Broc-o-mac

Another weeknight standby at our house is the beloved broc-o-mac. This is your basic mac and cheese, but I'm always trying to healthy things up with extra vegetables. So, we generally make it like half vegetable, half macaroni. You can add cauliflower instead of or as well as broccoli, or you can do spinach instead. For some reason mixing spinach and broccoli together doesn't taste good. In any case, this is the ultimate comfort food as far as I'm concerned.

For 2 casseroles

• macaroni - I don't know how much, just make too much
• broccoli - one large bunch
• milk - just less than 3 cups
• margarine - 2 Tbsp
• all-purpose flour - 2 Tbsp
• cheese - 1-2 cups? (cheddar, swiss, monterey jack, whatever - I usually a blend of all of the above + maybe some parm)
• a slice of bread or two (plain old sandwhich bread)
  

1. Preheat oven to 350
   
2. Cook pasta and drain
3. Chop broccoli into florets, chop up some of the stems into smallish pieces too.
   
4. Blanch the broccoli, either in the microwave (with a bit of water to make steam - a minute and a half should do it), or in some boiling water for a minute only (Ian sometimes does it in the pasta water on top of the pasta - I usually do it in the microwave). Rinse well with cold water to prevent loss of colour (if you care).
5. Make a white sauce with marg, flour, and milk. We do this in the microwave: 1. Melt margarine in the bottom of a 4-c measuring cup or bowl. 2. Stir in flour and cook for a minute or two, stopping to stir occasionally, until it doesn't smell like flour anymore. 3. Slowly, a bit at a time, stir in the milk. It should make a thick doughy stuff at first, and then you gradually thin that out until you can just dump in the rest of the milk (up to the 3C mark or thereabouts). 4. Microwave on medium until it thickens, stopping to stir every thirty seconds. At first you won't need to stir too much while it heats up, but once it gets hot you really have to watch it because it can easily bubble up and make a huge mess (and wreck your sauce). Seriously, don't get distracted - watch it. You don't want it to boil - you want to heat it slowly until it thickens. This whole process takes like 15 mins or so.
6. Cut the cheese into tiny little cubes - I do this in front of the microwave while the sauce is going. You could grate it if you want, but I find the cubes make nice little centres of cheesiness within the sauce. Ian scatters the cheese in the veggies and pasta and pours sauce over it - but this is my blog and we're doing things my way!
7. Add most of the cheese to the sauce, once it has thickened. Microwave a bit more (slowly!) to melt the cheese in. If the sauce is too thick, add more milk.
   
8. Divide half the macaroni into the bottoms of 2 large casserole dishes, top with half the broccoli, scatter the remaining cheese cubes around, top with a third of the sauce. Repeat pasta, veg, cheese, and then the rest of the sauce, making there's nothing sticking out unsauced.
9. Pick out and scatter crumbs from the bread over the top. Avoid the crusts, but if a bit gets in - no biggee.
10. Bake one casserole until bubbly and yummy - about half an hour
11. Freeze the other casserole, unbaked, tightly sealed