Stovetop Mac and Cheese with Mushrooms and Arugula

Okay, so truth be told this isn’t really a technical recipe. This is a throw together that I made one day and it was a wild success. So take the steps of this and feel free to put your own spin on it. If you don’t have the ingredients I suggest, use what you have!

Serves 2-4

• 1 1/4 cup oat milk (or regular milk)

• 1/4 cup cream cheese

• 1 large handful of cashews

• 1 tablespoon garlic powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

• 2 cups dried pasta

• Reserved cooking liquid from cooking the pasta

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 2 cups sliced Baby Bella mushrooms

• 1 1/2 cups baby arugula

• 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

• Flaked sea salt

Place the oat milk, cream cheese, cashews, garlic powder, kosher salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes into a NutriBullet (or other high power blender) and puree until smooth then set aside.

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the package directions for al dente.

While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large sauté pan. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 5-7 minutes. When the pasta reaches al dente, reserve about 1 cup of the cooking liquid then drain the pasta and add it to the mushrooms. Pour the cream cheese mixture to the pasta and mushrooms and a bit of the cooking liquid. Cook the mixture until the pasta absorbs the sauce then turn off the heat and mix in the arugula and parmesan cheese.

Transfer to a serving dish and top with flaked sea salt. Serve hot.