My First Barefoot Blogger!

This is my very FIRST Barefoot Blogger recipe and it turned out SO yummy! I did modify it a little bit though. First of all, I cut the serving size down to half because there's only 2 of us in the house and we didn't wanna be eating left-overs for the rest of the week. I also cooked everything in 1 pot instead of warming the milk in 1 saucepan, making the sauce in another and boiling the pasta in yet ANOTHER pot. (WAY too many dishes for me to wash!) Some of the cheeses were hard to find at our tiny Safeway so I just stuck with the Mexican Blend since it's got a great mixture of Cheddar, Monterery Jack, Asadero and Queso Blanco Cheese. (Plus we ALWAYS have it in our fridge!) I also didn't have any bread in the house (that wasn't moldy!) so I just used Italian Seasoned Breadcrumbs, which turned out great! Lastly I added mushrooms because we LOVE mushrooms in our pasta dishes! Here's my modified recipe.

Ingredients: 2 servings

5 slices thick-sliced bacon
Vegetable oil
Kosher salt
1 c elbow macaroni
1 c milk
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
8 oz (1 c) shredded Mexican cheese blend
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 c sliced mushrooms
1 Tbsp dried basil
½ Italian seasoned bread crumbs

Prep:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Place a baking rack on a sheet pan and arrange the bacon in 1 layer on the baking rack. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the bacon is crisp. Remove the pan carefully from the oven - there will be hot grease in the pan! Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and crumble when it is cool enough to handle.

3. Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

4. Add mushrooms, butter and milk into drained pot and turn heat down to low. Cook for 4 minutes, stirring until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the cheese, salt, pepper, basil and bacon. Pour into baking dish and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

Here it is all bubbling away...

And here it is waiting to go into our tummies!