BLT Mac and Cheese

I found this adult version of mac and cheese in The Pampered Chef cookbook 29 Minutes to Dinner. It is easily one of my favorite cookbooks. Don't worry Rachel Ray, I still love your cookbooks too!

My version:

Ingredients

1 box pasta (16 oz) any really will do. The last two times I have used bow tie pasta.

Grated Parmesan cheese, about a handful (I think recipe calls for 1 oz)

4oz grated sharp white cheddar (I only found this in a block and had my kids grate it for me)

4oz cream cheese

Salt

Pepper

1 large leek (Only use white and light green parts, discard rest)

3 medium plum tomatoes (any tomatoes will do but if you use a larger variety you probably need 1 1/2, smaller variety more than 3. Any amount will do, it usually ends up being about 2 handfuls of diced tomatoes).

8 slices of bacon






1) Pour 5 cups of water into medium-large sized pot and bring water to a boil. I do measure the amount of water in this recipe because it becomes part of the sauce and if you use too much the sauce will be too thin.



2) As water is coming to a boil fry bacon in another pan. Cook bacon extra crispy to facilitate easy crumbling.



3) Grate white cheddar cheese if not already done so. Do not add pasta to boiling water until you have all cheeses ready to add with pasta.



4) Add pasta, several shakes of salt and pepper, sharp white cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and Parmesan cheese to boiling water. Stir ingredients together well.



5) Boil covered for about 5 minutes. Stirring frequently.



6) As mixture boils, crumble bacon, slice leek into small pieces, dice tomatoes.



7) Continue stirring mixture (it has a tendency to stick). Add bacon and leek and continue over med-medium high heat for an additional 5-7 minutes. Sauce should be thickening.



8) When sauce is thickened add tomatoes and stir well.






Serve when hot. I also cooked this dish and transferred to crockpot for a dinner party this weekend and it served well from crockpot on warm if it cannot be served immediately.



This is one of my kids' new favorite dishes. Enjoy!