Bacon and Pea Macaroni & Cheese

You’ll never guess that this unbelievably creamy, cheesy mac and cheese is actually lightened up!

As bikini season is slowly coming to an end, I decided to make the best kind of comfort food of all: mac and cheese. With bacon. Lots and lots of crisp bacon bits mixed in and sprinkled on top because, well, everything is always better with bacon, right?

But to balance out all that bacon goodness, I lightened this up by swapping out just a few ingredients. For starters, I used Silk’s Unsweetened Original Almond Milk. It only  has 30 calories per serving with absolutely no added sugar and 50% more calcium than dairy milk! Best of all, you can’t even taste the difference with all these goodies in here.

I also swapped out the sour cream for a little bit of Greek yogurt and it was just as creamy and rich. And with the addition of peas – well, there’s your serving of veggies!

No, but in all seriousness, this is my absolute favorite kind of mac and cheese. It’s rich, creamy and lightened up so you can have 2 servings instead of 1!

Bacon and Pea Macaroni & Cheese

Yield: 4 servings

Prep: 10 minutes minutes

Cook: 20 minutes minutes

Total: 30 minutes minutes

You’ll never guess that this unbelievably creamy, cheesy mac and cheese is actually lightened up!

5 stars (1 rating)

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Ingredients

• 8 ounces elbow macaroni
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 4 slices bacon, diced
• 1 cup Silk Unsweetened Original Almondmilk
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
• ¾ cup shredded gruyere cheese
• ½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to toaste
• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce, optional

Instructions

• In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions. Within the last minute of cooking time, add peas; drain well.
• Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
• In a medium saucepan, combine almondmilk, garlic and thyme over medium heat. Bring to a slight boil. Stir in cheeses, a handful at a time, until smooth, about 1-2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
• Stir in pasta, peas and bacon until well combined. Stir in Greek yogurt and hot sauce. Add more almondmilk as needed until desired consistency is reached.
• Serve immediately.

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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Silk. All opinions expressed are my own.