Bacon Ranch Mac & Cheese

Bacon Ranch Mac & Cheese

(Courtesy of Pinterest)

Link to recipe on Pinterest

Tonight was grocery shopping night.  Neither one of us got off work until 5pm so that means dinner was on the later side.  Usually I hate cooking on these nights and we just have a sandwich or leftovers.  Tonight, however, I actually felt like trying this recipe!   I knew that I was going to buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store so this dish seemed like a perfect compliment to the chicken.  (Visit the special notes area after the recipe to learn more about this chicken!).

Ok so I want to start off by saying that I did not follow this recipe to the letter, but it was pretty close.  First of all I did not add the chicken to the casserole, we had ours on the side.  I used more bacon and different cream soup and seasonings.  My way may be easier, but you have to like the taste of ranch.

Ingredients:

3 pieces fully cooked bacon (can use turkey bacon but Shannon doesn't care for it)

1/3 cup of Campbell's Heathly Request Cheddar Cheese Soup

3/4 cups of 2% fat six cheese Italian shredded cheese

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp dry ranch dressing mix

8 oz of your favorite pasta, we used small shells

 1 1/2 cups fat free milk

1/2 cup colby-jack shredded cheese

Instructions:

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.  Cook fully cooked bacon in microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds or until crisp; crumble and set aside. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; sprinkle flour evenly into pan. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk.  Add in soup, milk and ranch seasoning; bring to boil stirring as you go.  Boil mixture for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Let stand away from heat for 2 minutes or until cooled to 155 degrees.  Add in Italian cheese and stir until cheese is melted.  Add pasta to pan and stir until well mixed.  Pour mixture into a greased 8x8 casserole pan.  Top with bacon and colby-jack cheese.  Put into preheated 350 degree oven and bake for around 4-7 minutes just until cheese is melted,  Serve with whatever protein you'd like!

**Special Notes**

The original recipe for this was so different that how I did ours.  They added the chicken into their meal, where as I served mine on the side.  They used spices to give it a ranch "taste", I actually used Ranch dressing to give it a Ranch taste.  They used cream of mushroom soup (gross for mac & cheese) I used cheese soup.  The point here is that any way that you and your family personlizes this dish it is going to come out freaking delicious every time!  Enjoy!

P.S. Sorry about no pictures of prep and what not...phone is giving me a hard time on the upload!!

Photo courtsey of "First Look, Then Cook"