Monday, January 03, 2011

Mac and Cheese

(Koen's present: a singing and dancing elephant. If you know Koen, you know he loves to sing and dance!)

I thought I would share a few more recipes this year. We eat out maybe once per month (like last night!) and the rest, we make at home. Why? It's a billion times cheaper, generally much healthier AND my husband is a fabulous cook and can pretty much make anything that a restaurant could make. I'm pretty decent too:)

Macaroni and Cheese (from Double Delicious where they put pureed carrot or sweet potato etc into everything. Super easy recipes. We just spent an afternoon pureeing carrots and sweet potatoes so we have them ready whenever we need them). I would give it a 8/10. It was pretty good and I would make it again for sure.

1lb whole wheat pasta
2 tbsp butter
1.5tbsp flour
2.5 cups of skim milk
1 cup cheddar cheese
1tsp salt
1/2 cup carrot puree
1/4 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
2tbsp grated parmesan cheese

1.Boil pasta until al dente
2. Preheat oven to 375F
3. Heat butter and whisk in flour. Slowly whisk in milk. Bring to a boil and cook about 5 minutes. Add cheddar cheese, salt and carrot puree. Whisk until smooth. Stir into pasta (which has now been drained:)
4.. Transfer to a 9X12 baking dish. Sprinkle bread crumbs and parmesan cheese on top. Bake about 20 minutes

**I would've added sauteed onion and garlic to the sauce**

Koen's Cupcakes (okay, they look ugly...the cupcake tin is supposed to be the shape of an ice cream cone and then you put icing on that looks like soft serve OR you put actual ice cream on. I will make it look more real next time!! However, they tasted delicious!!)
Frosting: Martha Stewart's Fluffy Vanilla Frosting (I usually make her Swiss Meringue Buttercream but the vanillla frosting is a lot faster:)
Cupcake: Martha Stewart's Banana Pecan Cupcake. It was really good....less sweet and more filling. You could eat it as a muffin.
For dinner, we went out as it was Koen's birthday. I have always wanted to try `Vancouver's Best Hamburger' from Vera's Burger and they just put one in by our house. We bundled up and walked there. The boys enjoyed some hamburger sliders and Gary and I shared a turkey burger and the leftover sliders:)
Koen loved it because he thought he was sitting on a cow (note the benches). I wouldn't say it was the best burger I've ever had but it was still good. I like the idea that the boys could just have one slider each (comes in a group of 4). Hmmm...give the burger a 7.5/10:)

I can't believe Gary is back to work tomorrow. And, he is really back. He has basketball every day this week, including Saturday and Sunday. I know he loves it but....ya. I don't think that it should take up evenings AND weekends.

Have a great week!!!
Love, Louise

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the recipes! That's great! I am starting to cook more and looking up recipes online is overwhelming. It's nice to get some recommendations from someone who's tried it :)

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  2. mmm....it all looks yummy. i like the mac & cheese recipe - will have to try it. we don't eat kraft dinner, but like the homemade stuff better, and tossing carrot puree in it is a major bonus!

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  3. Interesting idea to add the carrot or sweet potato puree! Will have to use that trick! Thanks

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  4. Well, technically it isn't Macaroni & Cheese if you use rotini noodles ;)
    but the recipe sounds fun; perhaps if we ever buy some cheese, I'll try it out.

    I've often wondered about Vera's burgers. I see the giant ads on the back of buses and think they would be a great greasy meal. I think it's great that you can walk there; and the boys look like they're enjoying the straws.

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