Hearty Vegetarian Mac and Cheese

I got this craving for mac and cheese last night that I couldn't shake. I put on the meal plan for this week to make cheeseburger mac last night, but as we put off grocery shopping for another week, I had no ground beef. So I started looking around for a way to make something that would satisfy my craving and would fill me up. This is what I came up with.

Looks pretty good, huh?! (It totally was!) To make this dish, I started by boiling some water in a pot for cooking my whole wheat elbow pasta. While that was going, I put frozen broccoli in a skillet with a lid, drizzled olive oil over the pieces, covered the skillet, and cooked the veggies for a few minutes while I pulled out the other ingredients. I would occasionally stir the broccoli and add more olive oil as it was needed.

Next, I added frozen corn kernels to the skillet and continued to cook the vegetables. At this point, I started adding spices. I put in a fair amount of garlic powder followed by a  little bit of onion powder. I didn't want too much onion powder as that can get overpowering quickly. Then I added some jalapeno seasoned salt, cumin, chili powder, and black pepper. I drizzled on a bit more olive oil and stirred the skillet to make sure all of the spices were getting distributed relatively evenly. While the veggies were cooking, I opened a can of kidney beans and a can of diced tomatoes and rinsed/drained the cans so that they would be ready to go when I needed them. When the broccoli and corn were cooked all the way through (check the big pieces of broccoli to be sure they are all done), I poured in the tomatoes and beans. I stirred the contents of the skillet and added a little more cumin and garlic powder, as one can never have enough of either of those ingredients! This is the time you want to play around with the seasonings to make sure you get the flavor that you want.

About that time, I strained the pasta as it had reached al dente and was what I deemed to be ready. I added the noodles back into the pot and stirred in the vegetable mixture from the skillet once everything had been heated through. I ended with a few large handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese and stirred until the cheese was melted throughout. Looking back, I probably could have added butter and milk or made a cheese sauce to go on top, but just adding in the cheese and letting it melt worked just fine. It saved me time and dishes while simultaneously tasting delicious, so I don't really regret doing it the way that I did it. Plus, my husband is lactose-intolerant so I try to keep the dairy to a minimum if I'm sharing whatever I'm making with him.

If you are vegetarian, this is very filling and tasty! (Even if you aren't it makes for a great meatless entree.) I suppose if you were vegan, you could use vegan cheese and this would be a dish for you! If you don't like the tex-mex flavors, this would be an easy meal to adapt to your own liking by switching up the spice combinations. Get in that kitchen and get creative! :D Hope you enjoy it!