No More Boxed Mac 'n Cheese

Like most people I grew up with the blue box mac 'n cheese. But I have since out grown it. Don't get me wrong, I still love mac 'n cheese; I just want 'grown up' mac 'n cheese. The only problem with 'grown up' mac 'n cheese is that it takes a lot of time and stirring. Making the cheese sauce is always time consuming, I feel like if I'm not constantly stirring it, it's going to burn. I found this recipe for baked mac 'n cheese at Southern Plate. Not only was it yummy, but very easy to make. I should say that this recipe makes a lot, but I had no problem with halving the recipe and reducing the cooking time to 25 minutes with foil. Guitar Man liked the look of his plate so much, that he took a picture of his plate before eating.



Result: *Obviously* this was a big hit!

If you're tired of spaghetti try this

If you ask Guitar Man what he wants to eat his answer will be: chicken, spaghetti, or rice and veggies (any Asian food: Japanese, Korean, etc.) Well you can do lots of things with chicken, and there is a lot of variety for rice and veggies. But when it comes to spaghetti, what am I going to do? Pick up a different flavor of jarred sauce? Besides I'm not a big fan of jarred spaghetti sauce. They're too tomato-y. (Does that even make sense?)

A while back I bookmarked this Martha Stewart recipe for Rigatoni with Spiced Meat Sauce. It looked like a good alternative to the normal spaghetti with meat sauce. So I've made a half order and... Guitar Man loves it. He gets pasta with a very meaty sauce. I love it because Guitar Man can get his pasta fix and it isn't too tomato-y for me.

Non-Spicy Beef Enchiladas

For a while I've been looking for a recipe for enchiladas. I wanted something simple and not too spicy, but since I don't really trust some of the recipes that I find online. I ended up making enchiladas based off of this recipe from Martha Stewart.

Non-Spicy Beef Enchiladas

2 T olive oil
1/4 c flour
3 c chicken broth (I used 2 cans of reduced sodium chicken broth)
1 T chili powder
1 T tomato paste
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb beef
12 corn tortillas
8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated

Make your sauce: Heat oil in sauce pan, add flour to make a roux. Add in chicken broth, tomato paste and chili powder, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer until thickened.
Make your filling: Cook onion, garlic and beef in a small amount of oil until beef is fully cooked.

Make your enchiladas: soften tortillas in microwave and fill with meat mixture and some cheese. Roll and place seem side down in a glass baking dish. Top with enchilada sauce and rest of cheese. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

The result: these were good, but I would have liked a little bit of chipotle (like in the original recipe.) Guitar Man loved the enchiladas, not only did he love eating them, he loved that it didn't give him heart burn afterward.

Feelin' Good

Yeah! Miss E slept for 8 hours last night! The only problem is now I don't know what to do with myself, usually I'm dragin' and fightin' sleep. But today I feel like I could get at least half of the stuff on my to do list done today. If only Miss E would cooperate and not insist on being held.

My to do list:
Miss E's Room - find a rug/play mat for floor, hang curtains, make something for the very blank walls, find/make a mobile

Kitchen - organize cabinets and pantry

Craft Room - organize, including the closet (I like to hide stuff in there)

Closet - dig out my summer clothes

Italian Dressing Mix

Everyone who has ever gone out to eat with me, knows I hate salad dressing. I don't even use oil and vinegar on my salads. I however, married a man who loves Italian dressing. And the poor thing has not had salad dressing at home for the last 3 years. I used to buy small bottles of dressing, but we would waste 3/4 of the bottle. So one day I decided to quit buying it.

Then the other day I came across these mix recipes at momadvice.com, and I knew that I had to try the Italian Dressing Seasoning Mix.

The recipe (slightly modified for us):
1 1/2 t garlic powder
1 T onion powder
2 T ground oregano
1 T dried parsley
1 T granulated sugar
1 T sea salt
1 t black pepper
1 t ground basil
1/4 t ground thyme
1/2 t dried celery flakes

Mix everything together and store in a air tight container. To make dressing: 1 part dressing mix, 1 part water, 2 parts vinegar, 4 parts olive oil. If your 'part' is a tablespoon, then you'll have 1/2 cup of dressing. If you want to use the entire mix at once then your 'part' is 1/2 cup and you'll have 4 cups of dressing.

The result: Guitar Man really liked the dressing, his only critique was that it could use more vinegar.