Grown Up Mac-n-Cheese

I love this stuff. I seriously do. I hope you do too. I found "non french" gruyere cheese at the store the other day and was able to keep this "reasonable" for cheese cost. :)

Grown-Up MacNcheese

16oz of corkscrew pasta cooked and drained
2Tbsp Butter
2Tbsp FLour
1 1/2 c. Milk (I use skim but you can use what ya got!)
1/2 c. half n half
1/2 c. (4 oz.) shredded white cheddar cheese
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 c. (8 oz.) Gruyere Cheese
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 stick of butter
1 sleeve of Ritz crackers

Preheat oven to 350*
Prepare pasta and set aside

Melt butter over medium heat.
Whisk in flour and whisk constantly for 1 minute
Gradually whisk in milk and half n half- continue to whisk constantly till slightly thickened (about 4-5 minutes)
Stir in Cheeses and salt and pepper until melted and smooth
Stir cheese into pasta and place in a baking dish (9x13 should work fine but I use a round baking dish from Pampered Chef)
Melt butter and stir in smashed up ritz crackers
Spread over the top of your Mac n Cheese and bake at 350 for 15 minutes until golden and bubbly.

Sometimes I serve this as the main dish and add a chicken breast or bits of ham to it or beside pork chops.
It's equally good all on it's own and it's got enough protein to be the "main dish" in my opinion! :)
Enjoy! :) And don't blame your spreading hips on me. This is probably not WW approved... but dang, it's good! :)