Lunch · 30 min · american

Copycat Mac & Cheese (Chick-fil-A’s style)

Protein elbow pasta does the heavy lifting here, with plain greek yogurt (2%) rounding it out. An American lunch that takes 30 minutes, start to finish. Each serving lands at 320 calories with 24g of protein, so it eats like a much heavier meal. It scales cleanly if you are cooking for more than one.

Ingredients

• 8 oz Protein elbow pasta
• 3/4 cup Plain Greek yogurt (2%)
• 1/2 cup Low-fat milk
• 1 cup Reduced-fat cheddar
• 1/4 cup Parmesan
• 2 tbsp Light cream cheese
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp Salt

Steps

1. Cook the pasta one minute shy of the package time — it finishes in the sauce and stays chewy, never mushy.
2. Warm the milk, cream cheese, mustard, and half the cheddar over low heat, stirring until silky; low heat is everything, boiling breaks the sauce.
3. Pull the pot off the heat and fold in the Greek yogurt — off-heat so it stays smooth instead of splitting.
4. Toss in the pasta with the remaining cheddar and parmesan, stirring until every elbow glistens.
5. Transfer to a baking dish, dust with paprika, and broil 2 to 3 minutes for that baked, bronzed top.
6. Rest 5 minutes before serving so the sauce sets into the spoon-coating consistency, not soup.

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