Southwestern Macaroni and Cheese with Adobo Meatballs

I made this tonight and am eating it right now. I was not sure what "adobo seasoning" was, but I found something by Goya that had the word Adobo on it so I used that. I couldn't find any jalapeno powder so I used a whole jalapeno minced fine. I don't know what it would be like if you added the jalapeno powder, but just by adding the jalapeno it wasn't spicy at all. The flavor of the dish is really good, but when I went to serve it, there was a lot of runny liquid in the casserole. I think the next time I might leave out the cream and see if that helps. Also, the meatballs are very salty, there is a lot of salt in the adobo seasoning so the next time I will only use 1 Tbls of the seasoning. Instead of putting the meatballs on top of the dish, I cut them in half and mixed them in with the macaroni and cheese. The sauce is really good. I will definitely make this again, it's really good. UPDATE: the pasta must have absorbed the excess liquid because I ate the leftovers today and it wasn't too runny.

Javagoddess, are you going to come back and make more food?

I made this over the weekend for some friends. Although I did change up the recipe (used already made/frozen meatballs and added adobo seasoning to it), still was a hit. I personally thought the recipe was 4 stars, but this turned out to be the favorite dish of the night amongst everyone else. Definitely be patient and let all the cheese melt together before adding the pasta. The combination of the different cheeses was great (I actually used a 4 c of a mexican blend rather than 4 c of plain cheddar cheese). Tastes great reheated the next day as well.

I've made this twice and it's really good. The other poster mentioned it being liquidy, which happened the first time I made it. The second time I took my time and really let the cheese melt into the cream before mixing in the noodles and it was perfect. The adobo meatballs are a great touch and round out the dish. My adobo seasoning is salt-free (from Penzeys Spices, not Goya), so the meatballs were a great compliment to the cheesiness (sp?) and not overly salty. Also, a great idea to add coriander to the macaroni--it's the perfect substitute for nutmeg that I like to add to my regular macaroni. GREAT DISH!

I personally liked the macaroni and cheese a lot, but hubby and kids did not. No one liked the meatballs. That's a lot of seasoning for the amount of meat, and I followed the recipe to a tee except I used dried cilantro had no jalapeno pepper powder. I did not, however, have any problems with it being runny, just be patient and let the cheese melt and stir. It was the perfect consistency! I'd love to make the mac & cheese without the meatballs sometime because I thought it was a great mexican-type dish all by itself. I also supplied the photo.

This is very good, though I did omit the jalapeño because we like our food milder. The sauce was perfectly creamy, and the green chilies added enough heat for us that it was still "exotic". Next time I'll try turkey meatballs to reduce the fat. Liked the coriander in the recipe, too.

The meatballs need help, so season them however you'd like. I was excited to try this recipe honestly. I was a little skeptical of the fat free cottage cheese and the light sour cream. I highly advice all of you to not use the fat free cottage cheese because the mouth feel is unpleasant. What's the logic behind using light sour cream and fat free cottage cheese if you've got other high fat ingredients? Just go for the gold and make a good recipe for Pete's sake.

Disappointing! I wish I read the reviews first before I made this dish, I bet it would've saved the flavors and textures. The fat free cottage cheese was a bad idea!!!

Delicious! Meatballs: I used ground turkey, added diced onions and garlic to the meat mixture, added chopped jalapeno peppers instead of powder and used less Adobo than called for (used dashes until it seemed right). The amount in the recipe would have been way too much with Adobo that has salt. Cheese mixture: Instead of cotija cheese, I used a shredded Mexican mixture and used chopped garlic rather than powder. It was so tasty and the meatballs really compliment this dish!

mac n cheese was ok but the meatballs were missing some flavor! dont know if i will make again

I should've read the reviews before making this! The cheese chunks were not very appetizing.

Ugh. This mac and cheese was not delicious at all. The adobo powder was just not a good taste. Who puts fat free cottage cheese chunks in macaroni and cheese? Apparently I do, and I deeply regret it.

So you all don't waste your money on ingredients: Do not use fat free cottage cheese. Do not use light sour cream. Use the real deal guys! I made this thinking that it was tried and true because of the video..I thought maybe the white unmelted chunks were due to a short episode segment; I was wrong. They stay unmelted and it feels like soft plastic. Also, use full fat ground beef. I probably will not make this exact recipe again.

This recipe is awful. Save your money and make/buy something else. Trust me.

I made this for my husband and kids. I usually make plain macaroni and cheese, so I thought I'd try a new recipe to shake things up a bit. I made no changes to the recipe and made it exactly as written. My teenagers did not like this whatsoever, and they are open to new things. I'm a very good cook, and I do not think it was my error. When I was making this, I thought the choices for the cheeses were a bit weird. I learned from TV that you should never use fat-free cheeses because they will alter the final product negatively.

Nice change of pace for Macaroni and Cheese, I could not find powdered Jalapeno pepper, so I used 2 tablespoons of jarred mince jalapeno. If you don't like spicy foods, you could just omit them all together.

This recipe did not work out for me.

I've been wanting to make this since I first watched the video which was a long time ago. I thought it was good although I didn't use low fat anything. I also substituted some of a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for the adobo seasoning and powered jalapeno peppers and left out the 1/4 cup cream.

I am rating this on sauce only. Maybe i shouldn't because of changes but love cotija and have wanted to try it for mac n cheese. I didn't have cottage cheese and probably wouldn't have used it,sounded weird and by other reviews was probably right. Cotija doesn't melt real creamy either but that didn't bother me. I thought sauce was a little bland,but loved the flavor of the cotija. So i just added some taco seasoning mix,recipe from this site and loved it. So thanks for the idea. And sauce only because i'm vegetarian so don't know about meatballs.