Makeover Sloppy Joe Mac & Cheese

Oh my, oh my, oh my.  Just the title of this post should have you drooling.

If you read my blog and check out my menu posts, you know that I use a LOT of Taste of Home recipes.  I love them.

Last month, I bought this:

and ever since then, the girls have been begging me to make the cover recipe, Makeover Sloppy Joe Mac & Cheese.  Sounds absolutely decadent, no?

But the folks at TOH have really lightened up this recipe.  It's a very reasonable dinner. And filling.

Here's how I made it:

First, brown some ground turkey with some shredded carrot and finely diced celery (The recipe calls for 3/4 lb of ground turkey--I just went ahead and used the whole pound.  It added a whopping 17 calories to each serving.).

Once it was browned, we drained off the (minimal) fat, and added diced tomatoes, tomato paste and a packet of sloppy joe seasonings.  Then that got covered and simmered for 10 minutes.

On to the mac & cheese portion of the dinner!  I cooked a pound of elbow pasta and drained it.  Then, I saute'd chopped onion in some butter.  Once the onion was tender, I added the seasonings--salt, pepper and ground mustard--and flour to thicken the sauce.

Then, in went milk and Worcestershire sauce.  After it boiled for a few minutes, I added some cubed Velveeta cheese and stirred until that was melted.  Then in went the pasta and a cup of shredded cheddar cheese.

Oh my.

Now, I know that my recipe doesn't look like the cover photo.  Why?  Because I'm a bit type-A about these things.  How could I accurately figure out the calorie count in my recipe, if there was more mac & cheese around the edge?  Wouldn't the person getting that serving be eating more than the person who only got one layer of mac & cheese from the middle?  It would have kept me up at night.

So, I did three layers.

First, mac & cheese:

Then, the sloppy joe mixture:

Then, another layer of mac & cheese:

See? It's all nice and even.  And I can stop hyperventilating.

Mmmmm--mmmmm!!

This was crazy good, people.  Hearty, filling, cheesy.....and under 500 calories per serving.  That's my kind of meal. 

You can find the recipe HERE.   Check it out--you won't be disappointed! ;)