Now that I'm an adult, I feel a little bad for what young Lindsay put her mother through. I was the pickiest eater: if dinner didn't involve cheese or butter, I probably wasn't interested. My mom did an admirable job of convincing me that I would enjoy every meal she cooked, sneaking vegetables into sauces and converting dishes I enjoyed into similar meals. Macaroni and cheese was transformed into the recipe below by adding BBQ sauce and beans, ingredients I wouldn't touch if it wasn't called Mac and Cheese!
This hearty, one-pot pasta dish is easy to customize. Substitute any type of beans for the black beans, and any kind of shaped pasta (like ziti or farfalle) for the elbows. Feel free to sneak some vegetables in there; this meal will be so delicious the picky eaters in your family will never know what hit them.
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