Easy Macaroni & Cheese

RECIPE:

-- 12 oz uncooked pasta, elbow macaroni or other small shape (about 3 cups)

-- 1/8 tsp table salt, for pasta cooking water

-- 2 cup(s) fat-free skim milk

-- 1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour

-- 3/4 tsp table salt

-- 3/4 tsp onion powder

-- 1 cup(s) low-fat shredded cheddar cheese, sharp-variety

-- 1/8 tsp hot pepper sauce, or more to taste

Cook pasta in lightly salted boiling water according to package directions; drain and return to pot. Meanwhile, while pasta cooks, in a large saucepan, whisk together milk, flour, salt and onion powder until blended. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking frequently; reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring often, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and whisk in cheese and hot sauce. Add sauce to pasta; toss to mix and coat.

Yields about 1 cup per serving. Each serving is 6 weight watcher points.*

ERIN: After a long day at work, who wants to come home and cook dinner? I do! Especially when it's Easy Mac & Cheese night. Not only is this dish absolutely, positively, did-my-gradnma-make-this yummy, it's so quick and simple. Plus, when I tell Mike I'm making it, he gets this adorable look of pure joy and excitement on his face. How can I resist that?

The key to this one is to keep stirring...and stirring and stirring. However, there is a point of no return, so keep an eye on the clock after turning down the heat. Don't let it get gummy. You want it to just start to get sticky, then stop and mix in the pasta.

The hidden secret (not so hidden since it's in the list of ingredients) is the hot sauce. The 1/8 teaspoon called for will give it a nice depth to the flavor, without actually making it spicy. Mike and I like a little kick, so after I add the initial measurement, I put in one more shake of the bottle. It makes me feel very Texan. And the sooner I use up my "big" Tabasco sauce, the sooner I can use the six-pack of cute little mini-Tabascos my dad got me for Christmas! (Mike pointed out that I should clarify that this wasn't the only thing my dad got me for Christmas.)

MIKE: This recipe was really good. We've had some mac and cheeses on this program, mainly microwaved meals, that have tasted a little pastey, but this actually tasted like homemade macaroni and cheese...because it actually IS homemade macaroni and cheese. The cheese sauce is authentic as you make a roux and you can taste the difference from other microwaved meal macaroni and cheese recipes.

One thing that the cook's companion (me) needs to make sure of is that they are not on the phone with their friend (Phil) when the cook (Erin) starts whistling, clearing her throat pointedly and "hooting" because she needs help straining the pasta, as the cook (Erin) will be busy stirring the roux.

*This recipe was obtained from the Weight Watchers members website. All Rights Reserved by Weight Watchers.

The Beginning...

ERIN: Most stories end with a wedding. Ours starts with one.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you a little about us. Mike and I met almost five years ago when I moved up from Texas to go to grad school in Boston. It was love at first sight and blah, blah, blah...you don't need to hear about all the sweet, gooey, hey-get-a-room years that ensued. Though they were some pretty fantastic years. So fantastic, in fact, that I tried to act appropriately surprised when Mike got down on his knee and proposed on Christmas Day 2008.

He still maintains that he fell out of his chair.

Now, Mike and I are a bit...well, I like the term "fluffy." When we started planning for the wedding, we knew that a diet was on the horizon. But since the big date was in October 2010, it was far enough away that losing weight became "one of those things we can do later." So time went by...we booked a church and a venue...I bought a dress (quite by accident at Running of the Brides)...we found a DJ...we booked our honeymoon...and suddenly it was a year until the wedding and we hadn't even tried to lose weight. Not so much as a rice cake had passed our threshold.

Then we had a belated breakthrough. We wend to our friends' wedding in October 2009. The breakthrough? They had each lost a significant amount of weight on Weight Watchers. Brilliant! We could do that! Why belated? OK, so it didn't really kick in until December. But on Christmas 2009, we decided that losing weight needed to be upgraded to "one of those things we need to do NOW." And that was our New Year's resolution. So starting January 6, 2010, Mike and I were officially card-carrying Weight Watchers members.

Fast forward to today. So far, I've lost 36 pounds, and Mike has lost 44.2 pounds (it is not a competition, it is not a competition). One of the biggest reasons for this is the food. Every night, I cook a dish that I find in a Weight Watchers recipe book. It's been such a fun and interesting process (tuna noodle casserole notwithstanding), that we wanted to share with others...others who didn't roll their eyes at the words "we made the best recipe last night!" Thus, the beauty of a blog - you can roll your eyes, but we can't see you!

On a (fairly) regular basis, we plan to post about the (mostly) Weight Watchers recipes that (mainly) I cook, Mike eats with relish (most of the time), all of which help us lose that fluffiness I was talking about. I'll write about the cooking, and Mike will write about the eating. And we'll both shamelessly boast about the losing. And, hopefully, you'll get to do some boasting yourself!

MIKE: What she said.