SKW's Mac-n-Cheese

This was the main dish for our supper on Monday night:

Very Good Mac n Cheese
1 pound whole grain elbow macaroni
1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup 1% milk
1 cup Fat-free half & half
2 eggs
2 T olive oil or butter
1 T Hot sauce
Freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook elbows to al dente, drain and pour into baking dish (13x9in.)
In 2 qt. saucepan, beat eggs, mix in remaining ingredients, except cheese.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to thicken. Stir in the grated cheese, a little bit at a time, until it is all melted (reserve a handful for topping).
Pour this sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and shake gently to settle.
Sprinkle reserved cheese over the top.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Serve with a side salad or fresh fruit like apples or melon, something that goes good with cheese. Okay... if you insist, you can serve a bit of meat with this... pork chops go nicely.




Before going in the oven.

I know that mac n cheese is not considered a "healthy" meal, but I think I have made this just about as healthy as it can be made (and still have a good texture and flavor). Mac n cheese is a "comfort food", and it should be comforting. This one has the classic flavor of the dish many of us remember from childhood with a lot of the fat cut out of it. I still would not recommend eating this all the time, but once in a while... oh yeah. :-)



Out of the oven and into my tummy...

Breakfast Burritos

As most of my friends know, I'm not real big on breakfasts. Not in the morning, anyway. Breakfast for supper? Heck yeah! Breakfast for breakfast? Not so much. However... my guys are nuts for breakfasts. So, I usually make up a batch of this stuff for weekday breakfasts for my sweethearts:



As shown, the ingredients are few and fairly simple. You can adjust it to your taste:
Potatoes (diced or shredded)
Onions & garlic (minced)
eggs (slightly beaten)
breakfast sausage
Chorizo sausage (about 1/4 as much as the breakfast sausage)
Cheese (shredded)
peppers if you like

This is the way I do it:
I put both the sausages in the pan and get them browning. Once the pink is gone I add the onions, potatoes, garlic and peppers (if you are using them) I only used about half of the onion in the picture and I didn't use peppers in this batch but I do recommend them in this recipe. Once the potatoes are tender, add the eggs and stir them around until cooked to your liking. You can use however many you like, if you like it "eggy" use more, if you don't, use less. I usually use about 3-4 eggs in mine.






Notes:
I have been using the Jimmy Dean lower fat breakfast sausage and it's pretty good. Only thing is it doesn't come in "hot" so you have to spice it up yourself. It comes in a 12 oz roll instead of the usual 16 oz roll of regular breakfast sausage.

The chorizo I buy comes in little plastic tubes inside the larger package. Each tube is about 2.5 oz. You don't have to use this, but we like the flavor it adds. Plus, it's a little fatty so, it gives oil to the pan so you can brown the onions and taters without adding any extra. The low fat breakfast sausage leaves no extra oil in the pan whatsoever.

You can see in the ingredients picture that I use a lower fat cheese mixture. This brand is actually not bad and the hubster has gotten used to it and it's better for him, I suppose. So, we use it. Lately I have been adding a little Queso Fresco cheese to mine. But then... I'm addicted to the stuff, it's yummy.

My hubby likes this just as it is with cheese on top and a piece of toast on the side. My son likes it rolled in tortillas like a proper breakfast burrito. You can also use this mixture to stuff baked potatoes, large pasta shells, or if you leave the eggs out of the mixture you can use it to stuff omelets. Anyway, its pretty darned good, if I do say so myself.

Garnish with salsa, fresh tomatoes, whatever you desire.

Oh yeah, salt and pepper to your taste, if you must. Pardon me if I sometimes don't say salt in a recipe. I don't usually add salt when I'm cooking because the hubby just adds it anyway on the plate, whether it needs it or not, so... use your own descretion when adding salt to anything I post about here. :)