Yesterday I decided to make Zay Macaroni and Cheese for the first time. Now, I've made a lot of macaroni and cheese in my day...however, I don't think it has EVER taken me this long or involved so much math!
As you can expect, it was Low Protein Mac & Cheese!
I got started by boiling the noodles...Zay's low protein noodles take about 20 minutes to cook. Just seems like that's an eternity while you're waiting!
Once these were done, you have to drain and rinse the noodles to remove any extra starch.
Then...the cheese sauce!
Since milk is high in protein, it calls for 1 cup of non-dairy liquid creamer to make the cheese sauce. I have yet to find the "phe-free" non-dairy creamers...ever heard of Rich's Richwhip or Vance's DariFree Non-Dairy Milk? I haven't found the right store to buy these at yet...so, Coffeemate non-dairy creamer it was...this would just make it a little higher in Phe.
First, I had to figure out how much Phe was in 1 cup of Coffeemate creamer! Thank goodness for this handy reference book!
Come to find out...there are 7 mg of Phe in 1 Tabl. of Coffeemate.
Hmmm...I need a cup, not a Tabl...so, my friend google tells me there are 16 Tabl. in 1 cup.
7 mg of Phe x 16 Tabl. = 112 mg of Phe in the Coffeemate!
I decide to use Parkay for the butter, because I know that is a Phe-free food for Zay.
So next, I have to mix the above ingredients over medium heat until I get a nice creamy consistency of cheese sauce. (this is not how I'm used to making mac and cheese...I always just dump everything back into the pan and mix it up!)
Now I've got the cheese sauce just how I want it...I add the noodles back in and mix it all up!
Perfect.....now just to figure out portion sizes!
Each box of low protein mac & cheese has 3 servings.
There are 33 mg of Phe per serving - this is before the Coffeemate is added.
So...in my pot, I have: 33 x 3 = 99 mg of Phe - before Coffeemate.
Then 99 mg + 112 mg = 211 mg of Phe for the whole entire prepared box of Mac & Cheese.
Ok...now, Zay's not going to be able to eat this entire box in one sitting, so now I have to divide this 211 mg into equal portions, so I can measure Zay's Phe for this meal.
I put the pasta into a bowl on the scale - it weighs 552 grams. I figure Zay can eat about 1/2 of the normal amount per serving, so I divide this by 6 (usually 3 servings per box, so I turn it into 6 servings per box)
Now, I measure out 92 grams of mac & cheese into 6 individual bowls.
Now, finally to figure out exactly the amount of Phe in each bowl...211 mg/6 servings = about 35 mg of Phe per serving ...That's a good amount for Zay per meal.
After all of this, I am PRAYING that Zay likes his mac & cheese!
And he did. :)
3 comments:
Yay! That he liked it. I have a box of this and need to try it. I always get a little worried because everything is SO time consuming to make...and then who knows if they will even eat it.
I have been thinking about trying mac & cheese for Carson too. Thanks, because you just took all the work out of it for me! lol
Did you happen to taste of it? I wondered how it would taste. I always taste Carson's food, and I make the rest of our family taste it too.
Hi Jennifer - I did taste the mac and cheese...it's not bad! It's not exactly Kraft, but it tastes cheesy! :) And Zay really hasn't liked anything as much as mac and cheese since we've introduced it! Glad you can use my numbers to make yours! Sometimes I think we do more math than we do cooking! :) Have a great weekend!!
Post a Comment