It is busy, busy, busy here so for today’s Pinterest Party I am linking an updated post from two years ago that was damaged in the blog move. I’ve fixed the links and added some new photos. I hope you enjoy. 🙂

Welcome to the RoL Pinterest Party. Join me every 2nd and 4th Tuesday as we link up and share how we made, cooked, baked, crafted, did, or created one of the pins on our Pinterest boards.

Not on Pinterest? No problem. Link-up your own creation to inspire us so we can pin it to our own boards. It can be a recipe, sewing project, Catholic craft, homeschool project, organizing/ homemaking tip, themed birthday party, whatever you’d like. Don’t have a post ready? The link-up will be open for 10 days so there’s still time. Plus, feel free to link up a new post or an older post that hasn’t had much traffic lately. Don’t have a blog? No problem. Tell us about it in the comment box. Or post your photo and a description on the RoL Facebook page. 🙂

* * * * *

Yesterday I had an abundance of broccoli that I needed to use up so I decided to make macaroni and cheese. I am not a huge mac & cheese fan, only knowing the boxed kind but last year I made my first homemade version. It was a recipe I saw on Food Network’s “What Would Brian Boitano Make?” (Stop laughing. I actually liked his show. And not just because I had a crush on him 20 years ago.) His Cheese Cart Mac & Cheese was easy and delicious, although a bit on the “fancier” side as he used asiago, fontina and gouda. My bigger concern was how rich and fattening it was. I had to find a low fat version that the family would still eat. When Brian (my husband, not Boitano) saw me making the cheese sauce last night and he was excited until I told him it was a new lower fat recipe. He gave me “that look” and walked out of the kitchen mumbling something about “low fat, low flavor.” It was finally time for dinner and I served the mac & cheese with broccoli and Jennie-O Turkey Kielbasa. I’m happy to report that the meal was a hit (even Matthew had his first serving of mac) and everyone wanted seconds. (Which then brought up the debate of how low fat is it when you eat more than one serving…) If you want to try it out, I got the recipe from LiveStong.com. Here is the recipe. Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp of flour
• 2 cups skim milk
• 2 cups reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 cups elbow macaroni (I have since started using whole wheat bow tie pasta instead of regular macaroni.)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp low-fat margarine

Note: I usually double this recipe so we’ll have leftovers. For the cheese I use 1/2 low fat sharp cheddar and 1/2 of this low fat smoked cheese from Trader Joe’s. It tastes similar to smoked gouda and it is delicious! Directions Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the milk in a saucepan over low heat until small bubbles form. In a separate saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the flour and stir for two minutes.

Slowly pour in the heated milk, whisking thoroughly. Stir over medium heat until the mixture thickens and begins to boil slightly. Reduce the heat to simmer. Stir in the cheese by handfuls until it is thoroughly melted. Stir in the salt, pepper and cayenne. Set aside.

Boil 6 cups of water. Add in the elbow macaroni and boil as directed, generally 8 minutes. Drain well and pour into the cheese mixture. Lightly spray the casserole dish. Pour the macaroni into the dish.

Melt the margarine in a small frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the bread crumbs and stir constantly until they are lightly browned. Spoon over the macaroni. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Healthy Additions Stir chopped parsley, chopped, cooked broccoli or sliced mushrooms into the macaroni and cheese mixture before placing in the casserole dish to add color and flavor.

Considerations Make sure you cook the flour for the time directed; cooking thoroughly dissipates the flavor of the flour and enhances the flavor of the sauce. Carefully stir the cheese sauce until all the cheese is melted, monitoring the temperature to ensure that it does not scorch. Avoid adding foods containing any additional fats, such as crumbled bacon or butter, when serving. Garnish with parsley for additional color.

My note: I like to make this dish with Jennie-O Turkey Kielbasa or the chicken & apple sausages from Trader Joe’s and broccoli. Also, the recipe didn’t give serving size or nutritional info but when I used this online calculator to calculate this recipe serving about 6, the amount of calories was 300 and fat 16, which is not bad for homemade mac & cheese. (Also, that was a larger main dish size portion. A smaller 3/4 cup side portion what more than cut that in half.) Adding the Jennie-O Turkey Kielbasa/chicken sausage and broccoli would add roughly an extra 100 calories and 3 grams of fat per serving. It’s a nice (occasional) comfort food treat. 🙂

* * * * *

Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

2. In your post, link back the original blogger/idea, rather than your Pinterest pin. That way credit goes to the proper person. 🙂 (But feel free to add your Pinterest profile link so we can follow you!)

3. Add a link back here so others can play along. Here is the html code:

<a href=”http://www.revolutionoflove.com/blog/?p=2157″><img title=”Revolution of Love Blog – Pinterest Party &amp; Link-up” src=”http://www.revolutionoflove.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/pinterest_2_medW32-300×240.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”240″ /></a>

4. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

You have 10 days to post your link, so if you can’t get things done by Tuesday, no worries, put it up when you can. We’ll be here. Have fun!

Lastly, you can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/rol_bobbi/. 🙂

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉