Using up leftovers Mac-and-cheese

This is my way of using up the random smatters of cheese in the fridge.

Heat in saucepan:
- 1 can broccoli cheese soup
- 1 can soy milk
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 2/3 cup shredded Italian six cheese blend
- 1/3 cup Archer Farm buffalo blue cheese dip

Prepare 13.25 ounces whole wheat rotini

Combine, bake at 350 for 30 minutes, uncovering the last 10 if you'd like some crispiness

Pot pie

Made a broccoli pot pie tonight.

Nothing fancy.

- 2 ready made pie crusts
- fresh broccoli florets from my mother in law
- about 1/2 cup shredded mexican blend cheese
- one can Aldi chicken-broccoli-cheese soup
- about 1/2 can almond milk
- 1 teaspoon curry

(I took the last three ingredients and mixed them on the stove to get them melted together)

Mini broccoli pot pies

The last item for pre-prep is broccoli pot pies... I put little aluminum foil discs in the bottom of cupcake tins to keep them from sticking and rip ready-made pie crusts into pieces about the size of my hand.

We made WAY more filling than we needed. So we made a broccoli cheese calzone kind of thing for another day. And froze it. We started out with 24 cupcake tins with the crust in them.

In a bowl, we mixed:

• Three crowns fresh broccoli cut into bite size pieces
• 2 cans broccoli cheese soup
• about two teaspoons garlic pepper

We scooped a large heaping tablespoon into each tin, pinched the crust closed and then baked at 375 until brown (about 20 minutes.)

Broccoli pot pie

So, I never did get to eat that broccoli pot pie, but I did get to make it and we'll have it for dinner tonight.

I used a ready made pie crust, layered some V8 cream of broccoli soup, some frozen broccoli, some hearty doses of garlic pepper. I sliced and cooked two potatoes. Added more soup, the potatoes, more garlic pepper, then the rest of the soup.

Covered with the second pie crust. Broccoli cheese soup gives more cheesy flavor, but I wanted to try the V8.

Broccoli pot pie

While we were at Girl Scouts, I assigned my husband the task of combining a big bag of Hanover "silver line" premium broccoli, Campbell's broccoli cheese soup and Pillsbury ready-made pie crusts into a pot pie. We came home starving, so we had a bowl of cereal to tide us over. Count Chocula and Booberry again.

Daddy's tuna casserole

Daddy made a tuna casserole for dinner with a can of broccoli cheese soup, a half-can of soy milk, some frozen broccoli, a can of tuna and lots of noodles. It's baking now.

Vegetable pot pie

I can cook cheap. I can cook fancy. I can cook comfort. But I have yet to master cooking without time...

Yesterday we went to my in-laws for dinner (Dinner in One Dish and the last of the season's sweet corn and greens with hot bacon dressing and homemade applesauce AND banana cake for my husband's birthday).

Today for breakfast, the kid had cereal and then a slice of cake around 10. At 11:15 ish I fed her leftover dinner-in-one-dish (she ate TWO big plates) and then while she went to school I planned to make a broccoli pot pie for dinner.

Except we had eaten most of the broccoli.

So I took a Pillsbury pie crust (coupon), added what fresh broccoli we did have, a can of Campbell's broccoli cheese soup and a half can of soy milk. I then got some frozen peas, some frozen cauliflower and some frozen carrots and added them to the mix.

Added the second pie crust, covered the edges with tin foil, and set the oven to heat to 425 degrees at about 4:15 so it can be done at 5.

Voilà.

Homemade Potato Green Vegetable Soup

I am not good at soup. But something has me wanting to make soup. I pulled a homemade honey-wheat-oat bread from the freezer, got my biggest pot and found a recipe for broccoli potato soup from the Internet.

The original recipe calls for two cups chopped onion and two tablespoons margarine... I think I'll use two cloves garlic... a little bit of four-color peppercorns and some garlic powder... Next it says add 4 cubes chicken bouillion and five cups boiling water. Let's see, I have Wegmans vegetable stock. That will do.

Add 2.5 pounds peeled and cut potatoes, cover and boil, then 

reduce heat and cook about 15 minutes until potatoes are tender. I have three or maybe four pounds that are starting to look questionable...

Okay, so I think I salvaged enough taters... Next step: Remove tough outer skin and cook broccoli. It suggests three cups fresh broccoli, but for all the peeling and puréeing, can't I use frozen and save the fresh for something where the crispness would be appreciated? let's see what we've got. I think I'll mix. About a cup frozen, a cup fresh and green beens...

Next you combine the veggies to the soup, purée half in the food processor and return to pot with three cups shredded cheese. Serve when the cheese melts. We'll see what I do to it...

Okay, so note for next time, use blender not food processor as no matter how full I made the food processor it sprayed hot liquid all over the kitchen...

Add a few ounces of monterey jack... or is this mysterious white block cheddar? I want to reduce the cheese since we don't have much... I'll add 2/3 cup half and half to make it creamy. It smells like broccoli soup. It needs more milk and some more thickness.... cornstarch? a little flour? Nope... just leave it alone and keep adding that four pepper blend and garlic pepper for flavor. Stay tuned...

Okay, dinner time is here and Oops! I over-peppered the soup. It's still good, just peppery. 

To compensate I serve with Motts Natural Applesauce No Sugar Added (country berry for the child and granny smith apple for the grown-ups), Vouvray (for the grown-ups) and parmesan goldfish crackers. And the oat-honey-wheat bread.

Hamburger-stuffed bread

A long time ago, my husband found a recipe database software for $9 and it came with "10,000 recipes." The software was Soft Key Home Gourmet and it no longer worked with Mac OS 9, so this is going back a few years... But hamburger stuffed bread was one of the recipes I discovered in that program. A variation is zucchini stuffed with sausage. I used my homemade bread, and I saved the bread torn from the inside to make my own breadcrumbs. In addition, I served mine open-faced whereas in the original recipe these meat-filled boats have lids. On to the recipe...

The original recipe:

Hamburger Stuffed Bread

1 loaf French bread (unsliced)

1 pound ground beef *

1/2 green pepper diced

1 can cheddar cheese soup

3 slices American cheese

2 cups bread crumbs

1 tablespoon Worcestershire

1/2 cup celery, diced

salt and pepper to taste

1. Brown hamburger. Drain. Add celery, green pepper, salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and soup. Simmer for five minutes.

2. Slice a lid lengthwise off the bread and hollow the inside. (Save guts to make breadcrumbs later.) 

3. Remove meat mixture from heat. Stir in breadcrumbs.

4. Place hollowed out bread on sheet of aluminum foil (on cookie sheet). Fill with meat mixture. Top with cheese. Replace lid. Wrap in foil.

5. Bake 10 minutes at 325 degrees.

Now, if you want the filling cheesy and gooey, cut the breadcrumbs down to 1 cup. If you want to make it funky and add fun and more nutrition, this is the meal as featured in the photo:

Hamburger/Veggie/Cheetos Stuffed Bread:

Alter ingredients list as follows:

Homemade Baguette

About a 1/2 pound ground beef

several cups frozen California blend (cauliflower, carrots and broccoli)

1 can broccoli cheese soup

Several ounces ultra sharp cheddar

2 cups crushed cheetos (leftover from broccoli with cheetos)

About 2 teaspoons reduced sodium soy sauce

garlic pepper, sea salt and four pepper blend to taste