Hearty Mac & Cheese

This recipe starts with a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese (I got the blues, the blue-box blues), you know the one, right? So, you can judge me if you want, but I buy the 5-pack of this and it lasts us about a month or 6 weeks. It is an easy thing Steve can make on the weekends when I'm sleeping. It is a quick lunch for me to make the kiddos if they are sick of sandwiches and chicken nuggets, our two rotating lunches (which doesn't happen too often--that's why those two things are our 2 rotating lunches, because the kids love them). Also if you have kids over for a play date, you can make 2 boxes and everyone gets plenty. And, you can sprinkle real bacon bits on top and it is SO yummy. Or you can squirt a little ketchup on the side of your bowl and eat each bite with a bit of ketchup. That's a trick I learned from my grandmother (the one Emma is named after) and every time I do it I think of her. Also she put butter on her ham and cheese sandwiches (on the insides of the bread) but I don't do that. So, the moral of this story is, to make this recipe I didn't have to buy anything. I had all these ingredients. That may not be the case for you, so you don't have to try this if you don't want. It's from the Feb/March 2011 Simple & Delicious.

Hearty Mac & Cheese
1 pkg (7 1/4 oz) macaroni and cheese
1 lb ground beef
3 tbsp chopped onion (I rehydrated onion flakes for this, because I didn't want to cut up a whole onion to get 3 tbsp)
2 tbsp chopped green pepper (I left this out, for the same reason...)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed tomato soup, undiluted (this is one of my kitchen staples, so that we can always have tomato soup and grilled cheese whenever we want)
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tsp prepared mustard
1 tsp seasoned salt
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar cheese (I buy this in bulk at Sam's Club so I always have this too)
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/4 cup milk

Cook macaroni according to package directions; set cheese packet aside. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook the beef, onion and green pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and vegetables are tender; drain.

Add the soup, water, ketchup, mustard and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 4 minutes.

Drain macaroni; add to the beef mixture. Stir in the corn, cheese, contents of reserved cheese packet, butter, and milk. Cook over medium heat until heated through.

Okay. This was not good. Way too thick. Too gloppy. And adding the butter at the end, to cooked ground beef, almost sent me over the edge. I guess one should not use a boxed convenience food as the basis for a family meal...lesson learned.

Grilled Chicken and Bacon Mac n Cheese

I just want to start out this entry by saying that Rachael Ray is crazy. This recipe is from Every Day with Rachael Ray, Feb 2011. My mom gets this one in the mail and then gives it to me. I have seen a few recipes here and there that I've tried, with varying success. Mostly, I just don't cook like that. When I say "like that," I mean with ingredients like prosciutto. This recipe is in a section of the magazine called 30 Minute Meals. This one took me 1 hr and 15 minutes. It is SO obvious that she has kitchen helpers. To be fair, I guess, so do I, although mine do not tend to speed up the process. This is something I was making because friends of ours were coming over tonight, but then they had to cancel due to the weather (come quickly, spring!). We were going to have it with a salad, and apple crisp for dessert, using the frozen apple pie filling my sister made and gave me. So we did not have the salad or the dessert, which luckily I hadn't made yet when I got the call, so the apples are safely frozen for now. I cannot say if the whipped cream will remain untouched, however. This recipe was very good, very tasty, but with the amount of effort, it SHOULD be! Over double the estimated time, oh and also I dirtied many pans in the making of this, making clean up quite the chore. As I type this, my dear husband is cleaning the George Foreman grill (I am really really hoping to find one with removable plates at a yard sale this summer) which is the last thing, but there were lots of dishes. Maybe if you made this repeatedly you could get into a rhythm and make it faster and with less mess. Maybe. Anyway here's the recipe (it is not a word-for-word rendition of her recipe...I left some descriptors out but put in the important parts).

Grilled Chicken and Bacon Mac n Cheese
6 slices good quality (she means not Oscar Mayer or Hormel) smoky bacon, such as applewood smoked (they did have this at Walmart, but it was $7 for a pound, and I am not paying that. I got the Great Value knock-off of that bacon, which was $4.50, still more than I wanted to pay for bacon, but oh well)
Salt and pepper
1 pound whole wheat pasta
2 pieces boneless skinless chicken breasts, lightly pounded
olive oil, for drizzling
1/2 tsp sweet smoked paprika (I just used regular paprika...I have no idea if it's "sweet smoked" or not)
4 tbsp butter
1 large onion, quartered lengthwise and very thinly sliced
2 rounded tbsp flour
1/2 cup apple cider or chicken stock
2 cups whole milk (I used 1% because I don't buy whole milk...after the 2 cups were gone we would have had to drink the rest, and nobody would want to)
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (I used 1 tsp dried)
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste (I used 1/8 tsp, and it wasn't freshly grated by any means)
1 1/2 cups shredded extra-sharp white cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded gruyere cheese (I couldn't find this at Walmart or Hannaford...probably because I didn't know where to look, although I did a fairly thorough investigation at both places...I didn't want to ask someone because I don't know how to pronounce it and didn't want to look like an idiot...do you SEE why I don't use these recipes very often?? I just used 2 cups of the shredded cheddar)
Chopped parsley or celery leaves, for garnish (omitted by me)

Preheat the oven to 375. Arrange the bacon on slotted broiler pan or on a rack placed over a baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 15 minutes. Chop and reserve. Switch on the broiler and position the rack in the center of the oven (don't do this yet...if you do your broiler will be on for like an hour...wait til the end).

Bring a pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook 1 minute less than the instructions indicate, or until just shy of al dente. Drain and return to the pot.

While the pasta is working (her phrase, not mine), heat a grill pan or cast-iron griddle (or a George Foreman grill) over medium-high heat. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil to coat lightly, then season evenly with salt, pepper, and paprika. Grill the chicken for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally. Transfer to a cutting board and halve the pieces lengthwise, then thinly slice crosswise.

While the chicken cooks, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until light golden and very soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 1 minute. Whisk in the cider or stock, then the milk. Bring to a boil and cook, whisking, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the thyme and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir in the cheeses until melted.

Add the chicken, bacon, and sauce to the pasta and transfer to a casserole (I had to use a 9x13 because it made so much). Broil until bubbling and brown, about 5 minutes (mine only took 2 so don't walk away too far). Garnish with parsley or celery greens.

Okay do you see what I mean? While this is cooking, do this. And then while that is cooking, do this other thing. Oh, and while you're doing that, do this too. I just don't have that many hands. We all ate this, even the kids liked it, and we still have over half of it left, so it will be good leftovers for the weekend, which approacheth, and during which, I worketh. So overall, I am keeping it, but under no illusions as to the time factor for the next time I attempt it.

Reunion Casserole

This is the last recipe I have marked from the Dec/Jan 2011 Simple & Delicious. I thought it sounded good, and different from our usual, because it has noodles in it. Usually we have rice or potatoes. Apparently the lady who sent this recipe in to Simple & Delicious makes this to bring to reunions, hence the name, and she says there are never any leftovers. We'll see about that.

Reunion Casserole
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb bulk spicy pork sausage (I left this out because I didn't think the kids would like spicy sausage)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 can (11 oz) whole kernel corn, drained (I used 1 cup frozen corn, thawed)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed tomato soup, undiluted
1 can tomato sauce
1/3 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed olives (don't like olives, so I left these out, too)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz wide noodles, cooked and drained

In a large Dutch oven, cook the beef, sausage, and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in 1 cup cheese, green pepper, corn, soup, tomato sauce, olives, garlic, salt, and noodles.

Transfer to greased 13x9 baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and bake @ 350 for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 minutes longer.

So this was SO much better than I thought it would be. Looking at the recipe, it seems kind of hum-drum. But it was really so good. The noodles on the edge of the casserole did get just a bit crusty, so maybe 10 minutes is too long once you uncover it. But overall a very yummy recipe that is definitely a keeper. Steve took the leftovers to work the next day and said it was just as good.

Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake

I made this for home fellowship. It's from Simple & Delicious Dec/Jan 2011. It has a picture with it that looks so yummy. Of course the best place to take this is to someone else's house, so that I am not overly tempted to eat it all! This starts with a base of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, so I had to be very tricky when I bought these and put them in the fridge, because my kids go crazy over these cinnamon rolls. But it all worked out.

Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake
1 tube (17.5 oz) Pillsbury Grand cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing
2 pkg (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup quick oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp butter, melted

Unroll the tube of cinnamon rolls into one long rectangle into a greased 13x9 baking dish (I had visions of this going very smoothly. In fact, it did not. I had to break some, spread them all out, smoosh them down...eventually I was able to get the whole bottom of the pan covered); seal perforations. Set aside icing packet from cinnamon rolls.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Pour over crust. In a small bowl, combine the pecans, flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon; stir in butter. Sprinkle over cream cheese layer.

Bake @ 350 for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Drizzle with contents of icing packet (in retrospect, I should have put this into a baggie or something and squeezed it out...I have big hunks of icing on few spots of the coffee cake, but it is by no means uniformly distributed...); let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Okay so I don't love cream cheese. I do put it in things, but I don't think it's sweet enough. So, same thing with this dessert-type thing. My kids didn't like it, and when I was cleaning up Becky's table I noticed a lot of it had been left behind. But that's okay, kids are hard to please anyway. Becky said she liked it, and Steve liked it too. Even though a couple of grown ups liked it, I still don't think I'll save this one, because it wasn't a crowd-pleaser. But it did smell awesome while it was baking.

Family Favorite Italian Chicken

This was very good. It is similar to another recipe I tried back when NRN was first beginning, which I affectionately named Burn Your House Down Parmesan Chicken. That one you covered, so you couldn't tell how blackened it was becoming until it was too late. This one was similar, in that I burned it. But at least the coating was easy to scrape off. We still ate it. It was still good. I think I had the heat too high...this is from Simple & Delicious Dec/Jan 2011.

Family Favorite Italian Chicken
2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce
2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tbsp water
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
Hot cooked pasta (we used bow ties...farfalle if you want to be all fancy)

In a small saucepan, combine the tomato sauce, basil, and garlic powder; heat through.

Meanwhile, flatten chicken to 1/4" thickness. In a shallow bowl, combine bread crumbs, oregano, and salt. In a separate shallow bowl, whisk eggs and water. In a third shallow bowl, place flour. Coat chicken with flour, then dip in egg mixture and coat with bread crumb mixture.

In a large skillet, cook chicken in oil in batches for 4-6 minutes on each side or until juices run clear (here's where I went wrong...I didn't check it soon enough...). Spoon sauce over chicken; sprinkle with cheeses. Serve with pasta.

So in spite of the extra carbon, everyone liked this. The breading was easily removed for the children, but I left mine on. I've never been too bothered by burn. Whereas Steve does not like it AT ALL. He doesn't even like his toast too brown. But actually he just ate this like it was, even though I told him how easily I had removed the breading from the children's chicken. So. It was yummy. I have to go back and see how different this one is from the previously mentioned recipe. If it's much different, I'll save it. If not, I won't. And next time I make it, I'll watch way more carefully. You'd think I would learn by now...

Sweet and Salty Trail Mix Bars

I found this recipe in All You (Jan 21, 2011)(which is my Dad's birthday), which is a magazine my mom occasionally buys and then gives to me. Mostly I like it for the coupons. There are a LOT of coupons in those magazines. But sometimes there's a recipe in there too. I wanted to try it, because, as you know if you have been reading for a while, I am on a quest to make a better granola bar that my children will like. I want them to forget all about the Quaker granola bar man. It is a tall order. Sam and Emma really like the ones I have been making. But, they have butter, syrup, brown sugar, and peanut butter in them. If I used real maple syrup I bet I wouldn't care as much, but that is one thing I can't make the switch to. I don't like how it sinks into pancakes so fast. I don't like that you have to keep it in the fridge and sometimes skim mold off the top (if the directions on the container are any indication--why else would they tell you to just skim it off, unless mold sometimes grew there?). I know that the fake stuff is so so bad. Only basically corn syrup and maple flavor. But I can't switch. Oh and also the real stuff costs approximately 50 times more. So since I cannot (okay--will not) replace it, the best I can do is minimize its use, and only use it when we are eating breakfast for supper, like pancakes or french toast or waffles or whatever. All that to say: this is why I wanted to try this recipe, because it has honey instead. Also Nathan does not like the granola bars I usually make. Once I stopped buying bread and started making my own exclusively, he wouldn't eat a sandwich for like a year. So it takes the kid a long time to come around. He watched me make these and knows they started with pretzels, so maybe he will at least try. He told me today that in the morning he will try a small bite. I did make a few modifications to this recipe...

Sweet and Salty Trail Mix Bars
1 1/2 cups salted pretzel twists, broken into small pieces
2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries (I used 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup of this fruit blend I had a coupon for, which was dried berries and apples)
1 cup sunflower seeds
4 tbsp unsalted butter (I never have unsalted butter, so I just used salted butter)
3/4 cup peanut butter, preferably natural (phew. I have natural)
1/2 cup brown sugar (still bad....)
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt (I left this out since I used salted butter)

Preheat oven to 350; butter an 11x7 baking dish. In a large bowl, combine pretzels, oats, raisins, and sunflower seeds.

Melt butter in small saucepan (not too small) over medium-high heat. Add peanut butter, brown sugar, honey, vanilla, flour, and salt; stir until smooth.

Pour butter mixture into pretzel mixture and stir quickly to thoroughly coat. Transfer mixture to prepared pan and use your hands to press in firmly and evenly. Bake until lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack before cutting into bars.

Okay here's what I did differently, besides the butter & salt thing that I already explained. You do not have to bake my current usual granola bar recipe. Since many of the ingredients are the same in this recipe, I suspected I did not really have to bake this one, either. So I left out the flour, and then, once I poured the butter mixture over the pretzel mixture, I pressed it into the pan, which is a lovely Tupperware dish with a cover which I got for free when I hosted my Tupperware party last year (from my Tupperware lady, Becky Coffin). Then I put it into the fridge, which is where I keep the other granola bars I make too.

I put this under "cookies" for a label, even though it doesn't really apply...it was between that and "appetizers," so that seems more appropriate.

I'm posting this today, even though nobody will eat them until tonight or tomorrow, and once the kids try them (hopefully Nathan too) I will comment with their reactions...

Spaghetti Pie

This is the latest try from Deceptively Delicious, the cookbook wherein recipes are contained with which you can make your children eat their vegetables, supposedly without them knowing it. This one had a very appetizing picture to go with it, and historically my children have enjoyed recipes similar to this. Well, not Nathan. But the other two.

Spaghetti Pie
Nonstick cooking spray
3 oz whole wheat spaghetti or angel hair pasta (or 1 cup leftover cooked pasta)
1/2 pound lean ground turkey or sirloin
1/2 cup broccoli puree (second time in my life I have purchased broccoli)
1 large egg white
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups bottled tomato sauce
1 cup lowfat (1 %) cottage cheese
1/4 cup carrot puree
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta, and cook until al dente; drain. (Skip this step if you have leftover pasta.) (Oh, really? Thanks for that tip, Mrs Seinfeld. Gosh)

In a small bowl, mix the ground turkey or sirloin with the broccoli puree, egg white, parmesan, and garlic. Form the mixture into 1/2-inch balls.

In a large bowl, stir the cooked pasta, tomato sauce, cottage cheese, carrot puree, and salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture into the pie plate and smooth the top. Scatter meatballs on top and sprinkle with mozzarella. Bake, uncovered, until the center is firm and the cheese is bubbly, 25 to 30 minutes.

How the heck are you supposed to know how much 3 oz of pasta is? The box I have has 16 oz in it, and it is really hard to figure out what 16 divided by 3 is, in pasta. But I just eye-balled it, and it came out pretty good. In the meatballs, it was very clear that there was broccoli in them. Especially to Sam and Emma, who had learned the secret of the green potatoes. But even though Sam knew, he ate them and said they were good. Emma started crying when she smelled me cooking the broccoli. Nathan really liked this, he even liked the spaghetti, which I was shocked at. Growing up, I guess. This was definitely something I'll keep...Emma liked the spaghetti, even if she wasn't crazy about the meatballs. You honestly could not tell there was broccoli in there. If you couldn't see it, you wouldn't even know. And the carrots were totally hidden. This did take longer than I expected to make...like 20 minutes to cook & puree the veggies, and then another 35ish minutes to do all the rest. So allow plenty of time if you're going to try it!

Tangy Tomato Pork Chops

Got my newest Simple & Delicious last week. This one didn't have as many that I wanted to try as usual. Also, weirdly, it is the December/January issue, and I got it at the beginning of February. There are a lot of Christmas-y desserts and stuff. Maybe my next one will come quicker since this one came late. Anyway this is a crock-pot recipe, which I like. I do not like the adjective "tangy." If I keep this recipe, I will not put "tangy" in the title. What's wrong with just saying Tomato Pork Chops? The word makes me think that it might be sour, or maybe like the astronaut drink Tang. But reading the ingredients, it didn't sound like anything weird. So I decided to try it.

Tangy Tomato Pork Chops
6 bone-in pork chops
1 tbsp oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 large sweet red pepper, sliced (no red peppers last night at Walmart, no time to go to Hannaford and get one...so I used green pepper)
1 jar (14.5 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained (I left these out)
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Hot cooked noodles

In a large skillet, brown chops in oil. Transfer to 5-qt slow cooker. Layer onion, pepper, and mushrooms over pork chops. In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, brown sugar, vinegar, worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper; pour over pork and vegetables. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or until pork is tender. Serve with noodles.

As is typical with crock pot recipes, this one smelled great. By the time we were ready to eat, the meat was falling off the bones, which is normally a plus, but made it hard to get the meat out of the crockpot. At one point I was taking it out a bite at a time, which got annoying. Also this meal was not very pretty on the plate. We had it with bowtie pasta. The kids loved this meal! Yay. They just ate the meat and noodles, not any of the vegetables, but the meat was so tender that they just gobbled it up. This one is definitely a keeper!