Mommy's five cheese mac

I made Betty Crocker's mac and cheese recipe last night with some classic Angel modifications. I don't have the recipe with me, and I didn't measure as I cooked. So this is a post based on memory.

It tasted incredible. The original Betty Crocker recipe is probably easy to find via the Betty Crocker label under this entry.

I started with about three tablespoons butter melting over medium-high heat with about two tablespoons chopped chives that I froze from my herb garden last summer. After three minutes of hearty swirling, I added about three tablespoons flour, trying not to let it degrade into a solid flour dumpling.

I added some fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Then lowered the heat to extremely low and added one cup heavy cream.  (I discovered I had no milk in the house.) I added a pinch of nutmeg. Once my flour and cream mixture had blended, I added three cups of plain soy milk. (And I am completely aware of how silly it must seem from a culinary perspective to have heavy cream and soy milk in the same dish. I am a big believer in "use what you got" cooking.)

Once that blended, I added the cheese. I probably used four ounces of velveeta (a gift from a friend), three ounces cheddar, and three or four ounces of mozzarella. Then I added the remaining fresh spinach I had on hand (about one cup, ripped into small slivers) and about a cup of frozen peas (again what I had on hand.) I wish I had some broccoli, but I didn't.

I made 16 ounces of small elbow noodles and it made two small casserole dishes full. Before baking at 375 for 30 minutes (and then cooking at 400 just to brown the top), I sprinkled each liberally with grated romano and then shredded asiago.

Fabulous. Truly fabulous. And probably a good thing, since it looks like my cooking might eliminate dairy for the next month to help with the fluid in my daughter's ears. I can survive without milk. Cheese hurts, but I can do it. How on earth am I going to cook without butter? I have a plan...

Wegmans Pesto Ravioli

We had Wegmans pesto ravioli, from the frozen food aisle, for dinner. One bag feeds the family for a light dinner. I usually get florentine ravioli for the extra "vegetable" content. They really do have some green vegetable vitamin equivalent. Reading the label on these pesto raviolis, they also have green vegetable matter.

They were delicious. We had simple red tomato sauce, and added some asiago cheese on top.

Then we sopped up the extra sauce with homemade bread. And in the child's case, some butter.

Yesterday's Omelet

Yesterday, my daughter and I made a six egg omelet for the three of us to split for lunch. She sliced the black olives. We also added some frozen chopped spinach, a hint of four color pepper, some cheddar, and the leftover asiago.

Salads on a budget

So, it's been a great food day here.

Breakfast was cream of wheat made with organic 2% milk and fresh sliced strawberries.

Then, an hour long bike ride.

Lunch was a feast of our favorites... gourmet salads and biscuit sandwiches.
My husband was lamenting that my vegetarian sausage (Morningstar breakfast patties) multigrain biscuits sounded yummy. So I made the last two sausages for him and my daughter and fried an egg for myself.

Then I prepped salads:

All salads received romaine lettuce (from the warehouse club), asiago (from Aldi), stilton with amaretto and dried fruits (my inlaws bought it at the warehouse club and couldn't figure out what to do with it), and cheddar. My daughter and I added raisins. My daughter picked Wegmans organic Caesar salad dressing, and I went with the sesame ginger vinaigrette (also from Wegmans) and then for my salad, the clincher, I added hot wasabi bar mix. Fabulous stuff!

I call this salad on a budget because I literally rooted around my cupboards and threw whatever I found in. If you've read a few entries in this blog, you'll already know that I rarely go to the store if it wasn't my plan. I substitute whatever I can, wherever I can.

I may include one of my oatmeal fruit cookies for dessert.

Skillet pizza

My daughter and I made a pizza crust after school. I think this is what we did:

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1.5 cups white flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 1/3 cup rye flour
• 3/4 teaspoon iodized sea salt
• 1 packet Papa John's pizza seasoning
  
• 1/3 cup corn meal
• 3/4 cup oats
• 1/4 cup flax seed

Mix and set in a warm dark place. Could take an hour to rise. (Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes)

Toppings:

• Wegmans extra chunky pizza sauce
• monterey jack cheese
• cheddar
• asiago
• parmesan
• black olives
• four color organic peppercorns
• Pasta and pizza seasoning
• Garlic powder
  

Method:
Here's the plan.
I hope heat my Le Creuset skillet on the stove over medium high with a thorough greasing of extra virgin olive oil. Then, I plan to carefully arrange the pizza dough inside and put the toppings on and bake in the skillet.

Will it work? I hope it will. I thought it was a cool idea but now I realize, it's PAN PIZZA.

Super Salads

So, this is my first full day on medication for Vitamin D and iron deficiency. I made a pledge to myself to eat healthier. Iron pills can make you constipated, so I want to make sure I get plenty of fiber.

Breakfast:

• about 6 ounces apple-kiwi-strawberry 1oo% juice
• cream of wheat made with soy milk with a touch of sugar
• 1/2 cup coffee with non dairy French vanilla creamer

Snack:

• 1 slice fruity fred, thawed from the freezer (Amish friendship bread with almonds and dried cherries)
• green iced tea with blueberry

Lunch:

• small bowl minestrone soup
• homemade multigrain baquette
• Trader Joe's hummus
• about 6 ounces chocolate silk

Afternoon snack

• sweetened green tea (grrr, though it was unsweetened)
• a banana

Dinner

• large salad with two types of bagged greens (and some carrots and cabbage)
  
• asiago
• cheddar
• chopped pecans
• dried strawberries
• raisins
• red wine vinaigrette dressing
• a side of Motts Healthy Harvest No Sugar Added Country Berry Applesauce
• 16 ounces unsweetened soy milk with Banana Moo Magic Powder
  

Papa John's Emmental Pasta

What the heck is that?

Our daughter went with Mimi... So, for lunch I'm blending:

• leftover cooked rotini, plain
• one container Papa John's Garlic sauce
• two teaspoons basil
• one teaspoon four color pepper
• about three tablespoons shredded asiago from Aldi
• about 1/4 cup French emmental cheese, leftover from crôque monsieur night
  

Sausage and egg noodles

So, I think my husband may be learning some new tricks thanks to our food experiments during the last year.

I worked late, so he cooked up a lovely dinner of, well, I'll write it as if it were on a menu.

Spinach-asiago chicken sausage and egg noodles with bite-sized broccoli and black beans in an olive oil sauce.

I don't taste any spices, no garlic or black pepper, but man, it's tasty.

Sandwiches!!!

I am so excited for dinner. I'm feeling a tad under the weather and I'm not sure whether it's allergies or a cold... Since sneezing and running nose seems to be the main issue, could just be allergies.

I mentioned to my husband that I would really like a simple sandwich, as in from the deli counter, and he volunteered to run to Giant. (Must be partially because he was home alone with the little one all day.)

I am so thrilled with tonight's meal plan. We're each having half an asiago bagel with soy mayo, lettuce, honey turkey, deluxe ham, smoked guoda and cheddar and vegetarian bacon. Sides are Dole bagged Italian Salad with garlic croutons and some sort of red wine vinaigrette and Veggie Patch Spinach Cheese bites, which we're trying because we had a coupon.

Terri Rigatoni

It's a positively frigid June day, and it's raining, and I have company coming tonight after dinner... On top of all that, my contractor called at 1:30 and said he had the windows I ordered in April and he wanted to know if he could come install them.

Today.

I said sure. I guess I need more chaos in my life. He wanted to make a rainy day productive.

They arrived around 3 and had the windows installed before 5. My guests might arrive around 7:30, but I told one she could come early. Between trying to keep the cats from jumping out the windowless windows and my almost-five-year-old from getting under foot, dinner was not a concern.

I went so far as to request cheesesteaks. But, I opted to cook, because my friends are bringing goodies and I don't want to be too full to eat them.

So, as my husband chopped fresh broccoli into his trademark teeny-tiny pieces and cooked the remaining portion of Aldi spinach rigatoni, I got my skillet and about four tablespoons of olive oil. I sprinkled about two tablespoons of garlic powder in. My husband chopped and grated the last hunk of ricotta salata. I tossed the chunks into the skillet, then the broccoli. I sprinkled some of the rigatoni seasoning on it.

Then, I warmed the leftover elbow macaroni in the microwave. I put the cooked rigatoni in the skillet and added more mystery seasoning. I combibed the elbows and the skillet mixture and sprinkled in the last of the grated asiago. When I dished it onto plates, I added grated ricotta salata on top.

Croque Monsieur

I've been dying for Croque Monsieur for days... but it's not an easy thing to solve a craving like this... For one, buying the proper cheese can be very expensive. In this case, $6-plus at the Giant. For a tiny hunk of Gruyère.

So, you economize where you can.

I based my croque monsieur on Ina Garten's recipe in Barefoot in Paris, but where she uses two cheeses, I used four. Sounds fancy, but really, it was an attempt to keep the gruyère from making my daughter turn up her nose, and an attempt to cheapen the overall cost of the sandwich.

Step one:

I sliced 12 slices of homemade cheesy bread that I had thawed from the freezer. I arranged them on a very large cookie sheet. In an oven preheated to 400, I toasted each side of the bread for five minutes.

Ingredients for the sauce: 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon flour, 1/2 cup light cream, 1/2 cup soy milk, 1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground coarse sea salt (from Aldi), 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground four-color pepper, pinch nutmeg, 1/8 cup grated asiago (also from Aldi), 1/8 cup grated parmesan (Aldi), 1/8 cup grated gruyère, and 1/8 cup grated smoked gouda.

Melt butter over low heat, stir in flour and stir with wooden spoon for two minutes. Heat milk and add, slowly, whisking constantly until sauce thickens. Remove pan from heat and add other ingredients. Set aside.

Step two:

Take toasted bread and if desired, spread dijon mustard on one side. I skipped this as my husband hates mustard.

Ingredients for the middle: ham slices (I used tavern ham, one long slice per sandwich. It used more than 1/4 a pound but not 1/2 pound), a slice of smoked gouda for each sandwich, and slightly more than 1/4 cup grated gruyère. Go crazy with the cheese if you wish, but I can't afford it.

Method: On one side of the bread, fold a slice of ham, then add the gouda. I then added a thin layer of sauce and put the second side of the bread on. Smother the top of the sandwich with sauce, I used close to two tablespoons for each of my little sandwiches. Then sprinkle the gruyère on top.

Bake five minutes in the oven. Then, turn on the broiler and broil three to five minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

Mommy's scrambled eggs

Yesterday I had a blood sugar meltdown and it wasn't pretty. It was a reminder that I need to pay closer attention to my own meal schedules. I more or less need six small meals a day, but lately I've been skipping snacks. It caught up with me yesterday. It usually starts with breakfast... I skip that thinking I'll eat mt ten o'clock snack at nine and be fine... Well, yesterday I didn't eat until 11 and it threw my whole day out of whack.

By five, my husband ran to Giant to get a rapid, high protein dinner involving salad because I had in my head I wanted salad. And when I get screwed up like that, I often refuse to eat unless I get something that "looks good."

So he went to the store and bought two pre-packaged ceasar salads in the bags (on sale 2/$7), vegetarian chicken and buffalo wings (because it heats in the microwave super quick), and real chicken breasts (in case I had in my head that I wanted the real thing, and he got organic thinking I would approve... what a sweetie... and he had no idea how to read the price so he paid WAY too much, but it's the thought that counts.)

He spent $22. And made a delicious salad with the buffalo wings strips and laid into it. And the kit included shaved slices of asiago cheese... Mmmmm... We're having the second batch for lunch today.

I'm trying to be more careful today. We had homemade raisin bread toast with 

coffee at 7:30. (The loaf of sticky roll dough that I didn't ice or cut into buns.) At 9, I made myself two scrambled eggs (with soy milk) with parsley, the leftover garlic pepper seasoning from the salad last night, and grated asiago. Served with a side of ketchup and a pinch of coarse sea salt. And technically, I used extra virgin olive oil in the pan instead of no-stick spray. Figured I could use the healthy fat.

Open-Faced Tuna Melts and Sweet Salad

For lunch, I took some lettuce from the butter lettuce bagged greens from Aldi, mixed in some shredded asiago, raisins and Wishbone Spritzer wine mist dressing. Meanwhile, my husband cut some homemade cheesy bread (I'm almost getting sick of bread for every meal) and made open faced hot tuna sandwiches with cheddar melted on top.

Midday recount

For breakfast this morning... Oh, wait, I didn't have breakfast. Well, maybe I did if you count the graham crackers at 8:30. My daughter had watermelon at 7:30 and graham crackers and chocolate soy milk with me.

I'm concerned with her getting enough liquids in this hot weather, so I "made" her drink one of my bubbly cherry lemonades at 10. That's when I made myself the rest of the Dole salad from last night, though we ate all the good toppings so I just poured a bunch of grated asiago over it and then added the remaining ginger dressing. It was fabulous.

At 11, my husband and daughter had a real picnic on the college quad, with crackers and leftover lebanon bologna and port salute cheese, a banana and a 100% juice box. Then they played some quad golf.

When I got home from class at noon, I brewed some green tea to ice later. I then packed a glass bottle (20 ounces?) with ice cubes and water for the little one. AND I gave her the rest of the watermelon.

Now, I'm finally sitting down to eat some homemade bread and port salute cheese, with a glass of diluted lemonade.

Garlic Bread Pizzas (aka Veggie Melts?)

For dinner last night we had another round of my famous "French bread pizzas" which are more like veggy melts. My husband and I sliced one of my homemade baguettes in half. We melted a couple tablespoons of butter and mixed in a generous amount of garlic powder and grated parmesan. Next we sprinkled on leftover cooked carrots and raw broccoli. We seasoned those with my pizza and pasta seasoning and garlic pepper. Then we sprinkled with asiago and shredded cheddar. We cooked under the broiler until the cheese melted and the edges of the bread turned brown.

Spaghetti and broccoli cheese omelets (not together)

It's the weekend. Last night I had the worst craving for pasta with red sauce, even though we had mac and cheese the night before. My husband humored me and made pasta with red sauce with some bits of hamburger and lots of asiago and parmesan.

For breakfast my daughter had a little Kellogg's Smart Start (an Aldi purchase a couple months ago) with lots of raisins, and at her request, lots of golden raisins too.

For lunch, my husband made broccoli cheese omelettes.

Spaghetti and spinach nuggets

I expected to work late tonight so yesterday at the store I got spinach nuggets for dinner. I also have had a craving for spaghetti for weeks. Spaghetti with grated asiago from Aldi. So we had both for dinner. I LOVE spinach nuggets. The preschooler likes them too. Better than chicken nuggets by far, IMHO. I buy the Veggie Patch Spinach nuggets in the produce or natural food aisle (depending on the store). They're not cheap, but they're wholesome and I often use them as an entree. (About $4 per package)

Now, for the nutritional info...

In four nuggets:
80 percent of your RDA vitamin A
20 percent of vitamin C
20 percent of calcium
8 percent iron
plus 6 grams protein

Garlic Veggie French Bread Pizzas

Today we had some nutty food choices. For breakfast, my daughter had the last homemade blueberry pancake from the freezer (which I naughtily topped with vanilla ice cream) and 8 oz. of Horizon Organic Chocolate milk.

For lunch, we had graham crack

ers with peanut butter, sliced apples and carrot sticks. Then after lunch, we watched a movie (The Muppet Christmas Carol) with popcorn and a couple Christmas cookies.

For dinner, I prepared one of my favorites. I took my last homemade baguette from the freezer. It thawed all afternoon. 
I cooked some olive oil, butter and fresh sliced garlic in a skillet. I cut the bread into four hearty chunks. I spread most of the sauce onto the bread (as the broiler preheated) and left the remainder in the skillet. I sprinkled each slice with parmesan cheese. I heated the bread and toasted it under the broiler. Meanwhile, I mixed fresh carrot ribbons, fresh broccoli, and some frozen California vegetables (more carrots and broccoli, some cauliflower) into the remaining sauce in the skillet. I sprinkled them liberally with garlic pepper, basil and Italian seasoning. I cooked them until they started to brown.

When the bread had toasted, I spread this mixture on top of each slice. Then I sprinkled with parmesan and asiago and covered the vegetables with shredded Italian cheese blend leftover from last week's pizza. Back under the broiler it went. And voilà.

Spinach Rigatoni

I buy these frozen spinach rigatoni at Aldi. Tonight we served them not with the prepackaged seasoning sauce but with red sauce and extra sprinkle cheese, asiago and parmesan. Breakfast was cinnamon toast. I took my daughter for Chinese after we got shoes for her Christmas dress. She got the shrimp and broccoli and I got curry. That cost me $14. My husband packed my ginger cookies with peanut butter and banana for lunch, a tad strange but... He wanted something different. Off to enjoy my coffee. I have no idea what I'll feed my tribe tomorrow. And I need some cookies from those Christmas tins.

Crustless Broccoli Cheese Quiche

My house smells incredible right now because I have a quiche in the oven. I have to work until seven tonight, so I opted to make a quiche this morning for my family to reheat for dinner. The original recipe is for Quiche Lorraine and comes from my Betty Crocker cookbook. I adapted it, as always. I don't use the crust, simply for ease. It's not necessary and I don't often go through the effort of making a pie crust. I sometimes buy pre-made crusts for pot-pies or quiche. But lately, it didn't seem worth the extra calories or carbohydrates.

My daughter had an apple, chocolate soy milk and a gingerbread cookie for breakfast. I had a piece of pumpkin waffle with peanut butter and Nutella. I'm not sure what we'll have for lunch... It's just the two of us today.

Crustless Broccoli Cheese Quiche

Grease deep dish pie pan. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

1.5 cups half and half (it's supposed to be 2 cups heavy whipping cream, but I didn't have any);

About 1.5 cups fresh broccoli;

garlic pepper;

1 cup shredded cheese (I used leftover Italian blend and some asiago);

5 medium eggs

In pie dish, dump broccoli, sprinkle garlic pepper and cover with cheese. Mix eggs and cream in separate bowl. Pour over broccoli. Cook at 425 for 15 minutes then lower heat to 300 and cook another 30 minutes until texture firms. Stand about ten minutes before serving.