Name: Instant Pot High Protein Gluten-Free Mac & Cheese
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 2` tbsp butter; 2 small yellow onion (chopped); 4 cloves garlic (minced); 1 red bell pepper (chopped); 16 oz. gluten free pasta shells (dry); 4 cups broth; 10 oz. mushrooms (sliced); 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp dry mustard; 1/4 tsp black pepper; pinch cayenne, more to taste (optional); 1-1/2 cup cheddar cheese (shredded); 1-1/2 cup cottage cheese

Hello, my name is Sassy and I love Mac & Cheese and I also love my Instant Pot. So, naturally when given the chance to make mac & cheese in the Instant Pot, I was like DUH! WHY HAVEN’T I DONE THIS YET?!?! (Yes, that is me shouting at myself).

Any-who, I decided to give this a whirl when a friend at the gym said she had had something similar before and it was good. I’m always ALWAYS looking at ways to up the protein content in my meals and the meals of others so I figured, why not give it a go and see what happens. The recipe is easy to make, thanks to the help of the handy, dandy Instant Pot and it’s super tasty, not to mention packed with 26g of protein per serving and theres not even meat in it! BAM!

Mac & Cheese

I LOVE mac & cheese. As a dietitian, that might seem like a weird thing to admit, but hey, I’m just being honest. It was one of my favorite meals post swim practice and I’d be so excited when my mom would make it. I especially like when it was made with shells because then the cheese got trapped in the shells and for whatever reason made the overall experience SO MUCH better.

Mac & cheese was one of my staple meals growing up, and frankly I gave up on it many moons ago when I realized gluten and I were not friends. However, when I realized that companies were actually making products that were gluten-free AND actually resembled and held up like pasta, I was reunited with one of my true loves, mac & cheese this time, gluten-free style.

Pasta La Vista Banza

When I first tried Banza, I was skeptical. However, I was blown away by the taste, structure, AND content of the pasta. It was so filling AND didn’t disintegrate when you cooked it. Win-win-win. Not to mention the brand as a whole is pretty awesome (and fun) so what’s not to love?!

They are now producing every kind of shape & size pasta you can imagine. I was just walking the aisles of Whole Foods today and I saw some spaghetti that I hadn’t tried yet, if I didn’t have 5 more boxes of Banza in my pantry, I would’ve scooped them up, but lord knows I don’t need one more piece of food in my pantry, Marie Kondo would be so NOT okay with it as-is.

Winner, Winner, Protein Dinner

Welp, the good news is this is easy to make, the bad news is you need an Instant Pot to do so. The good news to that is that you can grab yourself one on Amazon, the bad news, it won’t be here for 2 days…

Ok, ok the other good news is that there are 26 grams of protein per serving which is about the amount I recommend clients get at every meal. Usually I tell clients to shoot for 20-30 grams depending on their sex, age, weight, goals, etc. If you added a bit of meat to this dish you could easily hit 30-40 grams AND be so full and satisfied you will be guaranteed leftovers….but you’re going to have to swat it away from anyone you live with…no promises there.

Enjoy! And as always, if you make it, let me know, tag me on Instagram and use the tag #sassyapproved 😀

Pro Tip: Feel free to add any other protein of choice to this dish, I think a chicken sausage would be real nice if I do say so myself.

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