Anabolic Mac and Cheese
A proper bowl of creamy, golden mac and cheese with 46 grams of protein and 560 calories — the comfort-food version that loves your macros back. Made with a cottage-cheese sauce blended smooth and a sensible amount of real cheddar, so it eats rich without running away from you.
Plate 01 / Finished
The first winter my partner moved in, she caught me eating plain chicken and rice at the counter, standing up, at ten at night, and she just looked at me like I’d broken her heart. “That’s your dinner?” she said. And I didn’t have a good answer, love. I’d been so deep in contest prep for so many years that I’d half-forgotten food was allowed to be a comfort as well as a fuel. So I made it my project, that whole cold January, to build a mac and cheese I could actually put in front of a person I loved — one that tasted like the bowl your gran would make, but that didn’t blow a third of my day’s calories in one sitting.
The trick, when I finally found it, was almost stupidly simple. Cottage cheese, blended until it’s completely smooth, becomes the most velvety cheese sauce you’ve ever had — and it’s nearly all protein. You stir in a modest handful of real, sharp cheddar for the flavour that cottage cheese can’t fake, season it properly, and suddenly you’ve got a creamy bowl with 46 grams of protein in it. No protein powder, no rubbery low-fat cheese product, no apology.
I’m not going to pretend this is a “light” dinner — it’s 560 calories and it’s meant to be a real, satisfying meal that sits you down and fills you up. But it’s a smart 560 calories, packed with protein, the kind of bowl you can build a Tuesday night around and still wake up on track. That’s the whole point of these anabolic recipes: comfort food that’s working for you, not against you. I’ve got you on this one.
01Who it’s for & when to eat it
This is comfort food with a backbone of protein, so it bends to almost any goal — you just shift the cheese and the pasta portion. Here’s how I steer it.
Lean it down
Swap to a high-protein or chickpea pasta, drop the cheddar to 20g, and lean hard on the blended cottage cheese for creaminess. You keep the bowl and the protein, you shave the calories down toward 420. A real dinner that still fits a deficit.
Build it up
Go up to 90g dry pasta, add an extra 30g cheddar and a handful of shredded cooked chicken or lean mince. Now it’s a proper mass-meal — north of 800 calories and well over 60g protein, still creamy, still real food.
Steady comfort
The recipe as written is a balanced plate — good protein, moderate carbs, sensible fat. A warm, satisfying evening meal that won’t overshoot your calories or leave you raiding the cupboard an hour later.
Timing: I love this as a post-training dinner — the carbs and protein land right when your body’s asking for them. It’s also exactly the bowl you want on a cold, tired evening when plain chicken would just make you sad. Comfort and macros, in one dish.
02Ingredients
Makes 1 big bowl — one generous serving. Doubling? Scale every line; the cottage-cheese-to-pasta ratio is what keeps the sauce thick, so keep it steady.
Servings 1 · adjust on the live recipe card- Dry pasta macaroni or shells70 g · 2.5 oz
- Cottage cheese low-fat, the sauce base200 g · 7 oz
- Sharp cheddar, grated30 g · 1 oz
- Skimmed milk40 ml · 2½ tbsp
- Dijon mustard1 tsp
- Garlic powder½ tsp
- Smoked paprika¼ tsp
- Black pepperto taste
- Saltto taste (go light)
Swaps I actually use: chickpea or high-protein pasta drops the calories and bumps the fibre — lovely on a cut. No cottage cheese? Blended low-fat ricotta or thick Greek yoghurt both work, though yoghurt brings a little tang. A scrape of nutritional yeast deepens the cheesy flavour without the calories of more cheddar. And if you like a bite to it, a pinch of cayenne or a dash of hot sauce stirred in at the end is never a bad idea.
03Step by step
Cook it to just shy of done
Bring a pot of lightly salted water to the boil and cook the pasta a minute under the packet time — it’ll finish in the hot sauce. Scoop out a splash of the cooking water before you drain; it’s liquid gold for loosening the sauce later.
Magnus says: slightly underdone is the move. Mushy pasta in a creamy sauce is a sad thing.
Cottage cheese, smooth as silk
While the pasta cooks, tip the cottage cheese, milk, Dijon, garlic powder, paprika and pepper into a blender or a tall jug for a stick blender. Blend until completely smooth — no lumps, no curds. This is the step people skip, and it’s the one that makes it taste like a real cheese sauce instead of, well, blended cottage cheese.
Magnus says: don’t stop early. You want it glossy and pourable, like custard.
Gentle heat, then the cheddar
Pour the blended base into a wide pan over a low heat. Warm it through gently, stirring, then take it off the direct heat and stir in the grated cheddar until it melts into the sauce. Keep it low — blast it and the cottage cheese can split on you.
Magnus says: low and slow. This sauce hates a roaring hob.
Fold the pasta through
Drain the pasta and tip it straight into the sauce. Fold it through over the lowest heat until every piece is coated. If it’s looking tight, loosen it with a spoonful of that reserved pasta water until it’s creamy and glossy.
Taste, finish, eat it hot
Taste and adjust — a little more pepper, the lightest pinch of salt, a dash of hot sauce if you like. Tip it into a bowl and eat it straight away while it’s hot and creamy. If you want the full diner experience, a quick blast under a hot grill gives you golden edges.
Magnus says: it thickens as it sits, so don’t dawdle — this one’s meant to be eaten warm.
04The spec sheet
Real numbers, calculated — not guessed. The recipe makes one big bowl of roughly 340g of finished food. Here’s what that serving and a flat 100g actually give you.
| Nutrient | Per serving | Per 100g |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 560 kcal | 165 kcal |
| Protein | 46.0 g | 13.5 g |
| Carbohydrate | 58.0 g | 17.1 g |
| — of which sugars | 6.0 g | 1.8 g |
| Fat | 14.0 g | 4.1 g |
| — of which saturates | 7.5 g | 2.2 g |
| Fibre | 3.0 g | 0.9 g |
| Sodium | ~0.85 g | ~0.25 g |
Moderate for comfort food. Because the bulk of this bowl is blended cottage cheese and not butter and cream, you get a big, filling portion for the calories — far more food than a classic mac would give you.
Strong for a pasta dish. Most macs are mostly carbs and fat with a token bit of protein; this one carries real protein into a meal that usually has none worth counting.
- Calcium~360 mg · 36% DV
- Phosphorus~480 mg · 69% DV
- Selenium~38 µg · 69% DV
- Vitamin B12~1.3 µg · 54% DV
- Riboflavin (B2)~0.5 mg · 38% DV
- Zinc~3.2 mg · 29% DV
Macros are calculated from standard food-composition data and will shift a little with your exact ingredients and brands. Micronutrient figures are estimates against general adult Daily Values. Numbers are for guidance, not medical advice — see our Nutrition Disclaimer.
05Bulk / Cut / TRT variations
One creamy base, three jobs. The sauce technique stays the same — you adjust the pasta, the cheese, and what protein you fold through. Macros below are for the full bowl as described.
The lean bowl
Use 60g of high-protein or chickpea pasta, drop the cheddar to 20g, and keep the full 200g cottage cheese. Maximum creaminess, leaner numbers, more fibre to keep you full. My pick when calories are tight but I want comfort.
The mass bowl
Bump to 90g dry pasta, add 30g more cheddar and 80g shredded cooked chicken breast folded through at the end. Calorie-dense, easy to eat, and over 60 grams of protein in one warm bowl.
The balanced bowl
The recipe as written, served with a side of steamed broccoli or a handful of leaves. Good protein, moderate carbs, sensible fat — a full, satisfying plate that keeps the calories honest.
06Meal prep & storage
Mac and cheese is best fresh, but this version holds up better than most because the sauce is protein-based rather than a fragile butter roux. Here’s how I keep it for the week.
Cool fully and store in an airtight container. The sauce firms up cold; that’s normal — it loosens again with a splash of milk when you reheat.
Freezes okay in single portions, though the texture softens a touch on thawing. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating gently.
Add a splash of milk, then warm gently in the microwave or a low pan, stirring. Low heat only — too hot and the cottage-cheese sauce can split.
For a prep-ahead trick, blend a big batch of the sauce base on a Sunday and keep it in the fridge for three days. Then it’s a two-minute job to boil pasta and stir up a fresh, creamy bowl on a weeknight — far nicer than reheating the whole thing.
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07Common questions
Does it actually taste like cottage cheese? +
No — and that surprises everyone. Once it’s blended completely smooth and warmed with cheddar, mustard and seasoning, the cottage-cheese tang disappears and you’re left with a proper savoury cheese sauce. The blending is what does it; if you can still taste curds, you didn’t blend it long enough.
Can I make it without a blender? +
You can, but it won’t be as silky. If you’re set on it, buy a smooth-style cottage cheese and whisk it hard with the milk, or push it through a fine sieve first. Honestly though, a cheap stick blender is the single best tool for these high-protein sauces — worth the few quid.
My sauce went grainy — what happened? +
The heat was too high, love. Cottage-cheese-based sauces split if you boil them. Keep the pan on the lowest heat, stir in the cheddar off the direct flame, and never let it bubble. If it does split, a quick blast back in the blender can sometimes pull it back together.
How do I turn this into a proper bulk meal? +
Three moves: more pasta (90g dry), more cheddar (an extra 30g), and a protein boost — fold through 80g of shredded cooked chicken or some lean cooked mince. That takes one bowl up to around 820 calories and 64g protein. See the Bulk variation above for the full numbers.
Can I bake it for a crispy top? +
Absolutely. Tip the finished mac into an oven dish, scatter a little extra cheddar or some panko on top, and grill or bake hot for a few minutes until golden. Factor the extra cheese into your macros, but a proper crispy top is a beautiful thing.
This bowl lives inside a full week of meals.
Comfort food with the macros counted is the whole idea behind my meal plans — seven days of high-protein meals you’ll actually want to eat, with the grocery list written for you. You pick the goal; I do the maths.
See the meal plans →08Pairs well with
Magnus Olafsson
I’m Magnus — twenty years under the iron, from a cold gym in Stockholm to the classic-physique stage, and now mostly in my kitchen in a pink apron. I’ve cut for shows, bulked through winters, and I’ve been on TRT since I was thirty-five. I know what it takes to eat for the body you’re chasing, and I know it shouldn’t come with a side of shame.
Everything here is food I actually cook and macros I actually count. I don’t diagnose, I don’t promise, and I never make a number up. I just feed you well and tell you the truth.
Slim Diet Era shares recipes and general nutrition information. It is not medical or dietetic advice, and we do not provide guidance on obtaining or using any controlled substance. See our Medical Disclaimer and Nutrition Disclaimer.