Happier & Healthier| Bacon and Vegetable Pasta Bake
March 03, 2015For this weeks themed post, I thought I'd share another recipe. This one I tried out the other day, and I couldn't believe how well it turned out. I honestly think this is the best meal I've ever made - certainly better than the standard student meals that I've prepared over the last couple of years.
The pasta bake is super easy- you just need to keep an eye on a few pots at a time. And it really doesn't take too long either; within an hour you'll be plating up and tucking in.
Ingredients
400g Pasta
Broccoli
5 Rashers of Bacon
1 Pepper
1 Onion
100g of Cheddar Cheese
2 Slices of Bread
For the sauce:
50g of Butter
50g of Plain Flour
700ml of Milk
200g of Cheddar Cheese
- Start by boiling a pan of water and putting the pasta in, seasoning to your liking.
- After chopping the onion, pepper and bacon into small chunks, throw them in a frying pan with some vegetable oil and let them fry.
- At the same time, make the cheese sauce by melting the butter in a pan. Once melted, add the flour and stir, until it looks like a paste. Slowly add small volumes of milk at a time, off the heat and continually stirring the mixture. Once the sauce looks smooth, add the cheese while continuing to whisk it all together.
- 5 minutes before the pasta is ready, add the broccoli, cut into small flourets to the same pan.
- Once all the pans are cooked, add the pasta, broccoli into a large dish, then mix in the vegetables & bacon. Add the cheese sauce to the pan and mix it all up.
- Finally, sprinkle bread crumbs over the top of the mixture, and grate some cheese over too.
- Cook in the oven (preheated to 200 degrees C) for 25 minutes.
- And serve!
Such a delicious meal, so filling and so tasty. It's not the healthiest meal considering the amount of cheese that I've added to it, but to make it healthier you can decrease the amount of cheese. But with the amount of veg that's gone into it- and other variations of veg would work equally well- I think this counts as a fairly healthy meal. This makes four generous plate fulls, so there's plenty left over to be reheated for another night.
Let me know if you try this out, and check out my other recipes!
Love,
Emily
Emily
xxx
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