Macaroni & Penguin

I found this low-calorie macaroni and cheese recipe online today and thought maybe I would give it a whirl. Mac & cheese is one of my favorite meals, but obviously terrible if you're trying to lose weight. This recipe isn't super low calorie, but it's less insanely fattening than the one I usually use:

Baked Macaroni and Cheese (serves 6)

1 egg

1 cup low fat cottage cheese

3/4 cup low fat sour cream

1/2 cup non fat or low fat milk

2 TBS grated onion

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

2 cups (8 oz) grated cheese- you can use all cheddar or your favorite cheese or a combination whatever you have on hand

4 cups elbow noodles cooked (8oz uncooked)

1/2 cup dry bread crumbs

2 tbs olive oil

Pinch of salt, pepper, and paprika

Pre-heat the oven to 350. In a bowl, mix the egg, cheeses, milk, sour cream, onion, and ground pepper until mixed. Fold in the cooked noodles. (And meat of some kind, ham or sausage, if desired.) Spread into a greased 2 quart casserole pan and pat down to evenly fill the pan. In a small bowl, mix the bread crumbs, olive oil and salt, pepper, and paprika. Sprinkle over the pasta and cover the pan with foil. Bake for 30 minutes and uncover and bake another five minutes or until the bread crumbs brown.

Verdict: It turned out okay, but not as good (to me) as regular basic super-cheesy full-fat mac & cheese. Guy liked it because I put prosciutto in it. I forgot to add the milk and the onion, which probably would have helped it taste better.

Note: I couldn't find any interesting photographs of macaroni so I posted this one of macaroni penguins instead. And in researching these little guys on Wikipedia, I finally understood that weird line in Yankee Doodle about "...and called him macaroni!" That line always baffled me:

"The Macaroni Penguin was described from the Falkland Islands in 1837 by German naturalist Johann Friedrich von Brandt. It is one of six or so species in the genus Eudyptes, collectively known as crested penguins.

"The common name was recorded from the early 19th century in the Falkland Islands. English sailors apparently named the species for its conspicuous yellow crest; Maccaronism was a term for a particular style in 18th-century England marked by flamboyant or excessive ornamentation. A person who adopted this fashion was labelled a maccaroni or macaroni, as in the song Yankee Doodle."