my FAVORITE mac-n-cheese

My favorite restaurant is the Green Well. If you are from Grand Rapids and you haven't been there, I'm sorry.... And if you aren't from my neck of the woods well I'm sorry about that too!
Here's the scoop I got my slimy hands on my absolute favorite thing on the menu at the Green Well. It's their Mac-n-Cheese. And this ain't NO ordinary mac-n-cheese or moe-Key-cheese as one little girl I know used to say.


Like I said it's not your standard...my kids balked a little bit. But once they gave it a try there were some serious ooohs and aahhhs in this house.
It does exceed the 5 ingredient limit, as far as easy goes, but once you do the prep it's so easy a monkey could do it.


Seriously.....

It's a recipe you can really make your own if you want, use left overs take out or put in what you like. So feel free to mess with it. The Green Well roasts their own chicken...beautifully I might add, but I just bought mine at the store already roasted. Easy! So here it is.....



1 cup ham diced in smallish cubes
4 slices of bacon fried up crunchy
2 cups of the roasted chicken (I personally like the dark meat its more flavorful)
2 big cloves of garlic minced
2 cups of mini bella mushrooms (or what ever you have on hand) sliced
2 cups snow peas
1 cup whole cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh basil chopped OR 1tsp dry basil
1 tsp fresh thyme OR 1/2 tsp dry thyme
1/2 tsp pepper
***I didn't use any salt, because I think the ham and bacon are salty enough but if you are a salty person go for it!
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese shredded
1/2 cup sharp cheddar shredded
1/2 cup swiss cheese shredded
1/3 of a brick of cream cheese
1/2 box cavatappi pasta (any big ridged pasta would work, you want it to grab onto that sauce!)

1. boil your noodles....al dente=not too done, and drain

2. fry up your bacon, while that's frying dice your ham and pull your chicken then throw it all in the pan with the bacon to warm up a bit while you prep your vegis.



**Prep is key in this recipe because once you start cooking it you just basically throw it all together. So you want all your stuff ready!

3. Mince up your garlic, you can use one of those squeezer thing-a-ma-jigs if you have one or a knife works good too. Get your basil and thyme out there and ready.



4. get your cheeses all together and ready to go



5.wash up your tomatoes and snow peas. You can cut your now peas in half, I left mine whole. (lazy) clean off mushrooms and slice them chunky.



NOW are you ready? It's gonna go fast.



6. Over medium high heat cook up your meats, garlic and mushrooms about 3 minutes until mushrooms start to brown a bit.
-now throw your tomatoes, peas, and spices in give it just a minute
-throw all that yummy cheese in there give them guys a second to get acquainted
-pour in that heavy cream (you can use milk, but cream is better), move that around with a big rubber spatula, careful of the Maters



-NOW TURN OFF the heat and throw your noodles in and fold them in to coat with all that yummy sauce



VOILA! There it is.....not as good as the Green Wells, but a close second. They use truffle oil to finish theirs off....I am sure that is why theirs is better. I kinda want the Green Wells to stay better, a girls gotta have a reason to eat out once in a while! Hope you try it, ENJOY!