Creamy Four Cheese Pasta

"Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mooooooooooom! Can we have Mac and Cheese for lunch? Pleeeeeease?". I hear this EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. 😅 My daughter asks for the magical blue box for lunch and dinner daily. Man, she would be in heaven if we let her have it everyday! If she doesn't request it, I worry she isn't feeling well! 😉 Not too long ago, we were out of the boxed stuff and so I created this. I am always trying to find ways to help her palate mature a bit, but I also want her to be a kid and experience some of those "right of passage" meals. This brought the best of both worlds. She LOVED this and has requested it several times since! My husband and I loved it too! It is creamy and cheesy and gooey and just plain amazing! 

Lets start by making sure you have everything you need! Here is a handy dandy food list so you can do a quick inventory check!

This came together super quick.... I dare say in the same amount of time as the boxed stuff. While the water is heating up and the noodles are cooking, you can get the sauce ready. There's nothing better than a quick and easy meal where you know all the ingredients and that taste will not disappoint!

PROTEIN OPTIONS:

• Grilled Chicken: You could cut it into strips or dice it in cubes.
• Meatball: Sometimes I like to make little mini meatballs and then freeze them. Its super handy to whip out and microwave a few for a fun pasta dish like this. 
• Steak: Cheesy pasta always pairs well with steak. It just brings such a good balance to the flavors and textures. 
• Shrimp: Grilling up some shrimp with lemon butter and garlic and adding it to this creamy four cheese pasta is legendary. Legendary.
• Pork Chops: Some fresh off the pan, juicy pork chops really round this meal out to be a delicious comfort food meal.

SUGGESTED SIDES:

• Steamed Veggies: We love steamed broccoli and steamed carrots. So we add that to a lot of our dinners.
• Roasted Veggies: Another favorite way to prepare vegetables is to roast them in the oven or air fryer. Some of our frequent oven roasted vegetables are asparagus, broccoli and Brussel sprouts.
• Garlic Bread: We make garlic bread using all kinds of bread. Basically whatever we have on hand. We have used hot dog buns, hamburger buns, regular sliced bread, homemade bread, biscuits and bread sticks. 
• Garden Salad: Nice and easy and loaded with your favorite veggies and salad dressing.
• Cesar Salad: We are MAJOR cesar salad fans at our house and I have yet to find a pasta that it does not complement perfectly!
• Fruit Bowl: I always toss together a little bowl of whatever fresh fruits I have on hand and add it to our dinners. It's a nice fresh little addition.

SUBSTITUTIONS:

• Heavy cream can be substituted with milk. You may not need as much if you are using 1-2% or skim. Whole milk would be the ideal substitute.
• Chicken Broth can be subbed with water. Anytime something calls for chicken broth, I use chicken bone broth, it has so many more nutrients. 
• The shredded cheeses can be subbed with any shredded cheese. You can mix different kinds to get different flavors. I do recommend including parmesan cheese always. It just adds the perfect little something. 
• Cream cheese can be subbed with sour cream or ricotta cheese. Ricotta cheese will add a sweetness to the sauce and a different texture. So if you really like ricotta cheese then it makes an excellent alternative. If you don't care for it too much, I would just use sour cream to substitute. 
• Garlic Cloves can be subbed with powdered garlic or garlic salt. If you use garlic salt, taste it before you add in the salt and pepper. You may only need to add pepper if the garlic salt gives enough saltiness.