs

And top the dish with it

Bake for about 30 mins or so.

Tadah!

I was going to serve this with green beans to get an extra portion of veg in. But little girly was too impatient so she wolfed a bowl down on its own. Literally! There as not a single pea or sweetcorn kernel left in the bowl, licked clean. Ive used 1/4 of this dish, the remainder will be frozen for quick lunchs/dinner to nuke in the microwave.