Mac & Cheese Rice

Still no vegetables at Ben's house, yes I know we're both a little lazy and forgetful. So what? Ok well a side dish is needed for dinner, and I'm feeling adventurous. There's rice and pasta. After eating my way through thousands of pounds of pasta, every dinner, literally through college, I'm still shying away from it. So I go for the Uncle Ben's plain white rice and think, ok lets dress this rice up and make it into something.


So Ben loves Mac & Cheese, and I'm all for it, but I find it a little rich, and heavy, and I'm not sure it's on my top 100 list of best things to eat, but risotto is defiantly on that list. We unfortunately did not have any high quality risotto, and had to use plain white rice, it didn't affect the dish, and I think it came out quite good.

Mac & Cheese Rice

2 Cups white (cooked according to package)
4 oz White Cheddar Cheese*
1/8 cup Shaved Parmesan Cheese
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp dried Sweet Basil
10-12 shakes chili pepper hot sauce**

*We used Cabot's 75% reduced fat cheddar cheese, it does melt, and is ok for this dish. I wouldn't recommend eating it alone, it kind of tastes like wax. I like the 50% reduced fat and would have used it for this dish if we had it.

**Ben bough a huge thing of all different kinds of hot sauce, but you can use whatever you have on hand. I would say taste it after a couple shakes, and put in as much as you like, we both like things with a kick.


Cook rice according to the directions. Once fully cooked through add in the spices and the cheese, and stir over low low heat until fully melted, the reduced fat cheese will take a bit longer to melt since it's part fake. Add in the Parmesan cheese as well and mix through. Shake in as much or as little hot sauce as you want, taste, and adjust seasonings as needed, and serve.


This was an easy peasy side dish, that turned out to be simple and yummy. I would defiantly make it again in a pinch.